We have a complicated relationship with fear.
On one hand, we avoid many of its causes at all costs, warned from a young age what can hurt us and, more importantly, how to steer clear. On the other hand, we can’t help ourselves, so fascinated by things that go bump in the night that the bravest among us actively seek them out.
One of the clearest examples of that is our fascination with urban legends. Stories—yes. But with the tantalizing undercurrent of potential truth.
We all know them—Bloody Mary, the Vanishing Hitchhiker, Lights Out— and, because they are usually relayed in our formative years, we never quite shake them.
The best urban legends are both unnerving and, somehow, safe. They are horrifying situations twice removed. We’ve all heard of the friend-of-a-friend who repeated a cursed mantra in front of the mirror or took a wrong turn in the woods, but few can verify their fate.
Instead, legends are whispered and dares are set, until someone in your group is brave enough—or dumb enough—to try.
What happens next depends on who’s telling the story. If you’re relaying the tale to strangers, your friend probably didn’t make it. And so, the cycle begins again. Because, while FOMO may be a relatively new phrase in our lexicon, it is the beating heart of these folklores.
Of course we don’t believe them, they’re nonsense, and yet…what if they aren’t? What if, just this once, the legend is real? There, perhaps, is the crux of an urban legend’s lifespan—not recklessness, but intrigue.
These folklores are half-open doors, and humans hate not knowing what’s on the other side. So, we walk through and, in the elation or temporary terror of whatever comes next, we are encouraged to keep the tradition alive.
Legends don’t have to kill everyone to be effective; in fact, every death they’ve ever been linked to can be decades ago. These days, they only need to generate an adrenaline rush.
Where some people bungee-jump or skydive, others crave a spirit’s icy breath on their neck or, at the very least, the moment when that could happen.
The most infamous urban legends are simple premises; too convoluted and they become impossible to replicate. A few words to repeat, a basic act to copy. That’s why they appeal to adults and children alike. And it’s another reason why they will never die.
There is also the eeriness of familiarity. Mirrors, babysitting, abandoned buildings, or late-night drives are among the things that can be twisted if we are familiar with the right urban legend. Suddenly, what should be a harmless moment becomes a matter of life or death if we don’t know the rules or make the right choices.
Those who’ve never bought into urban legends could easily mock the more fearful among us. Yet I will never shake the feeling of driving down pitch-black country lanes, while my teenage friends joked about the Ghost of Blue Bell Hill.
That’s the story we grew up with: of the ghostly sightings following a car crash back in 1965. Three women lost their lives, one at the scene and two later in hospital. People have since claimed that they gave a lift to a hitchhiker only for her to disappear from their back seat. Others say she stares into the eyes of drivers as she steps in front of their vehicles. But, when someone checks the road, she’s vanished.
There are undeniable similarities with other “haunted road” legends, to such an extent that it’s impossible to know what’s true and what has been cut-and-pasted from other tales. But, when I was younger, no one on this planet could have convinced me that story was false.
The terror I felt every time I drove over that stretch of road was enough…perhaps with an extra sprinkling of sadistic gossip from my friends in the backseats.
Ghost stories thrive on hearsay and they are the masters of the elevator pitch. If you can’t sum up an urban legend in one sentence, it will be dead before its first “victim.” But they are also cautionary tales, which leads us to the final reason they endure.
When the foolish get their comeuppance, the audience leaves happy. We should know, by now, that nothing is quite that simple; that we could easily be in exactly the same situation. But urban legends leave little room for compassion.
If they are easy to do, they should be just as easy to ignore. Yet that voice is persistent; the one whispering at the back of your mind.
Go on. Try it. Nothing bad is going to happen…
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