In the world of Pokémon, children begin their journey to becoming a Pokémon trainer at the age of ten. This means that these young kids experience tons of exciting and terrifying interactions before most of them even hit puberty. These regions aren't only home to cute, tough, and friendly creatures as there's a number of Pokémon who aren't exactly approachable. Some of these creatures feed off of the terror of children which is horrifying. Let's stop and take a look at the ten Pokémon most likely to scare children.
10 Muk
Children in generation tend to be pretty gross and have a good tolerance for disgusting things. With that in mind, you'd assume that Grimer or Muk wouldn't do much in terms of scaring them. Well, when a pile of slime happens to be well over 3 ft. tall and weigh over 60 lbs. kids tend to get a little uncomfortable. This also doesn't take into account that this viscous being has a large mouth and emotionless eyes that indicate that this thing could easily envelop a child simply by accident. If that's not enough of a warning we should mention that it's also quite poisonous to the touch.
9 Galvantula
Humans tend to have very common fears among one another that they can bond over. Some of these common fears include the fear of spiders as well as the fear of being electrocuted. Galvantula, the EleSpider Pokémon, happens to be the perfect combination of these fears. These giant yellow spiders are over 2 ft. in height and weigh over 30 lbs. on average. This means that these creatures could easily take down human toddlers, let alone young adults or teenagers. Their webs also happen to be electrically charged, which seems like overkill.
8 Durant
Now, you may be thinking to yourself that there's no reason an ant should be on this list. How could children be afraid of an ant? Well, Durant is more than just your everyday ant as it's well over 1 ft. tall and is made of steel. They're not outwardly aggressive, but if you happen to disrupt their nest you'll quickly be attacked by a group of them. Their mandibles can break rocks, which means they'll easily take off a child's finger or even an arm. These aren't the types of ants you want to mess around with.
7 Arbok
A great number of people find snakes scary. It doesn't matter what size, shape, or color they are, many people just don't like them at all. The way Arbok hunt in the wild is by having the face-like markings on it stun prey with freight, then they will wrap their body around them until they stop moving. Its wrap is so powerful in fact that it is believed to be able to flatten steel oil drums with just the constrictive force of its body. Any child wandering in the tall grass should be cognizant of their surroundings and keep an eye out for wild Arbok.
6 Haunter
Haunter isn't only scary to children because of his design, his playful personality tends to enjoy striking fear into the unsuspecting. It is said to stalk its victims in absolute darkness while it moves in complete silence. Not only is its face reminiscent of the scariest jack-o-lanterns, but its disembodied hands that float independently from its head and body make all the more frightening.
If you're the type of person who has ever felt as though you're being watched in the middle of the night despite no one being around, chances are a Haunter is in your vicinity.
5 Mimikyu
Sometimes scary creatures are just visually offputting and don't have any real ill-intent inside them. For Mimikyu, the pokémon who disguises itself as a Pikachu to look less scary, it's not exactly an innocent creature. If someone breaks the neck of its costume it will hunt down and seek revenge on the guilty party. No one knows what the pokémon looks like underneath its disguise as the only person to ever do so was a scholar who died from shock after catching a glimpse of Mimikyu's real form underneath its costume.
4 Cofagrigus
Now, Cofagrigus is mostly known for punishing grave robbers, but that doesn't mean the average child shouldn't keep their distance. According to PokéDex entries, Cofagrigus will swallow any living creature that gets too close and turn them into a mummy. That means that there must be a great number of trainers and/or adventurers that met an unfortunate fate upon their first interaction with this supernatural pokémon. It's also said to eat gold nuggets which makes sense considering its body tends to sparkle a golden color.
3 Banette
Say you're an 8-year-old kid walking back from a friend's house and you see the face of a Banette eerily staring at you from a grouping of bushes. Wouldn't that make you want to sprint home as fast as you can and lock the door behind you? Banette were all once puppets that came to life thanks to cursed feelings of hatred and anger possessing them. If they are abandoned by an owner as a toy, once possessed they will seek out that child who threw them away.
If you're a child and you throw away a puppet, just understand you might have given yourself a death sentence.
2 Gengar
There's a case to be made for each of the 3 monsters making up the Gengar evolutionary line to be on this list, but one is the clear cut highest choice. Gengar is a purple bulbous looking demon with a piercing set of eyes and a mouth that's slightly too large for its body. It's known to mimic people's shadows when night falls, which could terrify a child who's playing in their backyard. Gengar also absorbs heat from other living beings which explains why people will sometimes get the chills and become abnormally cold.
1 Hypno
When a pokémon already has a longstanding reputation for scaring children, then the obvious answer for the pokémon most likely to scare children should be them, right? Hypno has always been a very weird creature, and thanks to some PokéDex entries that mention the rumor of a Hypno once kidnapping a child, it's only become more frightening. It's known to put people to sleep and eat their dreams, and in cases of people suffering from constant nightmares, it can be a real force of healing. That being said, maybe don't let it hang around your kids for too long.