I don't find them creepy looking, and I love taking photos of them if I can find them holding still. The nice thing is (like most of the larger insects) unless you are a tree, you have absolutely nothing to fear, as their entire life cycle (and food system) is built around trees.

There are "mass hatch" years, too, where a certain brood cycles (I think it's every seven?) and in some areas up here, they are so prevalent those years that people use snow shovels to clean up the carcasses.