Post by Graveyardbride on Aug 17, 2015 7:29:37 GMT -5
Seven Bloodcurdling Urban Legends
Urban legends, though rarely true, reveal one true fact about of us – our fears, deep and dark. These legends used to scare us as kids and, well, maybe even now. Below is a compilation of 10 blood-curdling urban legends:
The Hook. A couple’s date night becomes a night of horror when the girl insists on being taken home after hearing a radio report that a killer with a hook for a hand is on the loose. Her date teases her, but when they hear something scraping against the door of the vehicle, he quickly starts the car. When they arrive at the girl’s house, he gets out to open the door for her and there, on the passenger door, dangles a hook!
The Clown Statue. Not too long ago, there was a spate of killer clown stories making the rounds. A babysitter taking care of two children becomes so spooked by a life-size clown statue in the house that she calls the parents, asking if it is okay if she covers the strange statue. The parents are puzzled, they have no such statue and then she sees the clown coming toward her. It isn’t a statue, it’s a killer clown!
Kidney Thieves. Waking up groggy in an ice-filled bathtub with a missing kidney and a note telling you to call 911 would frighten anyone. This urban legend has been disseminated in chain emails and comes in many versions. The victims are usually travelers and the organ thieves are people they met either in a bar or at a party. Moral of story: do not trust people you don’t know.
Premature Burial. Not too long ago, accidental burials weren't uncommon and the fear of being buried alive is so common it even has a name: taphophobia. There are many versions of the live burial story. Here’s an example: A girl is killed in an automobile accident and her parents, who do not believe in embalming, ask the funeral home to prepare their daughter for burial the following afternoon. As friends and relatives pass above her, she lies there immobile, unable to scream. She’s carried out of the church to the cemetery and as she is being lowered into the ground, she is finally able to move her hand and beat on the lid of the coffin. When it is opened, she sits up and begins screaming. She survives, but was never the same again.
The Killer in the Backseat. The horror begins when a man follows a female driver. He tailgates her and continues to flash his headlights in what she believes is a signal for her to pull over. She speeds up, but the car remains on her tail. When she arrives home, the man pulls into the driveway behind her, gets out, rushes to the driver’s side and tells her a man is hiding in the back seat and he flashed his lights every time he saw the assailant raise the huge knife in his hand.
The Killer Upstairs. A teenage girl accepts a babysitting job in an old, three-story Victorian house. The parents leave and after she puts the two children to bed, the telephone rings and the caller asks that she check on the children. Thinking it is the father, she goes to check on the children, but when she returns, he has already hung up. About a half-hour later, the man calls again, this time, telling her she isn’t safe in the house. Thinking it’s a prankster, she hangs up. He calls back again and again and finally she becomes so unnerved, she calls the police. They assure her everything is fine, that it’s probably kids playing a joke on her, but to keep the doors locked. The calls keep coming at intervals of around 15 minutes. She has just hung up from one of the calls when the phone rings again. When she answers it this time, a police officer instructs her to wake up the children as quietly as possible and bring them out the front door to a police cruiser waiting at the street. She follows his instructions and when she reaches the police car, she asks what is going on. The officer explains a serial killer who preys on young women escaped a nearby asylum. “But, why did you ask me to get the children and come outside?” she wants to know. He answers: “We contacted the operator and the calls are coming from inside the house.”
The Vanishing Hitchhiker. This story, too, has many versions. According to one version, a young man driving in an unfamiliar location stops for a young woman in a lavender evening dress. It appeared she has been to a party and as she sits beside him in the car, it grows so cold, he turns on the heater and offers her an extra jacket he has in the back seat which she wraps around her shoulders. She directs him to the gates of a cemetery and assuming she lives in one of the nearby houses, gets out, walks to the passenger side and opens the door for her, but she has vanished. By this time, it is extremely foggy and believing she suddenly exited the vehicle while he was walking around the front of the car, he shrugs and drives away. He drives on to his hotel, but the following day, notices she did not return his jacket. He returns to the cemetery, intending to ask the people in the nearest house if they know the girl. But then he glances toward the cemetery and sees what appears to be his jacket hanging on a tombstone in the same manner a woman would spread it over her shoulders. Irritated that the girl whom he’d given a ride would be so inconsiderate as to discard his jacket in the cemetery, he stalks toward the grave, grabs the garment and is about to walk away when he notices the tombstone has a photograph. He bends down for a closer look and sees the face of the girl he encountered the previous night and she’s wearing a lavender evening dress.
Source: Movie News Guide, February 2, 2015.
