With the Industrial Revolution already in full swing, and the arrival of the Victorian Era in 19th century England, a merging of people from rural and urban cultures was conducive to the rise of a new character based upon existing rural folklore tales and superstitions. Spring-Heeled Jack began as a beast, a ghost, and later a demon that haunted the streets at night. His uncanny abilities to leap over structures and his devil-like appearance struck terror into his victims. From an entity with supernatural abilities, he evolved into a theatric and literary entertainment character and finally became a bogeyman used to scare children into behaving. In more modern times, he is sometimes viewed as a cryptozoological entity, an extraterrestrial alien from space, or a creature from a parallel universe.