6 Most Terrifying ‘The Real Ghostbusters’ Ghosts & Ghouls

Ghostbusters (1984) was an influential gateway horror fan for many of us growing up. Some moments — like the New York Public Library ghost — gave a whole generation a taste of the genre and a yearning for more spooky fun. The film’s spin-off cartoon, The Real Ghostbusters, may have been part of ABC’s Saturday Morning lineup, but the show gave us some memorably frightening ghosts, ghouls, and storylines.

Let’s take a look back at some of the most horrifying entities spawned from the show. How many can you remember?

1.) Samhain
“When Halloween Was Forever’ (1986)

Samhain was a Class 6 lower life form that had spent several hundred years trapped inside a clock before being shipped to New York and unleashed upon the unsuspecting populace. With his gigantic pumpkin head, Samhain exuded control over NYC’s many ghosts and ghouls, convincing them all to join forces to bring about the apocalypse.

As creepy as Samhain was, the biggest fear was what the character would do to Slimer. Being “not of this world,” Slimer also fell under Samhain’s spell, and despite his best efforts, the so-called ugly little spud was used as a pawn in Samhain’s big plan.

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The character would reappear in the comics – which are considered canon – as well as appearing in the opening titles for Extreme Ghostbusters, but never in the show itself, which is probably for the best.

2.) The Unspeakable
“The Thing in Mrs. Faversham’s Attic” (1987)

Fear of the things that lurk in the darkness of the attic or cellar is extremely common among kids and adults alike, so it was an obvious choice for show writer J. Michael Straczynski to turn into a plot line for The Real Ghostbusters.

In “The Thing in Mrs. Faversham’s Attic,” Venkman, Zedmore, Spengler, and Stantz are called upon to investigate a bona fide demon from the depths of Hell that has resided in an old lady’s attic for 70 years after being summoned by her father. The Thing in question was actually a Class 7 Metaspectre, which is right up there with Zuul and takes on the form of a giant, purple cloud with multiple eyes and total control over everything in the attic.

When the Ghostbusters head into the darkness of the roof space, nothing can prepare them for the terrifying nightmares that await them. The nightmares were all too real for us kids, too!

3.) The Grundel
“The Grundel” (1987)

Straczynski has a twisted mind if his time as a writer on The Real Ghostbusters was anything to go by. He clearly spent his free time coming up with ways to scare the heck out of children. Legend suggests that Grundel was once an ordinary child, who had encountered a Grundel himself, and, after considerable manipulation by the creature, morphed into one. That’s hinted at here, too, as the creepy little child catcher forces children into doing “bad things.”

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Parents went crazy at what they believed to be hints that Grundel was a child predator, pointing to dialogue like “So fresh, so pure, but not for long” and “Open the window, we’ll go away. Far from all the adults.” This was never the showrunners’ intention; simply put, the character was terrifying enough without the seedy added depth.

The Grundel returned in Extreme Ghostbusters.

4.) Ghash
“Slimer Come Home” (1986)

Despite having a ridiculous name, Ghash was one of the ghouls that most stuck with me in my childhood. Not because he looked all that scary but because he used to absorb lesser ghosts into himself to increase his PKE.

He looked like a gaunt pig with a Freddy Krueger-type belly of souls that I found disturbing. He’s overlooked a lot, but I still remember him, and now you do too.

5.) The Fearsome Flush
Kenner Toy (1990)

What is more terrifying than the thought of a demon toilet? Especially one with a tongue! Potty training was never going to be the same again.

Okay, so maybe Fearsome Flush never appeared in an episode per se, but it was created for The Real Ghostbusters toy line and the board game. It was supposed to be the toilet from the Ghostbusters HQ, so technically it had appeared pre-possession.

6.) The Boogieman/Bogeyman
“The Boogieman Cometh” (1986)

The name itself should be enough to strike fear into the hearts of children all over the world. Remember how scared you were when your parents left your room after tucking you in, and your closet door slowly creaked open? Was it the wind? Was it a coincidence? Your parents would tell you there’s no such thing as The Boogeyman. The writers of The Real Ghostbusters, on the other hand, felt differently.

Utilizing doors from his own realm that enabled him to enter the rooms of children via their closets, Boogieman couldn’t have been further from the cute and fury monsters in Disney’s Monsters Inc. He was a stunted, hideous Class 7 Demon with long claws and razor-sharp teeth that targeted Egon as a child.

The character was so terrifying that he appeared only twice, with the episodes seldom shown as reruns. He would appear in the Real Ghostbusters comic books, though, and in one issue, beat a child and wrote a threat to Egon in the child’s blood! That’s pretty messed up!