Long before M3GAN did her creepy little dance, Chucky unleashed a never-before-experienced fear of dolls. (Okay, M3GAN is not exactly a doll, but you get the idea.) Nearly twenty years before Netflix introduced the Scream TV series, the original Ghostface made us double-check that our doors were locked at night.

There is a reason why old-school horror movie villains are still so popular. The actors behind these monsters tapped into our most primal fears by fully embodying the role, scaring us half to death in the process. Think about how Scream turned an everyday cinema into a house of horrors or how Halloween made innocuous pumpkins seem the most sinister thing ever.

Freddy Krueger crawled into our nightmares, while Jason Voorhees traumatized us like no other movie character could. Except for Michael Myers, that is. Not to mention Leatherface and his ever-present chainsaw. But what are the stories behind these villains? What inspired the most terrifying, bloodthirsty fictional killers that, in turn, served as the spark behind today’s up-and-coming horror villains?

Related: 10 Horror Films Where You Never See the Villain

10 Samara Morgan

How long did it take you to stop looking at your TV askance after watching 2002’s The Ring? “First you watch it, then you die!” That sentence alone sent chills down the spines of thousands of eager horror movie fans. The Ring is one of the horror movie genre’s best classics and is based on a horror novel of the same name. The American version of the movie is a remake of the 1998 Japanese film Ringu and claims to be based on true events. These events are said to have happened during the 16th century in Japan.

A girl named Okiku worked in the Himeij Castle in Japan and was pursued by a samurai, but kept refusing him. To manipulate the situation in his favor, the samurai hid a valuable plate that Okiku was meant to protect. When Okiku realized the plate was gone, she panicked because it meant she would be put to death.

The samurai again suggested that she should give in to his advances because he could save her. She refused, angering the samurai, so he suspended her over a deep well. When she said no again after the samurai asked her one last time to be with him, he struck Okiku with his sword, and she tumbled down the well to her death.

It wasn’t the end of Okiku, however. The samurai heard her counting the plates over and over again from the bottom of the well, never reaching number 10. The creepy thing is that there is a well called Okiku’s Well in Japan. The well has a cover over it to keep Okiku from crawling out.^[1]

9 Norman Bates

When Robert Bloch dreamed up the character of Norman Bates for his 1959 horror novel Psycho, he probably never imagined that his book would become so popular that its contents would be turned into several movies. Norman Bates also made a turn on TV in the series Bates Motel.

In Bloch’s subsequent novels, Bates is not the main villain. He is succeeded by more than one copycat killer who assumes Bates’s identity after his death. This is in contrast to the Universal Studios movie franchise. Psycho was adapted to film because of the shocking revelations surrounding murderer Ed Gein at the time. This led to a widespread assumption that Gein inspired the Norman Bates character.

However, Bloch revealed that it was not Gein so much as the horrific circumstances surrounding the killer’s case that inspired Normal Bates. He wanted to highlight that killers could hide their true nature even in small towns amid the most curious window-peeping neighbors.

It was only many years later, when the world was appalled at learning the full extent of Gein’s crimes, that Bloch realized how closely Bates resembled Gein in their heinous acts. And, of course, there are also the weird attachments both men had to their mothers.^[2]

8 Candyman

Horrifying legends that come to life are what make many old-school horrors so good. In the movie Candyman (1992), an unforgettable legend was “born” after a Black artist was summarily lynched when it was discovered he had an affair with a white woman. A student writes a thesis about urban legends and folklore in Chicago and happens upon the legend of the Candyman.

The legend turns into a nightmare when the Candyman’s name is said five times in front of a mirror, and he starts killing people with a rusty hook for a hand. Not to mention the ribcage and mouth full of bees. Tony Todd played the titular character so well that it is hard to picture him without the hook and the bees. And the movie took some of its inspiration from a blood-chilling real-life murder.

On April 22, 1987, Ruthie Mae McCoy called 911 in a panic. Ruthie suffered from mental illness and told the dispatcher, “They throwed the cabinet down.” This confused the dispatcher, but Ruthie was right. There were passages between the apartments in the building where Ruthie lived. These passages were meant to make maintenance work easier. But, it also made it a breeze for burglars to push bathroom cabinets out of the wall to enter an apartment.

A neighbor alerted the police after they heard gunshots coming from Ruthie’s apartment that night. However, the police did not break down the door when no one responded to their knocks and calls. They did not want to be sued for destruction of property. It took two days for Ruthie’s body to be discovered as a result. A building superintendent drilled the lock to her apartment open and found her face-down on the floor. She had been shot four times.

In the Candyman movie, the first victim is Ruthie Jean, who is murdered by someone who came through her bathroom mirror. Ruthie Jean’s neighbor is Ann Marie McCoy, who believed Ruthie was crazy. Ruthie died alone after calling the police for help. It is not quite clear how Ruthie McCoy’s murder became part of the movie. It is thought that the director may have heard about the crime after deciding to shoot Candyman in Chicago.

The movie was also based on a short story, “The Forbidden,” written by Clive Barker.^[3]

7 Leatherface

The earliest versions of Leatherface were a bit comical (at least they are now). The face-wearing killer holding the chainsaw over his head and running down the stairs is not nearly as scary as it was back in the day. (The new movies are still terrifying, though.)

Not surprisingly, some elements of the Leatherface character were inspired by Ed Gein. Director Tobe Hooper had heard stories about the Wisconsin murderer but claimed he did not know it was Gein until the 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released.

Gein’s fondness for wearing human skin as a mask greatly disturbed Hooper, so he decided to make it part of Leatherface’s character. Additional inspiration came from Hooper’s memory of a Halloween party where a friend arrived wearing a cadaver’s face. Hooper would later state that it was the most disturbing thing he had ever witnessed.

Hooper also used Baby Huey as inspiration for Leatherface’s bumbling walk and child-like behavior. As for the chainsaw, this came from a fleeting thought Hooper had about mowing down a large crowd in the hardware section of an exceptionally busy store.^[4]

6 Jason Voorhees

Jason Voorhees is that guy in a hockey mask who can knock someone’s head clean off their body with one punch. This is both hilarious and strangely terrifying. Friday the 13th is a true horror classic and a Halloween movie marathon favorite. The franchise has twelve films and an upcoming limited series called Crystal Lake, a prequel to the first movie released in 1980.

It is widely believed that a horrifying incident in Finland was the main inspiration behind the Friday the 13th movies. Although the production team denied that the movies or Voorhees are based on specific real-life events, the similarities between fiction and reality are too striking. You be the judge…

In 1960, four teenagers set off on a camping trip in Lake Bodom. The two boys and two girls set up their tents along the lake’s edge. A group of birdwatchers saw the tents collapse on June 5 and a blond man running in the opposite direction. They did not investigate, so it was only later that a carpenter discovered what had become a crime scene. Three of the teenagers had been stabbed to death, and the fourth was barely alive. Nils Gustafsson had suffered several stab wounds and fractures to his face.

He told the police that someone broke into the tents and attacked them. He also said that the man who attacked was dressed in all black and had bright red eyes. Gustafsson was initially considered a suspect but was cleared because the severity of his injuries matched the story he told the police. The Lake Bodom murders remain unsolved in 2024.

The Friday the 13th movies went on to potentially inspire serial killer Peter Moore to kill four male victims over three months back in 1995. Moore blamed the murders on a fictitious restaurant worker named Jason, who his lawyer and the prosecution had no doubt was supposed to be based on Jason Voorhees. Moore was a cinema owner in North Wales before he turned serial killer.^[5]

5 Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal Lecter is an even more terrifying horror movie character than Voorhees. The 1981 novel Red Dragon was adapted for the big screen and resulted in the widely praised The Silence of the Lambs, released in 1991.

Anthony Hopkins’s performance made the film, and his sociopathic demeanor throughout still manages to spook, even if you watch the movie for the tenth time. Many of Lecter’s characteristics are the result of the novel writer and movie director’s wild imagination. Just the name Hannibal (a play on cannibal) immediately evokes an image no one wants to picture. But, some of the inspiration for this diabolical character came from a horrifying real-life case.

Thomas Harris, the author of Red Dragon, worked as a journalist in the 1960s. He interviewed a convicted and imprisoned killer, Dykes Askew Simmons, in Mexico. It was at this prison that he met “Dr. Salazar.” At first, Harris thought Salazar was a prison doctor. Salazar asked Harris incredibly insightful questions, and Harris was struck by how poised the man was. However, when Harris later asked a prison warden about Salazar, he learned the horrible truth.

Salazar was actually an incarcerated former surgeon named Alfredo Balli Trevino!

Trevino came out as gay during a time when Mexico actively oppressed the gay community. He tried his best to fit into mainstream society, but this upset his lover to a great extent. Trevino ended up killing his lover over what was believed to be Trevino’s intention to marry a woman. Trevino sliced up the corpse into small pieces and stacked them into a box. Obviously, he did not get away with the crime. But, his sentence was commuted after he had served 20 years in prison, and he returned to his hometown of Monterrey.

Trevino went on to treat patients without worrying too much about payment until he died in 2008. It is believed that Trevino had also murdered several hitchhikers between 1950 and 1970, but this was never proven. Harris used Trevino’s mannerisms as inspiration for his Hannibal Lecter character. Both men were doctors at one point. Both had a deep insight into the criminal mind. Both were intellectually challenging to others. And both men easily conned others.

Trevino was also not Harris’s only inspiration. Other murderous individuals who helped bring Lecter to life include Albert Fish, Pietro Pacciani, and Robert John Maudsley.

Pacciani, who was known as the Monster of Florence, murdered several people in Florence in the 1970s. These murders directly inspired The Silence of the Lambs sequel Hannibal. Maudsley killed child molesters and continued his murder spree while in prison. He was finally confined to a bulletproof glass cell, which inspired Lecter’s cell in the film.^[6]

4 Pennywise

Stephen King’s 1986 horror novel IT sets quite the opening scene. You can picture six-year-old Georgie Denbrough in his yellow slicker and red galoshes running down Witcham Street, chasing the paper boat his older brother Bill made for him. In this tense opening scene, readers are introduced to what would become one of horror’s most terrifying villains: Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

King thought out most of Pennywise’s characteristics (no surprise there). But the evil clown character was also inspired by a bunch of real-life clowns. Many believe King’s idea for IT came from serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who used to dress up as a clown called Pogo. However, King named Bozo, Clarabelle (from Howdy Doody), and Ronald McDonald as his inspirations for writing his controversial novel. King had a run-in with the Ronald McDonald mascot on a plane back when travelers were still allowed to smoke onboard.

King asked the mascot where he came from, to which the clown replied, “From McDonald Land.” King naturally thought the clown was being sarcastic and asked him where he really came from. The clown then confirmed that there was such a place as McDonald Land in Chicago, and he was there for the opening of a new McDonalds restaurant.

King found this to be a surreal and unnerving moment, but it also gave him more ideas for the Pennywise character.^[7]

3 Ghostface

When Scream was released in 1996, it introduced a whole new meta approach to horror. The movie clearly made fun of horror movie tropes while still paying tribute to the classics that came before it. Kevin Williamson, of Dawson’s Creek fame, wrote the Scream screenplay after watching a TV special about Florida serial killer Danny Rolling. Rolling, or the Gainesville Ripper, murdered five students in four days in August 1990.

Gainesville was in a state of terror and remained so even after Rolling was caught. While Williamson watched the events unfold via reenactment on his TV screen, he noticed an open window in his house. He was immediately terrified as he realized how easy it would be for a killer to get into his house. This overwhelming fear inspired him to create Ghostface.

The similarities between the killer in Scream and Rolling are highlighted in the movie. In real life, Rolling insisted he never had a motive for killing the students. But there had to be some reason for his murder spree. In Scream, Billy Loomis is revealed as the killer behind the ghastly mask, and he tells Sidney that not every killer needs a motive. However, Loomis did have a motive in that Sidney’s mother had an affair with his father, resulting in his mother leaving.

Scream seemingly also inspired a so-called “thrill killing” in 2006. Sixteen-year-old Cassie Jo Stoddart was murdered by two classmates, Torey Adamcik and Brian Draper. The boys stalked Stoddart and filmed her before stabbing her to death. They made a video in which they talked about how they would kill Cassie. The same video contained footage of the boys’ reaction after they killed her.

Draper and Adamcik apparently wanted to become notorious serial killers. They even had a death list of other people they wanted to murder. When they were caught, they mentioned Scream, as well as the Columbine High School shooters, as their inspiration for Cassie’s murder.^[8]

2 Michael Myers

Michael Myers is often described as pure evil. Considering that he was six years old when he killed his first victim (his sister), that description is apt. Throughout the film franchise, Myers continues to murder people left and right. And he does this without so much as a grunt.

Myers is the embodiment of a nightmare that you cannot escape. If he finds and stalks you at a gas station, chances are he’ll rip your teeth out. Or, if you get out of your car to confront him next to the road, he’ll probably stomp your head to a pulp. Sure, these are all movie scenes and not real life, but the Halloween movies still have the power to make you check behind you when you walk to the bathroom at night.

The Myers character was inspired by a very real and frightening event experienced by Halloween director John Carpenter when he was a student at Western Kentucky University.

Carpenter met a teenage patient during a visit to a psychiatric hospital. The boy’s unnerving “evil” stare greatly unsettled Carpenter, and he later used this experience to describe Michael Myers’s emotionless face when he was six. The character of Sam Loomis describes Myers’s eyes as the “devil’s eyes.” Yul Brynner of Westworld fame inspired grown-up Myers’s inhuman strength throughout the Halloween movies. And, of course, Myers’s infamous mask was modeled from a mask of Star Trek’s Captain Kirk.^[9]

1 Freddy Krueger

When you watch A Nightmare on Elm Street now, it is more of a comedy than a horror. Freddy Krueger’s exaggerated mannerisms and strangely long arms are not exactly scary in 2024. But, back in 1984, when Krueger’s scarred face popped up on the big screen, he scared the crap out of moviegoers.

Like the other movies on this list, A Nightmare on Elm Street was inspired by real-life events and experiences. Writer and director Wes Craven read about a family who had escaped the Killing Fields in Cambodia. The family made it to America, but before they could even sigh in proper relief, a young member of the family started having nightmares.

The young boy told his parents he was afraid to sleep because he believed the thing chasing him in his nightmares would get him. He tried to stay awake for several days at a time but inevitably fell asleep. That night, his parents heard screams emanating from their son’s bedroom. They rushed to him, but it was too late. Their son had died in the middle of his last nightmare.

This story formed the basis of Craven’s script, but he still needed to figure out his villain. Craven had several ideas for the villain, but one childhood memory ultimately brought Freddy to life. Craven remembered a man walking down the street past his house late one night. The man turned and looked at Craven, who was watching him with a disturbing expression on his face. The man also wore a fedora—another part of Craven’s childhood experiences that made it into the movie.^[10]

Boy bands pretty much ruled the 1990s and early 2000s. On stages everywhere, groups of young men crooned while doing synchronized dance steps, dressed in all-white suits or long, dramatic trench coats. There were some successful boy bands before the 90s explosion and after the 2010s with the massive popularity of One Direction and lately the even more popular band BTS. This list is a throwback to the golden age of boy bands and their peppy songs.
I dare you to defy the urge to hum that very well-known East 17 tune or dig out your forgotten Backstreet’s Back album and put the title track on full blast.

Top 10 Iconic Moments From The History Of Music

10 The Ink Spots

In 1934, The Ink Spots were formed in Indianapolis. The band consisted of Hoppy Jones, Deek Watson, Jerry Daniels and Charlie Fuqua, and would become one of the first so-called boy bands, even though the term was only established in the late 1980s. Their song “If I Didn’t Care” became the 8th bestselling single of all time and sold over 19 million copies. It never reached number 1 one on the US Pop Charts however, hovering at 2 for a number of weeks. The Ink Spots were also one of the first African American groups to demolish the racial barrier when it came to radio airplay and live performances, and broke attendance records wherever they performed.

9 New Kids on the Block

NKOTB have sold more than 70 million records worldwide, and the band is as well known for their music as they are for having had Mark Wahlberg as a member in its early days when it was called Nynuk. Wahlberg was 13 when he joined the group and left after only a few months. The name Nynuk was taken from the name of the dog in the movie, The Lost Boys. The band’s new name, The New Kids on the Block was inspired by Mark’s brother, Donnie Wahlberg, who was the first member to be recruited.

In 1989, then governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, designated 24 April as ‘New Kids on the Block’ Day and by 1991 the band had beat out Michael Jackson to top Forbes’ list of highest paid entertainers. In 2010, NKOTB joined up with the Backstreet Boys to form a boy band supergroup called NKOTBSB.

8 Take That

‘Kick It’ might not be a name that anyone recognizes today, but it was the original name of popular group Take That. Robbie Williams became part of the band after his mother responded to an advert looking for members for a new boy band. He left the band in 1995 after a struggle with drugs and went on to enjoy a hugely celebrated solo career. Williams briefly rejoined Take That from mid-2010 to the end of 2011 before once again focusing on his own music career.

Take That enjoyed massive success in the 90s, with the vast majority of their fan mail going to one member, Mark Owen. Bizarrely, Mark and fellow band member Howard once got stuck in the hands of a giant mechanical robot on stage during a performance. Mark was freed, but Howard had to sing most of their next song while stuck.

7 East 17

The Christmas song, Stay Another Day, had many East 17 fans reaching for the tissues after its release in 1994. The single became the Christmas number 1 of 1994 and was the band’s only number one hit on the UK Singles Chart. While on the face of it the lyrics seemed to be about a sad breakup, the song was in fact inspired by lead songwriter Tony Mortimer’s personal loss when his brother committed suicide. Mortimer later said that hearing the song on the radio all the time was like a nightmare because he was reminded of the tragedy constantly.

What fans may not know is that East 17 still exists with Terry Coldwell as the only original member alongside new member Robbie Craig who joined in 2014, and Joe Livermore.

6 Boyz II Men

“Although we’ve come to end of the list… erm… road.”

Just kidding, we’re not even half-way yet.

Boyz II Men was formed in 1988 and remains the most successful boy band on the US Hot 100 and Australian Singles Chart. The band has earned itself four Grammy Awards and they became the third artists after The Beatles and Elvis Presley, to replace themselves at No. 1 of the Billboard Hot 100.

“I’ll Make Love to You” was released on 26 July 1994 and ended up holding the number one spot on the chart for fourteen weeks. It is one of their most well-known and popular songs, to this day. However, the song almost wasn’t recorded by the band, as they very nearly passed on it. Saying that it sounded too much like “End of the Road”, the band wanted to try something different, but were ‘somewhat forced’ into recording it.

Suffice it to say, they never regretted doing so.

Top 10 Musicians Who Just Missed The 27 Club

5 Backstreet Boys

Back in 1992, a bunch of then-not-so-famous-yet youngsters all lived in one apartment building. They included AJ Mclean, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake. Mclean and Gosling used to shoot hoops on the basketball court adjacent to the building and Mclean once asked Gosling if he would like to join his new band, the Backstreet Boys. Gosling simply nodded in amusement, but never took Mclean up on his offer, saying “it’s not gonna happen, bro.”

Backstreet Boys happened in a big way after their debut album hit the stores in 1996 and the boy band achieved superstardom by 2000. They’ve sold more than 100 million records worldwide and earned themselves the title of best-selling boy band of all time. They are also the only boy band to have their first 10 albums reach the top ten on the Billboard 200.

The band is still performing today with concerts planned into 2021.

4 Boyzone

While Backstreet Boys were formed in 1993, Irish boy band Boyzone were also being formed that same year. Boyzone was the brainchild of Louis Walsh. Their original and most well-known lineup included Keith Duffy, Ronan Keating, Shane Lynch, Stephen Gately, and Mikey Graham. The group made a comeback in 2007 after breaking up in 1999. Tragedy struck two years later when Gately died during a holiday on Majorca. After celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2018, the band announced that it would be splitting for good in 2019.

Boyzone had a lot of problems, as alluded to by its members years after the band was no longer performing. Ronan Keating was 16 when he joined the group and later admitted he took life too seriously as a boy band member and didn’t enjoy most of it because he was trying too hard to be perfect. By the time they split in 1999, Shane Lynch said he hated Keating and there had been many screaming matches, affairs, and more disharmony.

After re-forming in 2007, the band were out drinking alongside Westlife’s Brian McFadden when they got into a fight with members of Rihanna’s band. Afterwards Stephen Gately said that it was a difference of opinion caused by too much alcohol. Apparently, they wanted to chat up the girlfriend of one of Rihanna’s band members, after which the man threatened to beat them up. Security had to be called in to break up the ensuing fist fight.

3 NSYNC

There was a lot more to NSYNC than bubbly frontman, Justin Timberlake. Other than the fact that the band’s name was formed from the last letters of each of the original members’ names, the group also sold one million copies of their No Strings Attached album in one day and over 2.14 million copies in 1 week. Overall, NSYNC has sold more than 70 million records.

The boy band’s manager, Lou Pearlman, made himself the sixth member of the group (without their consent) which saw him taking a sixth of the profits they made. This was on top of the commission and fees he was already earning. Pearlman went on to steal millions from NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, LFO, O-Town and more. He died in prison in 2016 while serving a 25-year sentence for organizing a $300 million Ponzi scheme.

Over and above this, NSYNC made a real dent in the music industry after starting out as an opening act for Janet Jackson. They also appeared on an episode of Touched by an Angel, had a cameo in the movie Longshot (which was never released in theatres) and two band members, Joey and Lance, starred in the feature film, On the Line.

2 Westlife

Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, and Shane Filan attended school together in Sligo, Ireland and had just performed successfully in a school musical production of Grease when they decided to form a band. They were known as ‘6 as 1’ and then ‘I.O.YOU’. Under the latter name, the band of boys released a single called “Together Girl Forever” in Ireland in 1997 after which Filan’s mother contacted Louis Walsh and asked him to sign the group.

Louis was hesitant because of his limited time, but Ronan Keating agreed to co-manage the band under a newly established company, Rolo Management. Kian, Mark, and Shane originally had three other members in their group, but they were asked to leave and were eventually replaced with Nicky Byrne and Bryan (originally Brian) McFadden. Keating changed the band name to Westside, and they toured with Boyzone in 1998. After having to change their name yet again, to Westlife, in 1999 the boy band released ‘Swear it Again’ which became the biggest-selling debut single ever in Ireland.

Westlife went on to sell more than 55 million records and become the only band to have their first 7 singles enter the UK chart at number one. They sold out their Croke Park Stadium show in five minutes and overall have sold 5 million concert tickets.

1 One Direction

The seventh season of British singing competition, The X Factor, produced one of the biggest boy bands the world has ever seen. One Direction enjoyed unmitigated popularity between 2010 and 2016, sold more than 70 million records and have won almost 200 awards including seven American Music Awards.

After deciding that their band name would be One Direction, the boys didn’t realize at the time that there was another pop/rock band with the same name in California. The English Irish version’s fans were up in arms and sent the Californian band hate mail and death threats to the extent that they changed their names to Uncharted Shores.

Band member, Louis Tomlinson, decided to take 5 Seconds of Summer along on the 1D tour in 2012, which led to the Australian band becoming mainstream. A massive 1D fan started writing fan fiction about the band, which led to 800 million reads and an eventual book deal for writer, 25-year-old Anna Todd, that comprised of six figures.

The weirdest fact about 1D perhaps is that they clashed with Donald Trump after declining to meet and take a photograph with his daughter in 2012. He then kicked them out of his Trump Tower hotel, where they were residing at the time of their Up All Night tour. Trump even refused to allow the band to leave through the underground garage. Instead they had to leave via the front doors to where hordes of fans were waiting outside.

10 Ridiculous Conspiracy Theories About Popular Music Artists

The idea of using contraceptives is as old as time. Due to the advanced medicine of today, we have many forms available to suit anyone’s needs, but this wasn’t always the case. From stealthy pessaries to handcrafted condoms, the birth control devices of old range from ineffective to bizarre.

The first birth control clinic in the US was opened in 1916 in New York City by Margaret Sanger, an advocate for the right to contraceptive use.^[1] The approval of such offices appears to have been controversial even back then, as the first one had a difficult time finding doctors and was quickly shut down after its initial opening. Still, professionals carried on with their work in the pursuit to find and refine contraceptive methods. Their efforts have transformed into the popular techniques we now use today.

While it is difficult to find surviving contraceptive devices of old due to most of the materials being small and made of biodegradable substances, a glance at record books and historical populations gives hints to the fact that some form or other of birth control was most likely in use among different cultures throughout the course of history.

10 Breastfeeding

It is common knowledge that ovulating women can get pregnant unless they are using some form of contraceptive. This cycle can be affected by stress, fluctuating hormones, poor diet choices, and other medical conditions, though. When women do not menstruate for three months or more, it is then considered abnormal and called amenorrhea. The state when a monthly cycle is interrupted is not always a cause for concern and can even occur naturally.

One natural event that results in a woman not ovulating is pregnancy. A lesser-known fact is that if a woman nurses a young baby of fewer than six months old, there is a reaction within the brain from the suckling process that can stop her body from releasing an egg. The process ensures she is not able to become pregnant while still caring for a newborn. To take advantage of this natural period of infertility and utilize it as a form of birth control, a woman can continue to breastfeed her baby at regular intervals using the Lactation Amenorrhea Method, or LAM.

In ancient times, LAM was not only well-known but commonly practiced. Purposefully or not, a woman would sometimes maintain the breastfeeding cycle for up to three years to keep from becoming pregnant. The natural use of this technique particularly kept nomadic families to relatively small sizes, making it easier to maintain their roaming lifestyle.^[2]

9 Animal Intestines And Fish Membranes

The use of condoms is not new, though it is difficult to nail down exactly when they first became popular because the materials used were biodegradable and often did not survive the wear of time. It was realized early on, though, that a protective covering could help prevent pregnancy, and over the years, multiple forms were tested. Animal materials won the prize and were widely regarded as the most effective and readily available. Interestingly enough, though, the condom was used more frequently to protect against venereal diseases instead of pregnancy, as conditions such as syphilis were common and widespread. A well known tenth-century Persian physician, Al-Akhawayni Bukhari, would even recommend a gallbladder to his patients as protection against illness.

When the use of condoms became more popular, pharmacies began to regularly stock certain brands and styles. One of the common brands was the “goldbeater.” Made of animal intestines, the thin material was originally developed for use in processing gold leaf, hence its given name. However, the finely pounded skin was also found to be perfect for use as a condom because it was reasonably waterproof and flexible and had great durability.

While all of these materials worked well and were readily accessible, a fish membrane, specifically the swim bladder, became the condom of choice for its superior quality and protection against pregnancy and syphilis.^[3]

8 Silphium And Related Flora

Silphium is a now-extinct plant due to its popular use as a natural contraceptive in the ancient world. Thought to be related to the fennel family, the plant grew in the area of what is now modern-day Libya and was cultivated for its resin. Because of its extreme effectiveness and desirability, images of the flora even appeared on the currency of the civilization where it was most popular.

Unfortunately, the plant was quickly used up, and the exact family to which silphium belonged is still uncertain, though it has been speculated to perhaps still be in existence as a misidentified flower. Interestingly, the seed of the silphium plant is depicted as being heart-shaped, leading a few to believe that the plant may have become the modern-day symbol of love.^[4]

Another couple of plants known to cause abortions and infertility are pennyroyal and Queen Anne’s lace. The oil and seeds of these weeds are used in some medicines, cooking applications, and herbal remedies. The danger in the use of pennyroyal, though, is that the amount needed to cause an abortion can also cause kidney and liver damage. Queen Anne’s lace is a little bit safer if you know what you’re doing but is also technically classified as a poisonous plant.

Another problem with these supplements is that they can easily be confused with different and more deadly versions. Despite the foreboding issues, both types are still used by herbalists and in poor communities.

7 Lysol Douches

A douche is known today as a feminine hygiene product, but it was also widely thought to be usable as a method of contraception when first introduced. As a douche is used to “wash out” the inside of the vagina, the idea was that sperm, too, would be rinsed out after coition. In fact, the idea is completely backward and could actually help push material up into the uterus and assist with pregnancy.

Another issue with douching as a method of contraception is that the water used inside a douche used to be mixed with disinfectants like Lysol.^[5] This was considered the same as using spermicides; however, regular washing changes the chemical composition of the inner vaginal walls. As this part of the body is naturally a hostile environment for sperm, the process most likely left ladies’ insides more vulnerable to diseases and pregnancy than before the wash.

6 Plant Resin And Animal Feces

A tried and true natural spermicide can be made from a paste of acacia tree gum and honey. Acacia ferments and produces lactic acid, which will kill sperm if they come into contact with it.

The mixture was soaked in cotton and placed into the vagina in ancient Egypt, but this wasn’t the only natural spermicide that was popularly used.^[6] Everything from crocodile to elephant dung has been rumored to work and were also utilized often throughout parts of Asia.

5 Rythmeter

During the early years of the 1900s, birth control was more controversial than ever. On the one hand, there was an entire church following completely against contraceptives, and on the other, people were realizing that a substantial financial burden could be avoided merely by having fewer children. For this reason, scientists were looking closely into the science of contraception and exactly when a woman was and wasn’t fertile.^[7]

The problem was that most doctors studied animals and assumed women’s systems were the same; they soon found this not to be true. Upon the realization that doctors had been basing their observations off inaccurate subjects, scientists began delving further into the mystery of a woman’s fertile period. From these studies, a technical device known as a “Rythmeter” developed.

The complicated-looking wheel was meant for a woman to use as a calendar of her menstrual cycle and was supposed to help calculate when she was in a safe “rhythm” of infertility. Unfortunately, every body is different, and a lot of outside factors can come into play when trying to calculate virility. Although it was popular, compared to actual contraceptive devices like condoms, it was by far not the most effective.

4 Cervical Caps

The cervical cap has been around for centuries and only fell out of popularity recently because condoms and the pill became more widespread. However, it is making a comeback as a formidable means of birth control.

Usually used with another spermicide, the cervical cap is smaller than a diaphragm and creates a barrier around the cervix that sperm cannot get through. Through the centuries, such devices have been produced, even en masse, in the form of leather, metal, and plastic. One of the most famously creative ones, though, may have come from the notes of Giacomo Casanova.

Casanova, one of the more prominent historical figures known for his charm, noted in his memoirs the use of half a lemon as a cervical cap. Accompanying this with either a goat bladder or linen condom was one of his tried and true methods to prevent pregnancy. The acidity of the lemon most likely acted as a natural spermicide and probably accomplished its task relatively well.^[8]

3 Electrocautery

For years, multiple types of sterilization techniques have been tested in the medical world in an attempt to limit populations and to prevent those with medical issues from getting pregnant. Today, tube tying is particularly common for women, especially after having children, as a way to prevent a family from growing any larger. The primary benefit of this method is that it can often be undone, but this was not always the case.

One technique that was often endeavored and used in the late 1800s was that of electrocautery.^[9] Cauterization by the use of running electricity through metal rods was not uncommon, and it only made sense that this could be performed on the fallopian tubes. Using electrodes to seal off the pathways was meant to prevent eggs from becoming fertilized.

The technique was not necessarily known for being successful and caused more concern for safety than anything. However, it was popularly attempted for decades.

2 Rue, Pepper, And Pomegranate Seeds

Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi suggested a mixture of rue juice and pepper to be taken as the historical equivalent of a morning after pill. The herbal concoction was supposed to induce abortions, but the efficacy is up for questioning.^[10]

The Greeks, on the other hand, believed pomegranate seeds would reduce fertility, and it has been scientifically shown that rats that are fed the fruit do become less fertile.

1 Lead And Mercury

Perhaps the most truly dangerous contraceptive was seen in ancient China. Women in imperial times would intentionally drink metals such as mercury and lead to ensure that they didn’t become pregnant.^[11]

Today, we know that such substances would not only render you infertile but also make you extremely sick or crazy, result in organ failure, or cause other permanent damage. Unfortunately, the practice was relatively effective at preventing pregnancy and is known to have been in widespread use throughout the course of history.

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