With Halloween just lurking in the dark nearby corners, there could be no better time to discuss the top three scariest monsters of all time than today.

Horrific beyond compare, these top three scariest monsters rival the Boogeyman for its dominance over people's nightmares. These are fictional creatures in the flesh, not mental illnesses labeled as "monsters."

Here are the top three scariest monsters in movies (presented in reverse order) as shared by Ask Men.

3. The Thing in "The Thing"

What could be more frightening than a parasitic alien possessed with Mystique's (of the X-Men) transformative abilities? Answer: catching a glimpse of its transforming itself into the creature it has recently consumed. Brutal beyond measure, this monster from outer space eats anything and everything organic. Then it transforms into itself into the poor creature it has just digested.

The presence of this "thing" in Antartica has made the frigid uninhabitable place even more menacing. As for the woebegone explorers and professionals who sacrificed lives, limbs and their sanities in confronting him...They should consider themselves lucky that their whole ordeal was fictitious.

2. The Creeper of "Jeepers Creepers"

This winged creature with the brilliant creative streak of murderous geniuses - It creates excellent works of art using the skins of its victim-cum-lunch-cum-dinner - is a kind of demon. But judging from the looks of it in the movie, it is sort of mixed with human genes? Anyways, whatever its biological lineage is, the creeper will really creep people out. What more if they run into him in the middle of nowhere as he is hunting for his next meal?

This was the exact dilemma the unlucky teens had to deal with when they discovered that there was such a thing as the creeper. But there is more to its badass streak than its seemingly insatiable appetite for homo sapiens: It does not die easily and refuses to go down without putting up one hell of a fight.

1. Pennywise of "It"

Funny how clowns are used to regale kids in carnivals when they take up the top spot in people's nightmares. Thus, it hardly surprises anyone to learn that Pennywise the sinister clown in Stephen King's "It" has bagged the top spot. But what makes him scarier than his appearance is his habit of calling people's attention, kids in particular, from drainage openings found on sidewalk edges.

But his calling is the least of people's worries. He can get even more terrifying than that. Just wait till the demonic clown bares his fangs. Then imagine how it would feel to have those shark-like dentures sink into the skin...