StoryLab Week 15

(TV Tropes)

For this final week of the semester, I am going back to my favorite TV Tropes page for my final StoryLab (Yes, I know I just did this).  Once again, I will be looking at the Horror Tropes because that is my favorite section of this site and it is what I enjoy reading about the most. This week, I wanted to focus on Urban Legends. These are really fun tropes because often times these stories are based on actual events. 

1. Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts

Besides the obvious Disney reference, I absolutely love this trope. It typically involves a lone drive on a deserted road at night picking up a stranded person along the way. This person typically is always cold despite the weather and sometimes gives life advice to the driver. Next thing the driver knows, their mysterious passenger has vanished into thin air even though the car was never stopped. Examples of this can be seen in movies like The Fog and even in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure 

2. The Calls are Coming From Inside the House 

This is also a really interesting trope in horror movies. This is most commonly known by the movie When a Stranger Calls. In this movie, a young babysitter is watching the kids when she receives multiple calls from an unknown number. The caller is typically male and asks her unsettling questions about the kids. The babysitter calls the police and when they trace the number they find out the calls are coming from inside the house. This urban legend is probably one of the spookiest since it has some real-life background. The Hinterkaifeck murders that took place in Germany in 1922 are what has loosely inspired some of this legend. A family of five and their live-in nanny were murdered in their home and not discovered for days. When the bodies were found and the police arrived, they discovered that whoever had killed the family had stayed there for days after the incident. When they investigated more into the family, they found that many nannies had quit, claiming the house was haunted. It did not take long for police to realize the killer had been living there in hiding long before ever committing the murders. This case is still one of the most popular unsolved crimes of all time. 

3. Speak of the Devil (Bloody Mary)

Of all the Urban Legends, this is the one that has always terrified me the most. This is mainly focused on the idea that saying a name can summon someone or something. The Bloody Mary version of this typically involves someone repeating the name three times while facing a mirror in a dark bathroom. It is said that you can see the face of Bloody Mary and if you do this she may just rip your eyes out. Many movies and shows use this similar idea of summoning by saying a name. Some great example of this would be Beetlejuice or Candyman. Typically once someone "summons" this being their lives are at risk or are changed until they find a way to send the being back.