31 Days of Monsters: The Lavellan

Every part of the tiny Scottish Lavellan is deadly. A single hair from a Lavellan can pollute waterways for miles. Its tears and saliva can make fields barren for decades. Despite being smaller than a baby mouse, its footsteps can break cobblestones. Its horrendous breath can kill the heartiest man, and it's stare can kill livestock from a hundred paces away. Nobody is sure if the Lavellan means to be so awful or if its just cursed. And nobody really wants to find out by getting close enough to ask.

31 Days of Monsters: Yeth Hound

Folklore is filled with monstrous death omens. In Devon, England, such a creature is the Yeth Hound. An un-baptised child that has been twisted into the form of a monstrous headless dog, the Yeth Hound roams wild places and lonely roads. Anyone who hears it's mournful childlike cry is marked for death within the year. There is no escape.

31 Days of Monsters: Black dog

In folklore all over the world, the appearance of a monstrous black dog is often seen as an omen of impending death. For that reason, I can't figure out why black dogs don't suffer from the same prejudice as black cats. It's just not fair.

31 Days of Monsters: Day Twenty-nine — Zombie (Modern)

The modern zombie is a person who has returned from the dead to feast on the flesh of the living.
It's my belief that the modern zombie is a response to the over-romanticizing of the more tradition undead monster, the vampire.
In previous generations the vampire symbolized the fear of death, disease and the fear of being eaten by predators. In early vampire folklore, they were little more than corpses who rose from the grave nightly and fed on the blood of their family members.
In later fiction however, vampires were turned into seductive, romantic figures, more akin to Satan himself tempting victims with promises of sex, immortality, power and wealth.
Whether George Romero realized it when he created "Night of the Living Dead," I believe he was giving us back a monster that deep down, we may need as a fundamental part of our psyche. Something that lets us face our fears of mortality, and bash it in the head.