We began this year’s Blog-o-ween 2023 by talking about one of the most famous and often-told oral tales out there, “The Hook.” It’s a tale that’s been cataloged and studied by folklorists, collected by anthologists, and even had its moment of cinematic stardom when it was used in the 1979 Bill Murray film, Meatballs. Not bad for a little cautionary tale about the dangers of parking and smooching...and allowing inmates at a hospital for the criminally insane to continue to wear their prosthetic stainless steel hooks.
Someone’s gonna lose their job over that decision.
For many kids, the tale of “The Hook” is best remembered as being a part of Alvin Schwartz’s 1981 folklore collection Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. That book was the culmination of years of research by Schwartz at the Firestone Library at Princeton University, as well as countless interviews the author conducted with many sources. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark brought together many types of legends, folklore and songs, both scary and silly. There were ghost stories, tales that ended with a jump scare, stories about witchcraft and voodoo, and that old ditty about death, “The Hearse Song.”
But my favorite stories were the ones gathered under the chapter heading, “Other Dangers.” As Schwartz notes in his introduction:
“Most of the scary stories in this book have been passed down over the years. But the ones in this chapter have been told only in recent times. They are stories that young people often tell about dangers we face in our lives today.”
“The Hook” is just one of these tales. Today, we are going to look at the other urban legends Schwartz collected. These are tales that you’ve probably heard over the years, and they are usually prefaced with “This really happened to my friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s cousin’s classmate...”. Heck, maybe you yourself have told them. (Maybe you’re the friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s cousin’s classmate! You do exist!) One or two of the following stories, like “The Hook” had their day in the cinematic sun.
Let’s go!
“The White Satin Evening Gown” is the tale of a poor girl who gets invited to a dance, but cannot afford a new dress. So, she goes to a pawn shop and finds the most beautiful white satin gown. It fits like a glove (natch), and she rents it for the evening. That night, she is the belle of the ball. She dances with everyone, and works up quite a sweat doing so. After the dance, she goes home and goes straight to bed. Unfortunately, she doesn’t wake up again. She’s dead! An autopsy discovers that embalming fluid on the gown entered her bloodstream through her perspiration (is that a thing?). They trace the dress to the pawn shop, and the pawnbroker says that he bought the dress from a undertaker who had taken it off a dead woman.
This story has got it all: the Cinderella-like set-up, the short-lived happiness, the death of the girl, and slightest suggestion of necrophilia (why else is the undertaker taking the clothing off of a young woman’s corpse, I ask you?). It also plays on that most American of fears — not being able to afford something new, so you get something used, and it ends up killing you. Caveat emptor, indeed!
“High Beams” is the story of a young high school student driving home from a basketball game. As she pulls out of the parking lot, she notices a truck following her. She thinks nothing of it, until the driver begins flashing their high beams at her. She tries to speed up and put distance between them, but the driver follows and flashes his headlights. She passes other cars. The truck follows and flashes its lights. She finally gets home and rushes into her house. The police are called, and when they arrive to arrest the man in the truck, he tells them that he was trying to warn the girl of a danger much closer to her than his truck. The police investigate and find a man with a knife crouched down in the back seat of her car. Every time he rose up to kill the girl, the truck driver flashed his high beams.
Again, this is a story that just about everyone has heard at one time or another. Even though it’s kind of ludicrous in its set-up, it works because it plays on the very real fears and dangers felt by women in our society. What woman hasn’t felt as though she were being followed...heck, what woman hasn’t BEEN followed by a mysterious man, whether it’s on foot as she returns to her parked car or in a truck as she makes her way home? Sad, but oh so true.
If this scenario sounds familiar, it’s because it’s been used in countless movies and TV shows. The 1959 Twilight Zone episode “Perchance to Dream” (based on a short story by Blog-o-ween 2023 alumnus Charles Beaumont) makes passing mention of “that woman who was killed by a psychopath hiding in the back seat of her car.” The made-for-tv movie Nightmares (1983) depicts the tale. On a 1992 episode of The Simpsons, Otto the bus driver tells Lisa the tale as a bedtime story. (Good luck getting to sleep after that one, Lisa!) Perhaps most famously, “the killer in the backseat” trope was used to open the 1998 nu-slasher Urban Legend.
Last, but certainly not least, is “The Babysitter.” This one, along with “The Hook,” is probably the most well-known urban legend out there. And it’s well-known for a reason: it plays on the fears of every kid who’s ever been left alone at home — either your own or someone else’s — and charged with the responsibility of taking care of someone younger than you — a sibling, a relative, or just the kids next door. It’s one thing to accidentally spill Dr. Pepper on Mrs. Watkins’s new couch. It’s quite another to have what’s spilled be thicker and more red than mere pop...and I ain’t talking about Cherikee Red, friend-o.
The story goes like this: one night a babysitter and her two charges are sitting together in the living room and watching TV. The phone rings, and a man on the other end of the line laughs maniacally. The babysitter writes it off as a crank call. The phone rings again. It’s the laughing man again. He tells her, “One more hour!” The babysitter is scared. An hour later, the phone rings again, and the man tells the babysitter, “Pretty soon now!” The babysitter calls the operator to complain. The operator tells her that they will trace the call the next time. The next time comes pretty soon. The man calls and says, “Very soon now!” The babysitter hangs up, but the phone rings again immediately. It’s the operator. “We’ve traced the call,” the operator says. “It’s coming from another line inside the house!”
Woo! That’s an oldie, but a goodie! Like “High Beams,” the strength of the story is in the fact that the danger isn’t far away — it’s right behind you or it’s right upstairs. Technology collapses distance. While the telephone made it much easier to reach out and touch someone we loved with a phone call (so long as it was made after hours when long-distance rates were much lower), it also made it easier for those who have less affectionate ideas in mind to reach into our homes, our safe spaces, and touch us right back. It was just possible that a maniac could pick up the phone and let his fingers do the walking...through our disemboweled innards!
The tale of “The Babysitter” or “the phone call is coming from inside the house” trope has been used many times in movies and TV. Bob Clark used it to superb effect in his 1974 film Black Christmas. Anyone who has seen that holiday slasher can never forget the sounds the caller makes during his phone calls.
Most famously, the trope was used as the set-up to the 1979 film When a Stranger Calls, starring Carol Kane as the put-upon babysitter. Many people remember that scene, but few recall that that wasn’t the whole film. It was only the first twenty minutes or so.
Director Fred Walton and his co-writer Steve Feke had based their feature on a short film they made two years earlier called The Sitter. This short consisted solely of the babysitter being harassed on the phone. Even then, in my own humble opinion, I think it goes on a beat too long. The arrival of the police seem an unnecessary addition. I mean, once you learn that the killer was calling from inside the house, what more do you need to show? After the babysitter learns the truth from the operator, cut to the light filling the stairwell behind her. The end. Watch the film below, and let me know what you think. Does the ending work for you?
Well, that’s all for today, Blog-o-weeners. Hope you enjoyed these urban legends. Don’t let them stay on the page (be it a web page or one made of paper). Pick ‘em up, pass ‘em around, and put your own spin on ‘em. Now that we have cell phones, how would that change what happens in “The Babysitter” or “High Beams”? Make the stories fit your life and your circumstances. Let them present your fears in new ways. That’s the fun of telling these stories after all. Well, that and...the pleasant dreams they give us. Hmmmm? Heh-heh-heh!
