The 5 Scariest Urban Legends Of All Time

Ready to relish the 5 scariest urban legends of all time? Remember, scary urban legends are scary legends because they contain an element of truth. Sometimes a whole lot more…

1. Humans Can Lick, Too

This legend has been around as long as canines and kids. A 9-year-old girl cuddles in her bed with her pooch as her parents leave for a night out. They assure her she’ll be safe with her trusty dog.  As they leave, her dog licks her hand and settles into his spot beneath her bed.

Later, the drip, drip, drip of what sounds like the bathroom faucet rouses the girl from her dreams. Reaching down, she feels the comforting swish of her pooch’s tongue and drifts back to sleep.

The same rhythmic dripping wakes her again. She wishes her daddy was there to fix the faucet, but her parents won’t be home for a while. Again, she lowers her hand and feels the tickling lick from her best friend below.

Hours later, the incessant dripping rouses her from a deep slumber. Drip, drip, drip. The sound grows louder with each step she takes to the bathroom. The scuffling behind her is surely her doggy.

She flips on the light switch and is horrified to see a form hanging in the shower. She calls for her dog, the dripping sound pulsing in her eardrums.

But there is no response. Her dog, now skinned and tethered to the shower curtain by his neck, is bleeding out onto the shower floor.

The girl slips on the bloodied tile and sees a message written in her dog’s blood on the mirror, “Humans can lick, too.” She runs to her room, straight into a dark figure holding a bloody knife.

2. A Real Deadbeat Boyfriend

This scary legend begins on a windy summer night with a teen couple searching for a secluded place to “talk.” They drive to a park area and stop at a popular spot beneath an oak tree.

They begin kissing, but suddenly the girl pushes the boy away. “Shhh. Did you hear that?” she whispers.

“Hear what?” he asks, slipping his arm back around her waist.

“It’s a creepy, grunting kind of noise,” she insists. “Listen. Hear it?!”

“Maybe it’s a massive mouse,” he says with a grin.

“Maybe you’re a massive moron. I want to get out of here. I’m scared.”

He tells her he’ll check it out. She locks the doors behind him and he disappears into the blackness of the woods.

Moments later: Squeak! Squeak! Thunk. She opens her door, yelling for her boyfriend. Squeak, squeak. Following the sound, she sees her boyfriend’s sneaker atop car. She looks up and sees his mangled torso, dangling from the oak tree, swinging in tempo with the summer wind.

Whimpering, she dives inside the car and locks the doors. Stretching to reach the car keys, she realizes they’re no longer there. Jingle. Jingle. As she searches the darkness for the sound, she sees a pair of eyes staring back at her.

The eyes belong to a grinning man, standing on the hood and holding a bloody knife in one hand while jingling the car keys in the other.

3. Bloody Mary

Years ago this beloved scary urban legend featured young ladies who’d navigate a set of stairs backwards, a lit candle in one hand, and a hand mirror in the other.

The scary legend dictates that when they then peered into the mirror they would see their future husband’s face — or the Grim Reaper, meaning they would never live long enough to be betrothed.

Nowadays, a person stares at their mirrored image and calls Bloody Mary repeatedly – thirteen times. Some do this while spinning. Some taunt: “Bloody Mary, I’ve got your Baby.” (A reference to Queen Mary I who endured multiple failed pregnancies.)

The incantations invoke an appearance by Bloody Mary (bathed in blood) seen as a ghost, witch, or corpse. She curses them and may even clasp her crimson hands around their neck and drink the caller’s blood.

4. Babysitter and the Man Upstairs (and/or Will You Stop Clowning Around?)

Countless movies have been based upon this scary urban legend of the babysitter and the man upstairs. A teenage girl babysitter receives repeated phone calls from a stranger who whispers: “Have you checked the children?” and then hangs up.

After the fifth or sixth call she frantically calls the police. They instruct her to keep the caller on the line so they can trace the call (way before Caller I.D.). She does, and when the stranger hangs up, the police call to tell her the caller is in the house with her.

The girl runs to check on the children only to discover them bludgeoned to death and the caller/killer holding an ax, waiting for her.

A variation of this story: The girl has the children snuggled in bed, but can’t stand the life-size clown mannequin in the family’s living room. She calls the parents to ask if she can cover it up because he’s scary, only to have them inform her that they don’t have a life-size clown mannequin!

5. Killer in the Back Seat

Driving home on a deserted freeway late at night, a woman spots a pair of headlights in her rear view mirror, closing in on her. She slows down, hoping the car will pass her. It doesn’t.

She turns off the freeway, but so does the car behind her, its bright lights flashing continuously. She squeals into her driveway and races up the sidewalk. The driver of the other car pops out of his vehicle, screaming for her to get in the house and lock the door!

Minutes later, the cops arrive and she sees the man that had been following her, now in pieces on her lawn.

The police tell her that he called them, saying that he saw a man in her car’s backseat, wielding a butcher knife. Every time he flashed his brights and got closer, the man would cower back down.

The man with the butcher knife was never found.