Spirits. United Kingdom

In the small British mining town of Cannock, Staffordshire, residents began to complain about a ghost, partially similar in description to the famous Slenderman (Thin Man) from urban legends.

A tall (8 feet or 2.5 meters) and thin humanoid creature, like a shadow with bright red eyes, allegedly appeared to several residents. At the same time, it is noted that he was wearing clothes of the Victorian era (the second half of the 19th century). The townspeople observed the creature both in the forest and at home.

A resident of Pye Green tells how on December 14 last year she woke up at home at night from a strange scratching sound. She saw a strange spherical shadow at the wardrobe. At the moment when she got up from the bed to come and take a closer look, the shadow began to stretch up to the ceiling.

"At that moment, I realized that I was seeing the most terrible and disgusting creature that one can encounter. He had a white face with razor-sharp fangs"

Another resident told how he woke up at night, opened his eyes and saw a black man floating in space right above him. He was heading straight at the man and he had red eyes, the color of which "shocked to the depths of the soul."

Suddenly, the black man stopped attacking and began to climb up until he disappeared into the ceiling.

These cases were handled by investigator Lee Brickley (Lee Brickley). He finds out why the character of the horror stories that children usually tell each other suddenly appeared in this place and so many people watched him in a short time.

One of his theories is that all this may be associated with sleep paralysis and not have a supernatural background. Sleep paralysis is a borderline state between a sleeping and a waking person.

People at this moment can open their eyes and observe their surroundings, but their body is as if shackled, they cannot move because of the blocking of muscles by the brain. Sleep paralysis often occurs while sleeping on your back and some people have seen a ghost over themselves when they were lying on the bed in this position.

However, Lee is surprised that the description of the appearance of the supposedly haunted creature is very similar for all people.

Despite the fact that the Thin Man is considered a completely fictional character (according to official data, he was created by a participant in the Internet forum Something Awful in 2009), he has analogues in the folklore of the peoples of Europe.

Many noted his resemblance to a mythical character called in German Der Großmann (Tall Man), a fairy-like creature resembling a Boogeyman and, according to legend, lived in the Black Forest.

The tall man was scared of naughty children who ran away into the woods at night, and outwardly he looked very similar to Slenderman, except that he had a face with two white spheres instead of eyes.