EVERY HALLOWEEN, it’s the same old ghouls and ghosts, flea-bitten werewolves or vampires with Eurotrash accents. Yawn. Join Tripmaster Monkey as we take a tour around the Asian Underworld and meet some of its more spooktacular residents.

First Stop: The Jiangshi, or Hopping Corpse, of China

Back in the day in China, if someone died far from home, legend has it that families paid Taoist alchemists to reanimate the corpses of their loved ones to hop their way back home for a proper burial. From time to time, something goes wrong with this relatively routine procedure and you end up with the Jiangshi, or Hopping Corpse, who also happens to have the unsavory habit of killing the living to absorb their life essences.

Holding your breath, carrying sticky rice, and wearing tiny bells or yellow sutras can help ward off a Jiangshi, but some sources say the most effective antidote is the urine of virgin boys. In general, though, the Jiangshi don’t take crap from anyone and frequently rip the head or limbs off their victims. They’re also said to be quite pent up, and often engage in sexual assaults. After a period of growing stronger, the Jiangshi may gain the ability to fly and, depending on whom you talk to, grow really long white hair and change into wolves.

Curiously enough, the Jiangshi most closely match the description of old politicians and bureaucrats, dressed in the robes of the courts of old. Many remain puzzled as to why anyone would connect politicians to undead, life-sucking parasites.

Next Stop: The Phi Krasue of Southeast Asia

The legend of the Phi Krasue is found in many parts of Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand and Laos. In Malaysia, it’s known as the Puntianak, but no matter what you call them, they’re trouble.

Floating through the air with the greatest of ease, these terrifying spirits have no legs or lower body, only an amazingly beautiful face. And internal organs and intestines dangling from the neck down that smell like vinegar, which they use to shrink their viscera to fit back into their bodies during the day. People are apparently duped from time to time by the old talking-with-a-wall-between-you trick. Or the “I’ll wear a long, shapeless dress so you can’t tell I’m a horror from beyond” trick.

Like most creatures of the night, they find humans quite tasty. Sources differ on their particular preferences. In some cultures, they only eat pregnant women and their fetuses, others say they’re not that picky, or at the very least, it’s not worth sticking around to find out.

Third Stop: Shuten Doji of Japan

Run it through Google these days and you’ll more likely come up with entries for a really bad anime series, but there was a time when Shuten Doji was recognized as one of the most terrifying, demonic cannibal oni of Japan, plopping his badass down on top of Mount Oe.

His name literally means Great Drunkard Boy, or Drunken Boy Ogre, or any number of variations that boil down to the same thing: He was large and in-charge and blitzed off his supernatural behind most of the time.

Unfortunately, Shuten Doji and his buddies pushed their luck too far with his neighbors who were tired of him kidnapping the hot girls from the capital for his sleazy parties that included plates of human flesh and blood. So they hired a samurai, Minamoto no Yorimitsu (aka Raiko) and his four retainers (read cannon fodder) to deal with the problem. They snuck into Shuten Doji’s party and slipped him a mickey in his sake, and before you know it, they’ve cut off Shuten Doji’s head.

Though Shuten Doji has long been dispatched, we at Tripmaster Monkey can’t help but wonder: Can a cannibal devil who throws great parties really be all that bad?

Final Stop: The Aswang, the Real Thrilla from Manila