Pale Crawler

 

Pale cralers are a type of cryptid that is reportedly seen by people all over the world. They have an overall humanoid appearance. They are very light in colour, with pale, white, pink or grey skin, almost like a corpse. Pale crawlers are very skinny, to the point of looking emaciated, often with twig like limbs and the outline of bones visible under their skin. Crawlers are always hairless all over, having no body hair, head hair, or even eyebrows. Their eyes are extremely sunken in, giving them a skull like appearance. They can have jet black eyes, or glassy cataract like eyes, or eyes that shine in dim light like an animal’s. Pale crawlers are rarely reported with ears, any that have them are small and vestigial. Pale crawlers sometimes have animal like claws, other times they have more human like nails. The fingers are always long and skinny, regardless of what they’re tipped with. Pale crawlers stand very tail when fully upright, somewhere between eight to ten feet tall. Most of the time they’re seen hunched over, making them appear smaller.

Pale crawlers are very fast and proficient at moving on all fours. They’re often said to be unnaturally fast and agile, with some reports saying these creatures are able to keep up with cars at speed. They’re also very good at climbing trees. They can make a terrifying shriek and can also cry like a baby. Some reports even say they can mimic the voices of specific people. Most of the time pale crawlers are silent and the only thing people hear from them is a snapped twig as they move.

Pale crawlers are always seen at night or in the evening, never in full daylight. Many sightings are of them crossing the road at night, or running along side the road. The crawler often disappearing into cover, such as forests or corn fields. Most of these sightings are simple and fleeting. They don’t seam to like being in the open. Another common source of crawler sightings is military personal, either when they’re out on a mission, or doing field training. Often witnesses report feeling far more fear from the sighting then the events would warrant, like these crawlers are able to project a supernatural scene of fear onto people.

Unlike other cryptids, I didn’t have a problem finding stories about pale crawlers. Instead I had a harder time filtering through hundreds of stories, looking for those that would be the most relevant. So instead of retelling a specific story here I encourage all of you to look up Lon Strickler’s Phantoms and Monsters website and search ‘pale crawler’ on there. That will give you some idea of how many sightings of this monster there are.

I have some experience with this monster myself. About a decade ago I was at a friend’s house in the evening. Their house bordered on a forest, which is known to locals for having weird and explainable things happen in it, such as little red orbs that follow you, and even ghostly monkeys, even though this takes place in Canada and there’s nothing remotely like a monkey living here. I’ve never personally seen any of these things, but I have had very eerie feelings of being watched. And one time I became lost in a patch of forest which I knew very well and had travelled many, many times.

It happened about 8:30 pm. We were sitting around watching TV. There was a large window facing into the backyard. It happened in November, so it was already completely dark out at this time of year. At the end of the back yard was a wooden fence, and beyond that the forest. There was a little bit of light in the back yard coming from the living room, but no yard lights were on. I got up to go to the washroom. While I was there I heard my friends screaming. I ran out to see what the commotion was. All three of them were standing by the large window looking out. They said they saw a naked zombie crawl through their yard on all fours and knock over the trash cans. Then when they screamed and got up it climbed over the fence into the forest. One of the friends had turned on the outside yard light by this time. The trash cans were still on their sides but there was no other sign of the creature.

I doubt my friends were pulling a prank. The fear in their eyes was genuine. I have never seen then so scared before or after. Beside they weren’t the type of people to pull pranks like that. After all this happened we pulled all the curtains and blinds closed on the first level, then went upstairs to my friend’s bedroom and played on the computer. One of the friends decided she was too nervous to stay and drove home. I had a hard limit of 9:00pm before I had to leave, since I didn’t have a car and my parents needed to drive me home. My friend who lived in the house begged us to stay later, at least until her own parents came home. The last friend did end up staying with the one who lived in the house. And yes, we were all adults in our 20’s, but this thing had us scared and shaken up like teens. I don’t blame her for wanting someone to stick around, considering how scared everyone was. Some part of me wishes I had seen the monster too, but considering how frightened my friends were maybe it’s for the best I didn’t.

Many people have speculated on what the pale crawlers are. There are several creatures from mythology that appear eerily similar to the pale crawler, such as ghouls, wights and wendigos. Unlike their depictions in media, wendigos are not animalistic deer-skulled creatures, but more like the pale crawlers described above. There were also several native America commenters on Hammerson Peter’s video who identified the pale crawler with another legendary being called the moon-eyed people, who are described as pale, skinny and having glassy reflective eyes.

Pale crawlers have also been associated with the Rake, a monster from online fiction, to the point where Rake has become an alternate name for this cryptid. This has led many people to dismiss all encounters with the pale crawler as hoaxes because of these similarities. There are differences between the Rake and Pale crawlers however. The Rake originally was supposed to have long metal crawls attached to its fingers by a mechanical contraption, similar to Freddy Kruger. As well the Rake was always encountered sitting at the end of the victim’s bed, where as every pale crawler story I red took place outside. I would also point to the several mythical beings similar to the pale crawler that existed before the Rake story, which it could have been influenced by.

I tried to find a pale crawler encounter that happened before the creation of the Rake, but was overwhelmed by the number of recent stories. I’m certain such a story does exist somewhere, but I wasn’t able to find it in the limited amount of time I had to make this blog entry. Just like the dogman, there’s been a recent increase of sightings of the pale crawler.

Sources

https://phantomsandmonsters.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYpTzWVl31U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4PXnvQTpNQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZxHy77dQW0