Top 20 Scariest Urban Legends
#20: Slender Man
It’s a testament to modern mythmaking that, despite Slender Man’s origins on internet forums being clearly traceable, he’s already become a huge part of pop culture. Arguably the first creepypasta to go truly mainstream and leave his home online, Slender Man is said to be an unnaturally tall man in a suit, with no face and long tentacles or tendrils emanating from him. Supposedly, he preys on the young, though some take the line that he’s actually rescuing those victims from neglect. He’s already inspired many similar monsters and stories, including starring in multiple horror movies – though, they’ve all been box office bombs so far – and was the antagonist in the viral video game, “Slender: The Eight Pages”.
#19: Sewer Gators
We’ve all been there: your pet alligator starts to get a little too big, so you decide to flush it down the toilet. Supposedly, this story comes from tourists taking baby alligators home with them after visiting Florida, which is how the legend expanded to claim that the sewers of New York are flooded with a healthy population of reptiles. There were many alleged sightings of such alligators back in the earlier half of the twentieth century, too, and bizarrely, some rogue reptiles HAVE been found in the city, including the sewers. But these are almost certainly escaped pets, rather than belonging to a secret, underground population breeding underneath Manhattan.
#18: Missing Organs
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Black markets in organs chillingly HAVE been found from time to time, though often, the organs come from people looking to sell them out of desperation. Organ trafficking is definitely a thing though. Kidneys, however, are one of the few organs where, if you take one of them, the human body can adjust, which is why stories of kidney thefts abound. Specifically, the urban legend claims that people have woken up, after perhaps being drugged while on vacation, with mysterious, surgical scars and missing organs – they’re NOT willing donors trying to make money. It is, however, implausible that organ thefts like this happen widely, largely because of how difficult the operations are.
#17: Flashing Headlights
What does it mean if another driver flashes their headlights at you while you’re cruising down an empty road? Well, it depends on where you are in the world. In the US, it’s actually illegal to flash headlights in some states, as flashing headlights can lead to accidents. Or, is there another reason? Some allege that flashing your headlights can actually get you killed. If you flash your headlights at a passing car that doesn’t have its lights turned on in an attempt to get its attention, you may find yourself the victim of a brutal, gang initiation – originally, violent biker gangs. Thankfully, there’s no evidence that this has ever happened.
#16: Kuchisake-onna
Often known in English as the “Slit-Mouthed Woman”, this frightening spirit is a staple in Japanese folklore. Generally speaking, this spirit is the vengeful ghost of a woman whose mouth has been cut from ear-to-ear when she was alive. An encounter with the Slit-Mouthed Woman is a bit of a catch-22. While her reactions vary depending on the legend you hear, it basically boils down to this: she’ll ask if you think she’s beautiful, and if you say no, she kills you, while if you say yes but she isn’t convinced, she cuts your mouth like hers. More sinister, it’s even said that she appears to children. But where does this myth come from? It’s hundreds of years old, but its origins still aren’t clear – though, injuries like hers certainly have happened in real life.
#15: Mothman
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In the 1960s, West Virginia was terrorized by a strange entity known only as the “Mothman”. With huge wings and glowing, red eyes, Mothman is now a big part of the local culture and one of the most famous American cryptids. The story comes from a handful of alleged sightings as well as the tragic collapse of the Silver Bridge in 1967. Some said Mothman caused the collapse, others that he was merely an omen of impending doom – and others still think he may have been of alien origin. But the sightings have usually been explained away by experts as being of a large bird, likely a crane.
#14: Umm Al Duwais
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In Arabian and Islamic mythology, jinn (or genies in its anglicized name) are supernatural spirits that, depending on the individual, can be either good or bad. Umm Al Duwais is one such jinn, and a popular legend in the UAE. And this is really a tale as old as time; Umm Al Duwais appears as an extremely beautiful woman who seduces cheating men – only to then turn into a horrific monster and devour them. But some of the stories say she’s a bit less picky with her targets and will actually prey on anybody she likes the look of. She, and other jinn, are extremely old legends, dating back thousands of years. Rest assured, though; if you’re not an adulterer, you may not have anything to fear from her.
#13: The Hook
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This story has been scaring the life out of teenagers for as long as teens have had access to their own cars. So a version of the legend goes, a young couple visiting a lover’s lane hear that a hook-handed murderer has escaped the local asylum on the radio. Frightened, the couple decides to leave. They make it all the way home before finding the killer’s hook attached to the car door handle – unbeknownst to them, he was very nearly about to kill them. This story is very common in the US and dozens of variations exist. Plus, people certainly have met grisly ends in these secluded locations at the hands of serial killers – maybe we should heed the story’s warning.
#12: Aren’t You Glad You Didn’t Turn On the Light?
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Similar to the Hook, this is another murderous story that’s circulated for decades. The tale focuses on two college roommates, one who’s a party animal and another who’s studious and stays at home. After a late night, the former returns and, being a considerate roommate, doesn’t turn the light on, so that she won’t be a disturbance. However, the following morning, she makes the gruesome discovery that her roommate has met an untimely end. The killer has written somewhere in the dorm, in blood, “aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the light?” This is another that has a lot of variations, including that the party girl was actually the studious one returning from the library to grab some books when she finds her dead dorm-mate.
#11: The Bunny Man
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A popular story in Virginia and the surrounding areas, the Bunny Man can be traced back to the 70s, when he emerged as a frightening, alleged murderer stalking a bridge. It’s not just any bridge, either, it’s specifically the Colchester Overpass, a rather spooky tunnel underneath a railroad. And shockingly, THIS legend might be more fact than fiction, as there ARE cases - at least two - of a man in a bunny costume threatening people with an ax in this area that were investigated by the police. In one, the man actually smashed a car window with a hatchet, with the occupants perhaps only narrowly escaping. The assailant was never caught.
#10: Christmas Carols
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You may not have heard this one before, but a story sometimes repeated around London aims to tackle the origins of the humble, Christmas carol. Not necessarily the carols themselves, but the reason we call them “carols” at all is supposedly because a young girl named Carol Poles went missing in Whitechapel in the winter of 1888. History buffs among you will already know that Jack the Ripper was prowling those very streets at that time, and according to some, search parties would sing Christmas songs while they looked for the girl. In actuality, Christmas carols have existed for hundreds of years, and “carol” actually comes from a French word that dates at least as far back as the 12th century.
#9: The Ghost Bus of Beijing
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If driving a car can put you in grave danger, so can other forms of transport, too. In this modern urban legend originating in China, the last bus of the evening to Fragrant Hills is hailed down by some men. When the men board, it’s noticed that they’re wearing Qing Dynasty robes and are unnaturally pale. The bus staff think they’re just actors, but one passenger – an old woman – sees that they’re actually ghosts. She hatches a plan to get herself and the other remaining passenger off the bus, but in the following days, the bus vanishes. Soon enough, the bus is found underwater in a nearby reservoir, with the body of the bus driver inside. Make sure you don’t get the last bus home!
#8: The Licked Hand
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This ominous story has been around since the 80s, and it’s another that hinges on a frightening message written in blood, not seen until the following morning. A young girl is left home alone while a murderer is at large, but luckily, she has her beloved, pet dog to keep guard. The dog sleeps under the bed, helping her fall asleep – until she’s awoken by a sinister, dripping sound. The dog licks her hand to reassure her, and she goes back to sleep, only to find the next day that the dog is no more. Written in its blood on the wall are the words, “humans can lick too”.
#7: The Babysitter & the Man Upstairs
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You’ll have heard many variants of this. A lone babysitter watching several kids while the parents are out puts them to bed, and soon receives a phone call from a sinister voice asking whether she’s checked on the children. She hangs up, but he repeatedly calls back. She calls the cops and, eventually, they warn her to leave, because, “the call is coming from inside the house”. This story is so prolific it inspired multiple movies and is now a common phrase. Other versions include the sitter getting frightened by the family’s creepy clown doll, only to be told by the parents that they don’t own such a thing and she has to take the kids and get out ASAP.
#6: Killer in the Backseat
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Yet again, a frightening serial killer might be hiding right under your nose - or rather right behind you. In this case, not somewhere else in your house, but in the back of your car! And in this case, paying attention to somebody flashing their headlights might save your life. In one version of the story, a woman driving home late at night is pursued by another vehicle that flashes its lights at her. In another, she pulls into a gas station where the attendant asks her to come inside. In each case, they’re trying to warn her: there’s a man with a knife hiding in the back of her car. The killer in the backseat is now regularly seen in horror fiction.
#5: The Spider Bite
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Arachnophobes, look away! Of course, spiders certainly CAN bite you, and lots of them are venomous and could do serious damage - though, luckily, even the bite from a black widow is rarely lethal, and most spiders won’t bite a human unless provoked. But this entry isn’t about a venomous spider bite, it’s about the popular myth that a spider can implant you with its eggs. A woman visiting a tropical destination is bitten by a mysterious, local spider, and the bite swells to an abnormal size. Then, horrifyingly, it ruptures, and inside is a mass of baby spiders. You’ll be very relieved to know that this is one legend that has no basis in reality.
#4: The Vanishing Hitchhiker
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No, the hitchhiker in question this time ISN’T an escaped murderer roaming the streets. Instead, it’s a seemingly innocent person, and the driver may have a perfectly pleasant time driving them to wherever they want to go - or at least attempting to drive them, as in some versions, the hitchhiker suddenly disappears from the car. In the versions where they get to the destination, it’s only when the driver starts to investigate further, with the passenger usually having left something behind in the car, that they discover the truth. The hitchhiker was, in fact, a ghost, often the ghost of somebody killed in an accident on the very same stretch of road they were picked up along. It’s now a commonly heard story in the US.
#3: Chupacabra
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Another well-known cryptid, the Chupacabra is said to roam the Americas – often areas with large, Spanish-speaking populations, hence its name, which means “goat-sucker”. The sinister creature, which may be just one or a whole species, makes its presence known by killing livestock by draining it of blood, a process called exsanguination. Incidents of livestock deaths like this have often been given supernatural causes the world over, including evil cults and, of course, the original bloodsuckers, vampires. Interestingly, the Chupacabra is a more modern story than you may think, likely dating back only to the 1970s.
#2: La Llorona
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Called “The Weeping Woman” in English, La Llorona strikes fear into the hearts of many. Like the Chupacabra, she hails from the Americas, but is much older – records of her have been found as early as the 16th century, in Mexico. The best-known Mexican version of the story is about a mother who, tormented by the revelation that her husband is being unfaithful, drowns their children and then attempts to do the same to herself. Now a ghost, she’s cursed to wander the earth, wailing and weeping as she looks for her kids. If other young ones get too close to her, they might be drowned, too. The myth likely came from attempts to warn children of the dangers of water, particularly at night, to stop tragic, accidental drownings.
#1: Bloody Mary
Admit it: you did this when you were a kid, despite being terrified of the consequences should this urban legend prove true. Bloody Mary preys on our fear of seeing something reflected back at us that isn’t quite right. To conjure her in the hopes that she may provide insight or tell you what the future holds, you need to chant her name repeatedly while looking in a mirror, generally in a bathroom. She’s usually imagined to be malevolent and drenched in blood – whether that’s her own blood or the blood of her victims, nobody’s sure. In fact, nobody can agree on where this popular myth comes from. She’s been attributed to real historical figures before, including Mary I of England, but the myth doesn’t seem to have appeared widely until the twentieth century.
