Urban Legends:
Bloody Mary — An urban legend that says that anyone who chants the words Bloody Mary three times in front of a mirror will summon a vengeful spirit. This spirit has been reported to do a variety of things to the person who summons her, including killing the person, scratching their eyes out, driving them mad or pulling them into the mirror with the spirit – generally referred to as the spirit of a woman or even a witch. This is an old legend, but in 1978 a folklorist named Janet Langlois published an essay on Bloody Mary, which led to the tale becoming a popular slumber party ritual done by girls as well as boys. No one knows the origins of the Bloody Mary legend; over the years, she has been rumoured to be anything from a witch that was killed for practicing witchcraft to a modern-day woman killed in a car crash, depending on what part of the country you live in.
Japanese urban legend — Toire no Hanako-san is a famous legend associated with Japanese elementary schools. The story tells of an omnipresent ghost who is thought to be the spirit of a student who committed suicide due to excessive bullying or "ijime". However the entity is also known to just appear for no apparent reason. Hanako-san is a popular legend in elementary schools in Japan, and supposedly haunts the third stall of the girl’s bathroom. Characterized by a pair of stark gleaming eyes, the spirit scares any person who sets eyes on it. Not known to be malevolent or vicious in any way, Hanako-san is simply an eerie entity that only serves to severely scare its victims. Not since A Nightmare on Elm Street or Hellraiser has a horror film featured a more effective hook, and few have delivered it with more effectiveness, as Ringu opens with a pair of schoolgirls discussing the latest urban legend floating around their high school: according to rumor, there’s a videotape floating around sourced from a pirate broadcast down on the Izu peninsula supposedly curses its viewers to death. As the story wears on, Tomoko confides that she and a group of friends recently watched a strange tape and received a phone call foretelling their death in seven days. When the girl reveals that this happened exactly a week ago, the phone rings right on cue, promptly terrifying the both of them. The duo thinks they’re granted a reprieve when it ends up being one of their parents, but a television set mysteriously turns on and Tomoko is killed by an unseen entity.
Japanese urban legend — Toire no Hanako-san is a famous legend associated with Japanese elementary schools. The story tells of an omnipresent ghost who is thought to be the spirit of a student who committed suicide due to excessive bullying or "ijime". However the entity is also known to just appear for no apparent reason. Hanako-san is a popular legend in elementary schools in Japan, and supposedly haunts the third stall of the girl’s bathroom. Characterized by a pair of stark gleaming eyes, the spirit scares any person who sets eyes on it. Not known to be malevolent or vicious in any way, Hanako-san is simply an eerie entity that only serves to severely scare its victims. Not since A Nightmare on Elm Street or Hellraiser has a horror film featured a more effective hook, and few have delivered it with more effectiveness, as Ringu opens with a pair of schoolgirls discussing the latest urban legend floating around their high school: according to rumor, there’s a videotape floating around sourced from a pirate broadcast down on the Izu peninsula supposedly curses its viewers to death. As the story wears on, Tomoko confides that she and a group of friends recently watched a strange tape and received a phone call foretelling their death in seven days. When the girl reveals that this happened exactly a week ago, the phone rings right on cue, promptly terrifying the both of them. The duo thinks they’re granted a reprieve when it ends up being one of their parents, but a television set mysteriously turns on and Tomoko is killed by an unseen entity.