Things I'd like to ask Bram Stoker: What was the true inspiration for Dracula? It's possibly the most common question writers are asked. Everyone wants to know where a writer gets their ideas, and the writer often struggles to come up with a satisfying answer. But the history surrounding Dracula's origins makes the question irresistible! So who was it inspiring such terror in Eastern Europe that could have sparked something in Stoker? Was it Vlad the Impaler? He's certainly a solid and popular possibility. But there's also Countess Elizabeth Báthory, who has a[...]
Category
Urban Legends
0 The legend of the vanishing hitchhiker varies; however, a few parts remain the same no matter who tells it--a hitchhiker is trying to catch a ride while on a dark back road. Once picked up, he/she disappears without explanation. Many TV shows have created their own versions of this legend, but I have found 2 favorites: Constantine and Supernatural. Constantine- Season 1, Episode 5: Dance Vaudou **I love this episode. There are two urban legends in one wonderful plot twist. And if you still haven't watched Constantine...I don't know what you're waiting for! A te[...]
In my last blog post, I shared a local urban legend that I'd heard while growing up in suburbia about the old Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital. But that isn't the only urban legend to haunt Toronto's city streets. When I started to do a little poking around online, a number of familiar stories came up pretty quickly. The one I'm going to share today has it all - murder, mystery and purported ghosts! Murder at the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse People unfamiliar with Toronto may not know that we do, indeed, have a series of small islands just offshore from the mainla[...]
Since it's urban legend month here at the Midnight Society, I decided to hit up dear old Google to see what it knew. If you have never searched the Internet for "Urban legends in (insert your state, city, town)", I suggest you do it. I typed in... urban legends in Indiana, thinking maybe...HOPEFULLY...I would find something. ANYTHING! What I stumbled across took me on a little adventure...one I'm not quite done with, but TIME, PEOPLE, TIME! I came across several blurbs about 'The Lights of Bruick Road'... Wait...Bruick Road? I know a Bruick Road. IT IS VERY[...]
When I was a teen, there were two things you did at a sleep over. Chant "light as a feather, thick as a board" while trying to pick your friend up using only your index fingers. Say Bloody Mary into the bathroom mirror. 3 times. One, was lighthearted and fun. The whole Bloody Mary thing though...terrifying. There are so many different versions of this out there. Who Mary was before this game even came into being. I remember telling the story of a girl named Mary, who was so beautiful that she couldn't tear her eyes from the mirror. One day, she's in a terrib[...]
Our theme for the month of May is urban legends! YAY! I've been watching the TV show, Constantine and have found many urban legends intertwined in the show. One of my favorites is the one involving Kuchisake-Onna...aka the slit-mouthed woman. The story has it that a beautiful Japanese woman cheated on her samurai husband. In a jealous rage, he cuts her mouth open with a pair of scissors. Giving her a permanently haneous smile, he asks her, "Who will think you're beautiful now?" The woman dies and then returns as a malevolent spirit known as Kuchisake-Onna, the[...]
Hello kittens, I'm bringing you a story straight from the truth vault. It happened to a friend of a friend of mine....just kidding. This guy is actually my friend, IRL and everything. He is a (gloriously) bearded farmer that lives in a tiny town in the prairies (since Bearded Farmer is probably a little too wordy, let's call him...oh...Mulder). A couple weeks ago, Mulder called me up and told me this story and I just knew that I had to share it with ya'll. I just got off the phone with him, so I'm going to tell it in first person, because I can't write[...]
The first urban legend I ever heard was the legend of the hook man. I was probably five or six and by that time, I was already addicted to scary stories and movies. My dad would turn the living room lights down and tell the story. My brother and I hung on every single word. Sure, little things changed here or there, but for the most part the key elements of the story remained the same. Have you heard of the Hook Man? Let me summarize it for you. A young couple out on a date is parked at a lover's lane, kissing in a car. They've been interupted once or[...]
Argentinians take their folklore seriously. And rightfully they should. According to legend, the seventh son born to a family is cursed to become a werewolf who feasts on the bodies of unbaptized babies. Yep. I'd take that pretty seriously too. But they take things to a whole 'nother level in Argentina. In fact, their president gets involved. In order to thwart the curse, there is a long-standing tradition where the leader of the country legally adopts any seventh born son. This way, the son is no longer technically part of their original family, and no longer co[...]
My students teach me new things all the time. Sometimes, I wish they hadn't. During a discussion about genres, I was giving examples of traditional literature. This turned into ghost stories, then into Bloody Mary, and even scarier Urban Legend I'd never heard of...Blue Baby. Here's what the kids told me: If you stand in front of a bathroom mirror, you need to recite the saying "Blue Baby" thirteen times while pretending to rock a baby in your arms. After the thirteenth time, a baby will appear in your arms. If you don't throw it into the toilet and flush it[...]
