Favorite Scary Monsters

This week's Long And Short Reviews question is a difficult one. I don't have a favorite scary monster. I made up some grotesque ones in primary school, then forgot about them. I sold a batch of zombie stories inspired, in a very general way, by the infighting among a lot of doomed candidates fighting for the same slot on the same ballot, but I've not written a zombie story since.

Vampires, I suppose. Though early canonical female vampires were blonde, in the twentieth century all self-respecting she-vampires looked somewhat alike with long black hair, high cheekbones, fair skin, heavy black eyebrows, and of course fangs. Since I had those features in winter, at least until I had my misaligned cuspids removed, I've had some goodhumored cultural pressure to identify as a vampire. For a cheap and easy costume when a certain sister used to insist that I dress up for Halloween, I used to apply white face powder, red lipstick, and wax fangs. Later I explained to my husband that I eat garlic daily to stop my fangs growing back. (Actually I use garlic to prevent mold allergy reactions and help fight off infections.) Since he ate garlic daily for its slight but confirmed benefits in controlling blood pressure, we were compatible.

Other book reviewers voted for...

* Vampires--three votes! because the more recent ones are often looking for some sort of moral redemption or absolution, not only for food, and because almost all sources agree that they're charming

* Ghosts--two votes, one for the Japanese kind who come back for revenge, one for the English kind who may be benign and come back to teach or warn people

* Zombies, because they're unstoppable

\* Unique, previously unknown monsters whose behavior has to be figured out in the course of the story

What's your favorite kind of monster, and why?