The Crooked Man Urban Legend: Origins, Sightings, and Conjuring Movie Connection
THE CROOKED MAN
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| The Crooked Man |
You’re alone in your room, the TV flickering low, when you hear it—soft, almost singsong, drifting from somewhere behind you.
There was a crooked man, who walked a crooked mile…
The words are old, older than you remember, but the voice is wrong—raspy, too deep, with a scrape in every syllable. You turn, and the shadows seem to stretch.
Something impossibly tall and thin is there, limbs bent at angles no human body should survive. Its head tilts, spine curling, as if it’s folding itself down toward you.
The rhyme continues, faster now, each word tugging the air tighter around you. You realize too late that it’s not just a story from a movie. The Crooked Man walks in more than one world, and he’s just stepped into yours.
WHO (OR WHAT) IS THE CROOKED MAN?
The Crooked Man is an unnerving figure pulled straight from a nursery rhyme—but he’s no harmless children’s character. He’s described as impossibly tall and spindly, with limbs bent at unnatural angles, as though his bones grew wrong or were broken and never healed. His back hunches sharply, his neck juts forward, and his head often tilts like a marionette dangling from invisible strings.
He’s usually seen wearing an outdated, long coat and a crooked-brimmed hat, sometimes leaning on a twisted cane that looks more like a gnarled root than something carved by human hands.
What makes him terrifying isn’t just his appearance—it’s the way he moves. Witnesses describe his gait as both jerky and unnervingly smooth, as though he’s folding and unfolding himself as he walks. He’s often accompanied by a distorted recitation of the old rhyme, the words stretched and broken, like a record playing at the wrong speed.
Some say he steps out of shadows, bending low to look you in the eye. Others swear he can follow you home from anywhere—once you’ve heard the rhyme, you’ve already invited him in.
ORIGIN STORY / VARIATIONS
The most well-known version of the Crooked Man’s origin starts with the English nursery rhyme:
There was a crooked man, who walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.
First recorded in the 19th century, some historians believe the rhyme was political satire. “The crooked man” might have been Scottish General Sir Alexander Leslie, who signed a peace agreement with England in the 17th century—symbolized by the “crooked mile” and “crooked stile.” Others think it was a metaphor for King Charles I’s troubled reign.
But folklore enthusiasts suggest something darker—that the rhyme was inspired by sightings of a strange, bent figure wandering rural paths. Farmers told stories of meeting a “crooked spirit” on moonless nights, a being that would follow at a distance, never speaking until it was close enough to whisper.
Modern horror has reshaped the Crooked Man into something far more monstrous. In The Conjuring 2, he’s portrayed as a supernatural entity linked to a cursed object in the Warrens’ occult collection. There, he’s no mere political metaphor—he’s a predatory, shape-shifting force that can emerge from the shadows without warning.
The Warrens’ museum was filled with eerie relics, from the infamous Annabelle doll to lesser-known but equally chilling artifacts. Here are 7 real haunted objects as terrifying as Annabelle.
Some variations even blend him with existing supernatural lore, suggesting he’s a type of shadow person, a demonic servant, or a guardian of cursed places. The details shift, but one thing remains consistent—once you’ve heard the rhyme, he knows where you are.
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU ENCOUNTER HIM?
Witnesses often say they hear the rhyme before they see him. Sometimes it’s faint and far away, other times it’s so close you can feel the breath between the words. The air turns colder, shadows stretch unnaturally, and a sense of dread presses on your chest.
The Crooked Man himself moves in a way that makes your instincts scream—jerky one moment, gliding the next. His joints bend the wrong way, and his body seems to stretch taller the closer he gets.
Folklore “rules” say you can break his hold by speaking the rhyme backward or by leaving a crooked object outside your door as an offering. Skeptics laugh at the idea, but those who believe say hesitation is a mistake. If you hear him finish the rhyme three times, you won’t wake up from the dream he pulls you into.
WHERE THE LEGEND SPREADS
Born in England, the Crooked Man’s rhyme traveled with settlers to North America, where rural communities twisted it into something more sinister. In the U.S. Midwest, he’s said to walk the edges of farmland under a thin moon. In the South, he’s rumored to haunt abandoned barns and crooked wooden bridges.
Ireland has its own “bent man” stories—thin, joint-warped spirits seen at crossroads. Eastern European folklore features tall, twisted forest entities that lure travelers away from the path.
In each version, the crooked figure becomes a vessel for local fears—whether it’s the darkness of rural roads, the danger of straying from safe paths, or the unease of hearing something familiar warped into something deadly.
WHY THE STORY STICKS
The Crooked Man endures because he twists innocence into fear. A harmless nursery rhyme becomes a warning, a game of memory that might cost you your life.
He taps into primal discomfort—fear of distorted human shapes, of something that moves wrong, of hearing familiar words in an unfamiliar voice. Pop culture has cemented him as a visual horror icon, while online creepypasta spreads new “sightings” to fresh audiences.
MODERN SIGHTINGS
Reddit and paranormal forums host countless alleged encounters. Some describe waking to see a tall, bent shadow standing in the corner, whispering in cadence. TikTok creators post videos of hallways where a tall figure jerks closer with each flash of light. Others claim that after watching The Conjuring 2, they dreamed of him for weeks, waking with scratches or bruises.
It’s not unlike the effect The Conjuring films about Annabelle have had on viewers—many reporting nightmares or unsettling experiences after learning her true story. Read the chilling real-life legend of Annabelle here.
Whether these are real encounters or the mind’s reaction to a disturbing image, one fact remains: once you know the rhyme, you’ll never hear it the same way again.
Whether these are real encounters or the mind’s reaction to a disturbing image, one fact remains: once you know the rhyme, you’ll never hear it the same way again.
POP CULTURE REFERENCES
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The Conjuring 2 (2016) — Featured as a terrifying, stop-motion-like figure in one of the film’s most disturbing sequences.
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Planned Crooked Man spinoff — Announced but stalled, keeping fans speculating.
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Indie horror games and short films — Often inspired by his visual style and rhyme.
SIMILAR SPIRITS AROUND THE WORLD
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Slender Man (USA) — A faceless, unnaturally tall entity dressed in a black suit. First born from internet forums in the late 2000s, Slender Man quickly became an icon of modern horror. Witnesses in creepypasta claim he waits at the edge of forests or playgrounds, silent and motionless, until you notice him. Then he’s suddenly closer—without ever appearing to move. Like the Crooked Man, he preys on the imagination, bending space and logic to appear exactly where you don’t want him.
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The Bendy Man (UK) — An eerie alley-dweller from British urban legend, said to have limbs that loop and twist like rope. Some accounts describe him contorting himself to slip between railings or bend around doorframes without sound. He’s most often seen in dim backstreets, half-lit by flickering lamps, always watching with a smile too wide to be human. The Crooked Man shares his warped anatomy and the unsettling sense that no physical barrier can keep him out.
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Teke Teke (Japan) — A vengeful ghost of a woman who fell onto train tracks and was cut in half by an oncoming train. She drags her upper body along the ground using her claw-like hands, moving with inhuman speed. Her name comes from the scraping “teke teke” sound she makes as she approaches. Like the Crooked Man’s jerky yet smooth stride, Teke Teke’s unnatural locomotion creates a primal unease—it’s not how bodies are meant to move.
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Leshi (Slavic) — A shape-shifting forest guardian, sometimes helpful, sometimes deadly. Known to lure travelers from safe paths, the Leshi can stretch or shrink to any size, making it impossible to judge how far away he really is. The Crooked Man’s height-shifting silhouette and ability to suddenly “be closer” mirrors this trick, turning open spaces into traps.
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El Sombrerón (Guatemala) — A supernatural man dressed in black with a wide-brimmed hat, who follows travelers while singing or whispering. He’s especially drawn to young women, braiding their hair as they sleep and enchanting them until they fall ill. While he’s less physically distorted than the Crooked Man, his hypnotic lure echoes the crooked rhyme’s ability to hold a victim in place, powerless to run.
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Old Stormalong’s Bent Ghost (New England) — A lesser-known maritime legend of a twisted, salt-crusted sailor who drowned in a storm. His spirit is said to haunt piers and wharves, walking with a spine bent so sharply he appears almost folded in half. Sailors claim that if he straightens to full height, a squall will hit within the hour. Like the Crooked Man, his posture and unpredictable presence are omens of danger.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Maybe he’s just a rhyme. Maybe he’s just a movie monster. But when you’re alone and the shadows shift, you might remember this story differently.
If you hear it—There was a crooked man…—you might tell yourself it’s nothing. Just an echo. Just the wind. But if the voice gets closer, if the words twist in your ear, remember… you can stop reading this, but you can’t stop him.
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