Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Urban Legends?
6 questions to test your knowledge of urban legends in horror
Urban legends have been around for as long as people have been telling stories.
The stories get passed around and gain momentum, changing subtly with each telling like the Chinese whispers game. Eventually, you’re far enough down the line that you don’t know what’s true and what’s not. All you know is that the story sounds real and you’re not going to chant things into the mirror just in case.
Most, but not all, urban legends have some basis in fact, however small that may be. A bit like when a movie says it’s ‘based on a true story’, where ‘based on’ can be very loosely interpreted. But it’s usually enough that we can all too easily imagine the ‘thing’ happening in real life.
Urban legends often have a moral or a meaning or a takeaway. So, if you think about it, an urban legend is really just an Aesop’s Fable only darker.
The concept of an urban legend can be tweaked to fit nicely into a horror story, even if the basis isn’t necessarily scary. In the hands of a horror writer, all urban legends are scary.
These six questions are about some of the urban legends from our two urban legend articles this week: 6 Novels About Urban Legends and 7 Horror Movies About Urban Legends.
Contents
1. Stull Cemetery
Which two times of the year does the Devil supposedly show up in the Stull Cemetery in Kansas?
Halloween and Christmas
Nope. Try again.
Halloween and the spring equinox
Yes. An article in the November 1974 issue of The University Daily Kansan claimed that the Devil appeared in Stull twice a year: once on Halloween, and once on the spring equinox.
Halloween and the first day of winter
Nope. Try again.
What’s the Stull Gateway to Hell legend?
Following an article in the November 1974 issue of a student newspaper, the Stull Cemetery gained a reputation as being the location of one of the seven gates to Hell.
A nearby church is apparently possessed by the Devil and he makes weird things happen in Stull, including banging and rapping noises, memory lapses, ghostly voices, and indoor windstorms.
In 1995, the Pope supposedly redirected the flight path of his plane so they wouldn’t fly over the unholy ground.
There’s been so much damage to the cemetery over the years, the sheriff’s office now patrols the area and arrests people found inside after the closing time.
2. Bloody Mary
Historically, what was the purpose of the divination ritual that’s morphed into the Bloody Mary urban legend?
For a young woman to see her future husband’s face
Yes. Young women were told to hold a candle and a hand mirror and walk up backwards up some stairs in a darkened house. Their future husband’s face would supposedly appear to them. But if they saw a skull rather than a face, it meant they were going to die before getting married.
For a young woman to see what she would look like when she’s old
Nope. Try again.
For a young woman to see her own face as it would be on her wedding day
Nope. Try again.
What’s the Bloody Mary legend?
In today’s version, you chant her name into a mirror in a dimly-lit room a specified number of times (maybe thirteen, maybe more, maybe less, depending on who’s telling the story). Mary will then appear in the mirror as a corpse, a witch, or a ghost, usually covered in blood. She can be good but is more often evil in horror stories. She might scream at you, curse you, strangle you, take your soul, drink your blood, or scratch your eyes out.
3. Hook-handed Man
What decade did the legend of the hook-handed madman and couples in lovers’ lanes start to circulate?
The 1950s
Yes. In the 2003 book The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings, Brunvand says the story began to circulate in the 1950s in America and by 1959 the story was widespread amongst teenagers.
The 1960s
Nope. Try again.
The 1970s
Nope. Try again.
What’s the Hook-handed Madman legend?
In the most basic version, a couple are making out in some isolated ‘lovers’ lane’ type of place. They hear a news report about an escaped serial killer who has hook for a hand. The girl hears something and stops the boy (which he isn’t happy about) and makes him take her home. When they get there, they find a bloody hook dangling from the car’s door handle or embedded into the door.
Another version has the boy leaving the car for some reason and the girl hears a thumping on the roof. When she gets out, she sees the killer on the roof bouncing her boyfriend’s head like a basketball.
There are a lot of variations to this story and there’s speculation that the legend has its roots in real-life lovers’ lane murders in America.
4. Bell Witch
What is the supposed name of the Bell Witch?
Mary
Nope. Try again. Good try, though. A lot of ghosts seem to be named Mary.
Agnes
Nope. Try again.
Kate
Yes. In 1874 Martin V. Ingram published his book An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch, in which he claimed that the witch had identified herself as the witch of ‘Old Kate Batts’.
What’s the Bell Witch legend?
Between 1817 and 1821, members of the Bell family in Robertson County, Tennessee, were attacked by a shapeshifting entity, presumably a witch, that spoke to them, pulled hair, slapped, pinched, and stuck pins in people. There were also sounds like invisible dogs fighting, sheets pulled off beds while the children slept, and poisoning and paralysis.
The bad ghostly activity centred on the youngest Bell daughter, Betsy, and her father, John, whereas the witch seemed to like Betsy’s mother, Lucy, and the eldest son, John.
5. Mothman
What did the County Sheriff believe people were seeing when they reported seeing the Mothman in Point Pleasant, Mason County?
An eagle
Nope. Try again.
A heron
Yes. Mason County Sheriff George Johnson said he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron he termed a ‘shitepoke’.
A vulture
Nope. Try again.
What’s the Mothman legend?
Between November 1966 and December 1967, in Mason County, West Virginia, people reported sightings of a large, flying, man-like creature with glowing red eyes. When the Silver Bridge collapsed in December 1967, killing 46 people, people believed that the ‘Mothman’ foreshadowed the disaster.
6. Slender Man
What was the pseudonym of the ‘Something Awful’ forum user who originally created the Slender Man story?
Doug Jones
Nope. Try again. Doug Jones is an American actor best known for portraying non-human creatures.
Eric Knudsen
Nope. Try again. Eric Knudsen was his real name.
Victor Surge
Yes. Eric Knudsen, under the pseudonym ‘Victor Surge’, contributed two black-and-white images of groups to a Photoshop contest. The pictures were of children next to a tall, thin, figure wearing a black suit. He also included text, supposedly from witnesses, describing the abductions of the groups of children and calling the character ‘The Slender Man’.
What’s the Slender Man legend?
Slender Man is an unnaturally tall, slim man, wearing a black suit with a featureless face. He’s generally known for stalking, abducting, and traumatising people, particularly children.
In 2014, some readers of Slender Man fiction were connected to a number of violent acts.
Published: 23 September 2022
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