Best Urban Legend

The Legend of the Alley of the Kiss (Callejón del Beso) is a well-known Mexican folklore story tied to a famously narrow alley in the city of Guanajuato. The legend centers on two star-crossed lovers, Doña Ana and Don Carlos, whose romance tragically ended when Ana was fatally stabbed by her disappr...

The Hookman is an American urban legend about a young couple parked in a secluded place who hear that an escaped killer has a hook in place of one hand. After they leave, they discover a hook hanging from the car door, implying that the killer had approached without being seen. Widely circulated amo...

The Vanishing Hitchhiker is one of the most widely circulated urban legends in American and international folklore. The narrative typically involves a driver who picks up a hitchhiker—often a young woman—who subsequently disappears from the moving vehicle. Later investigation reveals that the passen...

The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs is an urban legend centered on a babysitter who receives threatening telephone calls and eventually learns that the calls originate inside the house. The story circulated widely in the 1960s and has remained associated with domestic suspense, isolated child care,...

Kuchisake-onna is a Japanese urban legend centered on a woman whose mouth is cut from ear to ear. In a common version, she approaches a pedestrian, often a child, asks whether she is beautiful, and responds violently to the answer or to an attempt to escape. The story spread through school rumors an...

Cropsey is a 2009 documentary directed by Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio. It investigates the Staten Island urban legend of Cropsey and connects that folklore with real disappearances of children and the criminal case associated with Andre Rand. The film combines interviews, archival material,...

The Killer in the Backseat, also known as High Beams, is an urban legend in which a driver is followed or warned about a concealed attacker in the vehicle. In a common version, a person who appears threatening signals the driver to stop, but is actually trying to prevent a murder after seeing the ki...

Butterfly Kisses is a 2018 American found-footage horror film written and directed by Erik Kristopher Myers. Its story follows filmmaker Gavin York after he discovers videotapes made by students investigating a local horror legend called Peeping Tom, then begins incorporating the material into his o...

The Hairy Hands of Dartmoor is a local English road legend associated with the B3212 between Postbridge and Two Bridges in Devon. Reports from the early twentieth century, including accounts from the 1920s, describe unseen or hairy hands seizing the steering wheel or handlebars and trying to force v...

Spring-Heeled Jack is a figure in Victorian English folklore associated with reports of assaults and strange encounters around London beginning in 1837. Accounts described the alleged assailant as a devil-like or leaping man, and newspapers helped turn local reports into a wider urban legend that la...

Hanako-san is a Japanese urban legend about the ghost of a girl who is said to inhabit a school toilet. In many versions, the ritual involves knocking on a stall door and asking whether Hanako-san is present, although the number of knocks, floor, and expected response vary between tellings. The stor...

Aka Manto is a Japanese urban legend about a supernatural figure associated with a school toilet. In the story, a voice asks a person whether they want red or blue paper. The offered choices are linked to violent outcomes, while refusing to choose may lead to another fatal result. The legend is part...

The Licked Hand is an urban legend about a child who is left alone in a house with a pet dog. During the night, the child hears a dripping sound and is reassured by the animal repeatedly licking the child's hand. In the usual ending, the child discovers that the dripping came from the pet's blood an...

The Choking Doberman is an urban legend about a dog that appears to be choking after protecting a home from an intruder. In the traditional version, a veterinarian discovers that the animal is choking on the burglar's severed fingers. The story is a home-intrusion legend built around delayed recogni...

Teke Teke is a Japanese urban legend about the ghostly upper body of a woman or schoolgirl. In the story, the figure moves across the ground using her elbows or hands and attacks people, often with a sickle. The legend belongs to the modern Japanese tradition of railway and school-related supernatur...

Polybius is an urban legend about a supposed arcade game that allegedly appeared in Portland, Oregon, in 1981. The story claims that the game caused unusual psychological or physical effects in players and that mysterious men in black visited the machine or collected information about it. No reliabl...

Alligators in the Sewers is an American urban legend about alligators living beneath a city after being flushed away by pet owners. The story is especially associated with New York City and has often been connected to reports from the 1930s. It is studied as folklore rather than as a confirmed accou...

The Spider Bite is an urban legend in which a person discovers that spiders or spider eggs have entered or emerged from a wound. Versions of the story often place the event during travel abroad and use the body as a setting for hidden infestation. The tale belongs to a wider group of cautionary lege...

Black-Eyed Children are figures from a modern urban legend describing children or young teenagers whose eyes are entirely black. Stories usually portray them approaching adults in isolated settings and asking to enter a home or vehicle, while creating a strong feeling of fear. The legend spread thro...

Urban legends told throughout Japan are meant to frighten the population, mainly those of school age, through stories involving abnormal entities or supernatural occurrences. But what happens when this folklore turns into pleasurable encounters with paranormal ladies? The stories of Hanako Hasegawa,...

The Bunny Man is an urban legend associated with Fairfax County, Virginia, particularly the area around Colchester Overpass and Clifton. The story describes a man wearing a rabbit costume who allegedly threatened or attacked people with an axe or hatchet. The legend developed from reports and local...

The Kidney Heist is an urban legend about travelers who are drugged, abducted, and found with a kidney removed for sale on the black market. The story circulated widely in the 1990s, especially through email and informal warnings about travel. It is a modern example of a medical-abduction legend: th...

The Clown Statue is an urban legend about a babysitter who notices a clown figure inside the house where she is caring for children. In the common version, she contacts the parents because the statue frightens her, and they reveal that no clown figure belongs there or instruct her to cover it. The r...

The Momo Challenge was a viral internet panic in 2018-2019, tied to a Japanese sculpture image and false claims of child self-harm prompts.