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Midnight / Candle / Mirror Myth & Bloody Mary Game

Definitely remember it as a playground myth. Never tried it. Busy playing with matches...

I think it would have been around in my years at junior school, so, urm 16-20yrs ago. Scarily.

Apocalypse Cow: I suspect this thread will find itself in Urban Legends / Folklore

IHTM is exclusively reserved for first-person accounts. Not a problem though! 8)
 
Ooops, can anyone move it for me....mods??? :D


Its similar to the "dial 666 and you'll get the Devil" :lol: :lol: its blatantly stupid, but still I wouldn't try it as I'd crap myself if anyone answered :lol: :oops: :oops:
 
A saying in german goes: "Don't draw the devil on the wall" [as he will appear], meaning don't tempt fate [from Goethe's Faust I seem to remember]. Anyway, being me, I drew a really nice devil on the wall; and did he appear?
Did he f....
 
(usless info bit :D )

iirc. when mirrors were first made with a silver backing, in venice. they were very expensive, and magical. so when not in use they were covered with material, as it was thought that using them to much would wear them out.

iircya. mirrors were (still are?) covered up, while a body was kept in the house, to stop the dead persons spirit residing in it.

hope this maybe possibly goes towards explaining the mirror/candle u/l?
 
melf said:
(usless info bit :D )

iirc. when mirrors were first made with a silver backing, in venice. they were very expensive, and magical. so when not in use they were covered with material, as it was thought that using them to much would wear them out.

I like that very much, it seems the same type of logic that causes me to have great difficulty not believing that if you tie a knot in the string of a helium balloon, you'll make it heavier.

I've heard the "see your true love if you brush your hair in a mirror at midnight with a candle lit" version, but I think it had to be halloween. Never tried it though, remind me this year!
 
I've heard this in various forms, memorably "Bloody mary" when I was at school. The ones with summoning up yr future lover have lots of variants, like baking cakes.
There's a Conan Doyle story where an accountant sees a pertinent scene from Scottish history unfolding night by night in a mirror which turns out to have been from - Holyrood! At the appropriate time.
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
In the version I heard at school, you were supposed to stand in front of the mirror and recite the lord's parayer backwards, then the devil would appear:eek:
.

That was the one we did in the girls toilets in primary 7 you also had to have your hands in the prayer position but pointing down the way rather than up. We started it and the wind rattled the toilet skylight, everybody got off their mark.
 
I would imagine that if you brush your hair while surrounded by candles, the next face you see will probably be a fireman with a big hose!

(Steady, girlies. I mean hosepipe before you rush off to buy the country's supply of candles.)
 
I've heard the tale of looking into a mirror in the dark at midnight and seeing your true love/future husband/so on. I think I read it in an Alvin Schwartz book (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and it's sequel, or perhaps one of his urban legend books).

Anyway, I decided to try it one night when I was a teen. Waited until midnight, went into the foyer where we had a halltree (erm, a big wooden thing with a large mirror, a bottom shelf, a small drawer, and a few coat hooks), turned off all the lights, and did or said whatever I was supposed to. I swear on my life that I saw a tall shadow step through the doorway from the kitchen into the dining room and start to move toward me reflected in the mirror. :shock:

Needless to say I fled to my room and didn't sleep for a while. I never tried that again.
 
apocalypse cow said:
"dial 666 and you'll get the Devil" :lol: :lol: its blatantly stupid, but still I wouldn't try it as I'd crap myself if anyone answered :lol: :oops: :oops:

:)

Just tried it, the phone just waited for me to dial more numbers (as i suspected), pity i fancy a chat with satan!

Im tempted to try the candle/mirror/midnight thing, its just remembering before midnight, i have a poor memory but ill get there, only i dont have any hair (shaved head), so perhaps an own goal there.
 
There's also the one about dialling GOD (463) to get a line to heaven.

Of course, that number's the same as INF which is often used for the Information Service...
 
Bloody Mary

Was does anyone think of this game? Anyone ever tried it?

Interesting to read about it and quite gruesome some of the stories. Thins like this have been said to have happened when her name getts called out.

The most common result- Bloody Mary (who is NOT a nice spirit) appears drenched in blood, reaches her arms out of the mirror towards you and scratches your eyes out or your face or your body.

The spirit appears in the mirror with a mauled decomposing face.

The spirit may strike you dead.

You may go insane.

Evil red eyes are seen in the mirror and sometimes the mirror and walls could bleed.

The spirit is said to be able to pull you through the mirror (I don't think anyone would enjoy this).

Some have said to run out of the bathroom with bleeding hands and scratches on them.

Many have run out terrified and will not speak of what happened.

There are plenty of stories of schoolgirls being found dead at school or dead in the restrooms with their eyes gouged out.

The spirit may slash all your friends throats then come after you.

You could be compelled to slash your own throat or your friends.

No one knows who exactly the spirit is as well and apparently people who have tried it at a really young age have got deep psyhcological fears of mirrors.

http://www.castleofspirits.com/bloodymary.html
 
Films like Candyman was taken off it, but wouldn't think the ring would be.
 
We had a wee discussion of it here

(link disabled as thread now merged - stu)
 
disgruntledgoth said:
I have seen bloody mary, but it was after drinking two many of the drink.

What is the drink like?

Scary thought of the legend though! :shock:
 
May 15, 2006

Trailer for Richard Valentine's BLOODY MARY, w/ Jaason Simmons, Matt Borlenghi, Danni Hamilton, Kim Tyler, Lauren Hammersley, et al.

(Posted In Film News Horror Trailer Alert USA and Canada )

The official website for Richard Valentine's horror-thriller Bloody Mary (working title was "Bloody Mary: Legend of the Mirror Witch") is online, although at present it's just a home page. Also, there's a downloadable trailer for the movie on the website of international sales agent Spotlight Pictures.

The screenplay for Bloody Mary was written by Valentine. According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), the movie stars Jaason Simmons as Dr. Daniels, Matt Borlenghi as Det. Bobby D'Errico, Danni Hamilton as Jenna, Kim Tyler as Natalie Fitzgerald, Anna Pippus as Hilary, Eero Johnson as 'Railroad', Troy Turi as Johnny, Christian Schrapff as 'Scooter', Brianne Wigeland as Shelby, Lindsay Marett as April, Amber Borycki as Tabitha, Jessica Lous as Nicole, Dex Manley as Luther, Jason Benson as Geoff, Richard Carmen as Dr. McCarty, Cory Monteith as Paul Zuckerman, and Lauren Hammersley as Mary Worth (a.k.a. 'Bloody Mary').

Here's a synopsis for Bloody Mary from the website of production company Valentine Entertainment: "'Bloody Mary... Bloody Mary....' Those words are chanted into a shattered mirror hidden in the depths of a long-forgotten underground labyrinth. An ancient evil is released from its mirror prison, and begins to extract revenge on those who have disturbed its slumber. ¶ A novelist from New York returns to her small hometown to search for her missing sister, who has fallen victim to Bloody Mary. She discovers a bizarre mystery that continues to claim the lives of those around her, hurtling her to a terrifying encounter with the Mirror Witch."

Here's a synopsis for Bloody Mary from Spotlight Pictures' website: "Late night, on the grounds of a psychiatric hospital, a group of beautiful young nursing assistants conduct a ritualistic hazing that spins horribly out of control when one of them is killed in the dark tunnels beneath the asylum. ¶ New York best-selling crime novelist Natalie Fitzgerald returns home when her sister is reported missing. Little does she know, the young women responsible have since realized the power of their sacrificial addiction, 'the mirror game'. They will stop at nothing to continue this seductive ritual."

Bloody Mary trailer (downloadable 7.6 MB MOV file)
Bloody Mary official website

www.twitchfilm.net/archives/006180.html
 
Bloody Mary Origins

I didn't see a thread actually devoted to Bloody Mary, so I wanted to start one here.

But the reason? According to Snopes, the origins to the Bloody Mary UL seem to be the 1970's.
The research into Bloody Mary goes Come to me . . . back to 1978, when folklorist Janet Langlois published her essay on the legend. Belief in summoning the mirror-witch was even at that time widespread throughout the U.S.

Mary is summoned whenever squealing girls get together for a sleepover, but boys have been known to call on her too. (The 'Bloody Mary' legend was common when I was a kid in the early 1970s. We typically performed the "ritual" in bathrooms, because the bathrooms of our suburban homes had large mirrors and were easily darkened even during the day since they had no windows. A familiar 'Bloody Mary' story was one about a girl who supposedly ended her incantation with a spiteful "I don't believe in Mary Worth," then tripped over the doorjamb while exiting the bathroom and broke her hip.)

But here is the interesting thing - I just got through watching an old episode of The Adventures of Superman with George Reeves. The episode, a scary one (or so I remembered it from being a wee one watching it on repeats in the 70's) involved Perry White being haunted by the ghost of Caesar. The reason? According to the ghost, it was because he used the explitive "Great Caesar's Ghost" over a million times, which allowed him to manifest.

This is the first time I know of that repeated use of a name would manifest a ghost.... could this episode of Superman have had an influence on the Bloody Mary legend? Possibly combining with older mirror folklore?
 
This is the first time I know of that repeated use of a name would manifest a ghost.... could this episode of Superman have had an influence on the Bloody Mary legend? Possibly combining with older mirror folklore?

A pretty interesting but also vague article here discusses possible origins for the bloody mary/mary worth and related legends. According to the author who is apparently working all this into book form it would appear that there is some evidence for these kind of legends to be based on confused interpretations of earlier mirror folklore.

Some people believe the Bloody Mary legend and all of its offshoots are mutated versions of these mirror rituals. Some of the modern stories even include aspects of the earlier traditions. A number of tales said you could use a small bowl of water instead of a mirror. Some versions claimed that you could call up the ghosts of any dead person by reciting their name the required number of times in the mirror. One person even mentioned that the reason for summoning Bloody Mary was so she could answer questions with her vast otherworldly knowledge, and that the most popular question was who you were going to marry. Another said calling Mary Worth in a mirror for some reason would show you an image of your future husband, though she could not explain why this might be other than Mary Worth was supposed to have been a witch who could cast spells for you of this kind.

One of the versions of the chant was simply, "Bloody mirror, bloody mirror, bloody mirror." This, and the idea that you were supposed to find out who you were going to marry, may have been all that was necessary to create the name Bloody Mary as the person you were summoning. Other aspects of the tales as well as related folklore both point to an even more complex origin.

However later on, he kinda vaguely mentions that the legend itself may simply have been invented by the catholic church in order to properly instil a fear of the devil in impressionable teens. No evidence that backa any of this up is presented mind you.
 
I should think the phrase and old belief of "Speak of the devil and he will come to you" has some influence on the UL. Apparently goes back as far as 1500 according to this page.
 
The most accepted story about the birth of the Bloody Mary begins in France. An American bartender named Fernand Petiot was working at Harry's New York Bar in Paris during the 1920s. One afternoon in 1926 he combined tomato juice and vodka in a glass full of ice. One of the bar patrons suggested he call the drink a Bloody Mary, because it reminded him of the Bucket of Blood Club in Chicago and a girl there named Mary.

Petiot moved back to New York and brought his Bloody Mary with him back to the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis in New York. But apparently the tomato juice and vodka combo wasn't spicy enough for New Yorkers. So Petiot added cayenne pepper, black pepper, lemon, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce.

But, there's another version of the story, especially if you ask George Jessel. His story is that he invented the Bloody Mary one morning in Palm Beach to cure a hangover. The bartender gave him some horrible vodka (apparently worse than a plastic handle of Popov) and George asked for some tomato juice, Worsterchestershire sauce and lemon to kill the taste of the vodka.

He passed it to his friend Mary to give her a taste, and she spilled it on her white dress and told George that he should call her "Bloody Mary."

source

Oh.... Uhm... not that Bloody Mary. Shame. ;) :oops:
 
Back when I was a Girl Scout in the early 1970s, we used to scare the bejesus out of ourselves with a similar ritual. We had to stand in a dark room in front of a mirror and repeat "I believe in Mary Worth" three times and her ghost was supposed to appear in the mirror. I have no idea who Mary Worth was meant to be--you don't worry about that stuff when you're a kid. Since your own reflection does look pretty freaky in the dark anyway, with a gang of nine-year-old girls geeing each other up and expecting Something Scary--well, it was :eek!!!!:
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
In the version I heard at school, you were supposed to stand in front of the mirror and recite the lord's parayer backwards, then the devil would appear:eek:

I always wondered about this. Should i say the words in reverse order or pronounce the letters backward, phonetically. What constitutes backwards?

.amen,
ever and ever for,
glory the and power the,
kindom the is thine for,
evil from us deliver but...

Doesn't sound too evil.

But try pronouncing this:

nema,
reve dna reve rof,
yrolg eht dna rewop eht,
modgnik eht si eniht rof,
live morf su reviled tub...

Now that gets better. "modgnik eht" and "live morf su reviled tub" could sound suitably sinister in a slow croaky voice...

Reviled tub... good username...
 
Where Else?

I hope this isn't too off-topic here (but I wouldn't know where else to post it).

A year or so back I came upon a first-person account by a woman who claimed that she walked into her bathroom one night, turned on the light, and when she looked into the mirror she saw not her own reflection but an international gathering of top-rank political bigwigs. (I most likely saved the account.)

After a few minutes the individuals at the meeting seemed to realize that they were being "viewed" and the scene blinked out of existence at that point with the mirror thereafter reflecting normally.

I'm not saying that I neccessrily believe this one, but it had a certain "creep" factor that resonated with me.
 
Gunnlod said:
Back when I was a Girl Scout in the early 1970s, we used to scare the bejesus out of ourselves with a similar ritual. We had to stand in a dark room in front of a mirror and repeat "I believe in Mary Worth" three times and her ghost was supposed to appear in the mirror. I have no idea who Mary Worth was meant to be--you don't worry about that stuff when you're a kid. Since your own reflection does look pretty freaky in the dark anyway, with a gang of nine-year-old girls geeing each other up and expecting Something Scary--well, it was :eek!!!!:

One I remember from school, about half a mile away from the school was a large graveyard. In one section of the graveyard was a large stone 'table', locally called 'The Devil's Table' it was quite big, about 6 feet across.
It had no decoration, or markings, just a big old stone table.

The story went that if you went there at a certain time of night (probably midnight) ran round the table a certain number of times and said something (my memory has failed at this point for the exact words) then the devil himself would appear on the table.
I can't say I was ever interested enough to try it though.
 
Ooh that reminds me of a story my mother told me about my nan who was born in 1896 so this would have been early 1900s.

Apparently she (my nan) and some friends snuck out of their houses and walked widdershins 3 times around a local church at midnight.

This was apparently to summon the devil who would then appear in the church. My nan being the bravest went to open the church door and was pricked (no doubt a splinter from the wooden door) but thought that the devil had stuck his pitchfork in her hand. She screamed and the kids all fled in various directions thinking the devil had 'got' my nan!
 
TheQuixote said:
This was apparently to summon the devil who would then appear in the church. My nan being the bravest went to open the church door and was pricked (no doubt a splinter from the wooden door) but thought that the devil had stuck his pitchfork in her hand. She screamed and the kids all fled in various directions thinking the devil had 'got' my nan!

One of my favourite legends in this vein revolves around the grave of supposed demon/vampire/evil landowner/Hound of the Baskervilles inspiration, Richard Cabell, which is located in the grounds of (now sadly burnt to the ground) Buckfastleigh church in Devon. The idea is that you walk around the outside of the tomb 3 times (though some versions claim 7 or as many as 13) before putting your finger in the keyhole of the tomb door. Cabell (sometimes the devil himself) is supposed to bite the tip of your finger off. There are photos of me as a kid standing proudly with my finger in the lock. I can't say I was ever bitten, but my dad was careful to only ever walk us around the tomb once, just in case.
 
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