Urban legends are usually quite extreme stories, told as supposedly true (although they don’t happen to anyone personally known to the narrator) and are usually only plausible enough to be believed… There are many urban legends that have been told all over the world , most of which are centuries old but are as popular today as ever. The frightening nature of these urban myths and legends fuels an urge to live these stories long enough to last for decades while impacting individuals and characters, including the geographic locations mentioned in such legends. If you love legends and are even more intrigued by them, this article offers a selection of the ten scariest urban legends from around the world,
10. The Back Seat Killer
Photo credit: Mikkel Sorensen
This is one of the most intriguing yet frightening urban myths and legends that began around the 1960s and still circulates today in its usual many variations, telling of a woman late at night in the middle of nowhere whose car ran out of fuel . She finally finds a small gas station and the attendant agrees to fill up the tank, although she thinks he’s acting a bit strange. When she offers her card to pay, the attendant says she has to come in to sign – and once inside, she blocks the door so she can’t leave.
She is now very scared and tries to scream, but the attendant shuts her up and says, “A man climbed into the back seat of your car and is hiding there. I didn’t want him to know that I saw him.” They call the police and the man turns out to be a serial killer who wanted to make her his next victim. Although the story itself is an urban legend, always remember to lock your car and check your back seat before you get in!
9. The Hitchhiker Killer
On a related subject, in this story, a woman is fetching some gas and tells the attendant that she is on her way to pick up her daughter from class. Then a man comes up to them and says his rental car died. Would she take him to an urgent meeting near her? The daughter’s class is held. When she agrees, he puts his briefcase in the back seat and says he’s only going to the men’s room, but when the attendant’s done she pays, seeing that she’s going to be late and forgetting that she’s waiting for the man to come back quickly goes to fetch her daughter. It’s only when they get home that she notices the briefcase and remembers – so she opens the bag and looks for an ID to contact him.
8. The Babysitter and the Madman
Photo credit: Meeka-Mays
A teenage girl babysits toddlers in a large, secluded house, and with the kids upstairs in bed, she settles down to watch TV. Suddenly the phone rings and she jumps. When she answers, a strange man’s voice says he’s coming to pick her up, and she slams the phone shut in shock. She sits down again and fifteen minutes later the phone rings again – this time he’s laughing and saying he’s coming closer! – and now the girl, deeply scared, calls the police.
They say it’s probably just a prank call, but if he rings again. They will try to trace the call. So keep him on the line for as long as possible. Sure, it rings again and she does her best, but when he’s breathing heavily and says he’s “coming for her” and it’s “only a matter of time,” she panics and slams down the phone anyway. She decides to get the kids and leave – but the phone just rings again. It’s the police: “Get out of the house now – he’s in the house calling from the UPSTAIRS EXTENSION!” Madman escaped to do it again.
7. Buried alive
A very old woman who had been ill for some time eventually passed away, leaving her husband of more than 60 years devastated. He couldn’t believe that she was actually dead and needed to be pushed away from her so she could be prepared for her funeral. She was buried in a plain coffin on the family plot at the end of the backyard – and all the while the husband protested so much he had to be sedated.
That night he had a nightmare that his wife was having, hysterically trying to scrape himself out of the coffin, calling the doctor and asking him to have his wife exhumed – and this happened on and off every night for a week. Eventually the doctor gave in and the coffin was retrieved and opened – and to everyone’s dismay the woman’s hands were battered and bloodied, with bent, broken nails and there were obvious scratches on the inside of the coffin lid.
6. The Cursed Videotape
If you are looking for one of the spookiest cities, myths and legends then you should read this: Four girls go to a video store to rent a movie but can’t decide which one to watch. While contemplating the movie to rent, the girls see an unlabeled tape on the counter and decide to pinch it just to see what’s on it. When they get home they watch the film and put on the encapsulated tape. As soon as they press play, the power in the house is cut, but the TV is still on and the recording is playing. It is about a black witch who is being burned to death and as she nears consumption she screams that within forty-eight hours all who saw her die will be cursed,
Then the tape splits and stops. Of course the girls are a bit shocked but they don’t really think about it and sneak the tape back when they bring the film back. Two days later, police find their car, apparently pulled off the road into a tree, and all four girls are dead. Although the extensive damage to the car indicated that it was a different vehicle and must also have been badly damaged, the other car was never found.
5. Ghost tracks
There is a railroad crossing in San Antonio, Texas that is haunted. Legend has it that in the 1930s/40s a school bus stalled on the tracks and was hit by a train, killing all the passengers instantly. Now if you stop fifty meters from the tracks and put your car in neutral, it will roll forward – uphill – and only stop when the car is clear of the tracks on the other side. If the car is dusty (or you dust it with powder on purpose), you’ll see handprints on the back of the car – supposedly because the children’s spirits push the cars off the tracks to prevent others from suffering the same fate they did .
4. The hook
Two young teenagers are making out in a car when an announcement on the radio says a murderer has escaped from prison and is armed and dangerous. The mood is broken, the terrified girl insists her boyfriend take her home and he finally agrees but says he has to take a leak first and to have her lock the doors after he leaves and she only open when he comes back. After a while he hasn’t returned and it becomes obvious that something happened – she decides to drive the car to look for him, but the keys are missing. Then she hears scraping noises outside and huddles in the back seat until it finally gets light and she decides to run onto the freeway. She gets out and runs up to the main street,
3. Kidney theft
A businessman is staying in a hotel for a couple for the night and decides to have some drinks in the bar before bed. In the bar, a young woman sits next to him and they talk; she buys him another drink and he no longer remembers the evening. The next morning he wakes up in the bath up to his neck in ice, with a tube sticking out of a very clean cut in his lower back – and a note by the bath that reads: ‘You need urgent medical attention – call 911 on”. Once he describes the situation to the operator, she says “Is there a tube sticking out of your lower back?” And when he says “Yes” she says “Okay, don’t move, the ambulance is on its way. I’m afraid you’ve fallen victim to a criminal ring, stealing human organs to sell – they took one of your kidneys. “
2. The roommate
The Roommate is one of the scariest urban myths and legends to have been popularized. According to legend, late one night a young college student decided to pick up her books for the next day from her room so she could spend the night in her boyfriend’s dorm. Knowing her roommate would be asleep, she didn’t turn on the light, instead stumbling around for a few minutes while gathering what she needed and leaving. The next day, after class, she came home to find the police outside her room. When she said she lived there, the policeman gave her a little strange look and asked if she had been there last night but without turning on the light? Confused, she said yes, how did you know? The policeman led her into the room;
1. Knock, knock
Two teenagers were left alone in the house for a while a short time later that night when their parents showed up and told them under no circumstances should they open the door and that their neighbors knew they would be gone for a while. So if there were any problems, they could go next door. The children watched TV for a while and then went to bed, but a little later they were roused by a knock on the door – knock, knock, knock… They did as they were told and ignored, but the knock came again and finally the nurse got up to see who it was. The brother waited a while longer, but his sister didn’t come back and he heard nothing more.
Feeling uncomfortable, he decided to walk next door and, in his pajamas, padded to the door in the dark and slipped. The neighbors still got up and greeted him with the news that a killer had killed someone a few blocks earlier that night. Noticing that the sister was unregistered, they told him to stay there while they went back to the house with a gun. When they got there, they found the sister’s body on the floor and a discarded knife on her brother’s empty bed.