Some are well-worn warnings as familiar as the changing of seasons. Others are slow burns that end with a bang. Still others are just plain eerie.

Stories of spiritual entities, paranormal activity and creepy cryptids are passed through generations the world over, becoming local legends that only sometimes reach across borders and cultures.

So if the sordid tales you grew up with no longer make you shiver, it’s time to reanimate your roster with global tales of ghosts, hauntings, and petrifying processions.

With Halloween today, and the season in many parts of the world ripe for campfires and spooky stories, people gravitate toward fear even in a complex and sometimes scary world. Here are some favorites — lore and fiction, with maybe some truth sprinkled throughout — that The Associated Press gathered from its journalists around the planet:

China: Corpse walkers

If you were out on the road in China in the old days — if you believe the stories, that is — you might have encountered a strange procession.

First, a man carrying a white paper lantern and scattering fake paper money ahead of them, chanting, “Yo ho, yo ho.” Then, a towering, hooded black figure wearing a ghastly mask and marching in an awkward, wooden gait. Bringing up the rear, another man guiding the giant by touch, perhaps with a black cat.

They were corpse walkers — and the giant was the corpse.

Bad things happen when someone gets buried far from home: Without descendants to feed their spirit and keep their grave clean, they’ll have a hard time settling in. They could even come back as a hungry ghost. So when a traveler died, the family would hire people who knew the strange art of walking a stiff body home.

When interviewer Liao Yiwu asked about memories of corpse walkers in the 2000s, some said they’d use a black cat to imbue the body with static electricity to make it walk. Others said there was a third man hiding under the cloak and giving the corpse a piggyback ride.

People kept their distance, he wrote, but the corpse walkers were always welcome at inns because they paid three times the normal rate and were said to bring good luck.

— By David Cohen in Bangkok

Mongolia: Death worm

Slithering beneath the vast dunes of the Gobi Desert, legend has it, is the monstrous Mongolian Death Worm. It kills prey by squirting lethal venom and can even electrocute from a distance. So goes the folklore that has since inspired depictions of deadly giant worms in movies and fiction. In Mongolia, the creature is known as olgoi khorkhoi, which roughly translates as “intestine worm.”

The critter became known abroad after American paleontologist and explorer Roy Chapman Andrews wrote about it in his 1926 book, “On the Trail of Ancient Man: A Narrative of the Field Work of the Central Asiatic Expeditions.” During a meeting with the Mongolian premier, Andrews was asked to capture a specimen of the giant worm.

“None of those present ever had seen the creature, but they all firmly believed in its existence and described it minutely,” he wrote. “It is shaped like a sausage about two feet long, has no head nor legs and is so poisonous that merely to touch it means instant death.”

Some believe the lore began with a more common animal — a snake called the Tartar sand boa. Others, undeterred, believe the giant worms exists. Subsequent expeditions have yet to yield any proof.

— By Emily Wang Fujiyama in Beijing

Indonesia: Train wreck

The Bintaro train tragedy of October 1987 is well known in Indonesia. The head-on collision between two commuter trains in the southern area of Jakarta is considered one the deadliest train accidents in the country’s history.

The collision killed 139 passengers, giving rise to many mystical stories around the railway.

In the 37 years since the crash, many local residents and railway workers have reported seeing apparitions of people dressed in old, bloodstained clothing, wandering near the tracks where the tragedy took place. As the local urban legend goes, these ghostly figures are believed to be the spirits of those who perished in the accident and remain unable to move on to the afterlife. Some people also say there was a figure wandering around and looking for his body parts.

In 2013, another train accident happened at the same track, only 200 yards from the 1987 accident. The commuter train hit a petrol truck in the crossing gate, killing seven people, including the train engineer.

— By Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia

Kenya: Ngong Hills

In Kenya, a Maasai folktale about an ogre who used to raid villages for food is told to children. It goes like this:

The ogre lived deep in the forest and would raid neighboring villages to kill cattle — the Maasai community’s symbol of wealth — despite many warriors keeping guard.

The ogre fell in love with a beautiful Maasai woman named Sanayian and he transformed into a Maasai warrior to win her heart. He then revealed his real identity to Sanayian — who then told the warriors. The warriors, using Sanayian as a bait, speared the ogre while he was meeting with his love.

Even after he transformed back into an ogre, he could not survive. He fell and died. His five fingers, it is said, formed the five peaks that are the present-day Ngong Hills, in the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, and a popular hiking destination.

— By Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya

Philippines: Ghosts

Ask anyone in Manila about Balete Drive and many will associate it with the mysterious “white lady” who appears at night.

The street, named after trees that used to line its sidewalks in suburban Quezon city, has been the subject of scary stories that have been told and retold since the 1950s. There are claims that a beautiful woman with long hair dressed in white would sometimes suddenly appear at night — then just disappear without a trace.

It is said that the sightings were reported by taxi drivers working on late-night shifts. Some claim she would appear asking for a ride and then suddenly disappear from the passenger seat as the vehicle moves. Others say her image would appear at the rearview mirror of drivers driving alone and vanish just as quickly.

The tale’s origins are unknown. There are varying accounts why the ghost appears along Balete Drive, but the most common story is that decades ago, a girl died due to a car accident along the street. Horror movies in the Philippines have been produced based on this urban legend.

— By Celine Rosario in Bangkok and Aaron Favila in Manila, Philippines

Hungary: Marble bride

Through the branches of stately trees on a leafy avenue in Hungary’s capital, passersby can spot an unusual figure keeping solemn watch from above: the statue of a woman with a mournful expression peering from a stone balcony.

The sculpture, known as the “marble bride,” is unlike any of the other frescoes on surrounding buildings in Budapest, and the mystery of its presence has produced legends going back nearly a century.

In one, a young couple shared an apartment in the building when the husband was called to fight in World War I. The wife waited patiently on the balcony each day for his return, and when a letter arrived with news of his death on the front, the woman died of a broken heart.

But the letter had been mistaken. When the husband returned home and found his wife had died, he had a sculpture carved in her honor and placed where she had spent so many days faithfully waiting.

— By Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary

Thailand: Lady Nak

Bangkok is home to one of Thailand’s most famous pieces of folklore: the tragic love of Mae Nak, or the Lady Nak of Phra Khanong.

The young and pregnant Nak was waiting for her husband, Mak, to come back from war to their home on the banks of Phra Khanong canal. Nak and her baby died during childbirth, but Mak still came home to see them waiting. With his unwavering love, Mak rejected warnings that Nak was a ghost until he saw her stretching her arm from the upper-floor porch to the ground to pick up a lime. He fled, and Nak started terrorizing the town in grief and fury.

The story has been reinterpreted into dozens of movies, with the critically acclaimed 1999 version becoming the first Thai movie to gross over 100 million baht — about $2.7 million at the time. The shrine dedicated to Nak at Wat Mahabut, the temple where her body is believed to be buried, is famous for worshippers seeing their prayers about love and children being answered.

— By Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok