I watched that episode in a dark room at 2:00 a.m. my grandmother had just passed away and I had her Victorian era full length mirror in my room. At some point I started to get creeped out and I had to turn the lights on and cover the mirror with a sheet. I felt mildly embarrassed because I was a full adult when I did this 👻
"You have to say her name anywhere from 3 to 100 times" "A few tales even specify you have to run water, flush the toilet or spin around 3 times" "And in some versions of the legend, you even have to offer your own blood" Damn, inflation got even Bloody Mary increasing her prices.
I think the more popular she became, what with all the sleepovers trying to get her, she had to increase her prices. She can't be everywhere at once. Okay, now I'm imagining a series where all the supernatural occurrences are just simple jobs, and Mary's just an overworked lady having to attend the calls of multiple sleepovers. She always has to rush to each mirror portal, and then take a second to assume character, frighten the kid, only to run to another mirror portal to do it all over again. Title it like: *_Being a Scary Supernatural Entity is a Chore!_*
Seriously!!! Have it like a call center in an office building and a room full of cubicles with mirrors in each one and different departments. Bloody Mary in one department, candyman, the magic mirror from Snow White…
when we were kids we all tried to summon bloody mary by chanting her name in the mirror and none of us ever actually saw her but the fact is she had quite a packed schedule and can only visit a few kids a night. Also, she's a union worker and entitled to a 30 minute lunch and a smoke break every 2 hours. she's retired now and her job has been outsourced to a call center in the phillipines.
Historically, the divination ritual encouraged young women to walk up a flight of stairs backward holding a candle and a hand mirror, in a darkened house. As they gazed into the mirror, they were supposed to be able to catch a view of their future husband's face.
I honestly did try the Bloody Mary ritual when I was in middle school. I was alone in the bathroom at school and the light switch was right next to the mirror closest to the door. I did the chant, flicked off the light and a heartbeat later a dark shape seemed to grow coming closer to me in the mirror. I remember apologizing as I bolted out the door and practically ran back to my class. Thank you for jogging my memory! I love you videos Dr. Z!
I like how when you do stare into a mirror (in low light) it doesn't take long before your brain starts...Making stuff up. It can be freaky. Couple that with pareidolia, our blind spots, rapid eye movement, and you have a great basis for a scary myth.
In the 1800s there lived a young girl named Mary. An illiness washed over the place where they lived, making people drop dead after a short period of time
Most of these monsters don't scare me, but Bloody Mary never fails to freak me out, even on a sunny day. To this day I still refuse to look in mirrors in the dark.
Elizabeth Báthory, a 17th-century Hungarian countess who allegedly tortured and killed around 660 girls and women, bathed in their blood, and was accused of vampirism
Can you please do an episode that explores the view of bats as monsters and their bad reputation like you did with sharks? I'd love another misunderstood animal to have some light be shined on.
to be fair i don't think it's that complex, a lot of bats look like their face got caught in a lawn mower and some of them drink blood. if most bats were the size of fruit-eating bats i'm pretty certain we would have wiped them out long ago just because we couldn't stand the horror of having them around.
I still relish the look on my daughter's face when she came home from a sleepover and asked me if Bloody Mary was real, and I replied 'Oh Yes!'... and then explained about Mary Tudor of England. Almost as good as the time I told her I didn't believe in ghosts because I'd seen too many of them - and then explained sleep paralysis, which I'm occasionally subject to. 😆
There's a real phenomenon where starting at the same spot on your face in a dimly lit mirror causes your mind to slowly distort the image. As I recall, the explanation is a combo of dim lights and refusing to move your eyes, preventing your brain from reseting the image it sees. It's freaky fun, and I wonder if it's part of the Bloody Mary effect. Chanting a name 100 times would be more than long enough to start seeing things.
We did this in the 70s and early 80s. Our version was a teenager that was royalty and fell in love with commoner. Her family placed her in a windowless room with a bed, some books, some personal items, and a mirror. She had a slit in the door for food, drink, and a chamber pot. She died looking into the mirror. She supposedly came and helped with your TRUE love...and it better be true or she would haunt you forever.
I actually have a story I plan to write one day that has a glass sword containing the soul of Bloody Mary. I've become obsessed with urban legends and creepy monsters since last year. Glad I found this channel.
@TheEndKing Go for it man. My story is basically entirely made of prexisting fairy tales, urban legends, mythologies, and other public domain stuff anyway.
@Hannah Brennan Thank you for the kind words. But sadly, I have a lot of stuff under my belt, and I haven't even finished college, so it's probably not coming out for many years.
The fact that I'm watching this in the middle of the night with no lights on and a mirror beside the bathroom door where my bed is just next to is almost like somebody is already watching me. Add the creepy sound effects
When I was in first grade, a boy in my class started talking about Bloody Mary and we decided to play it in the school bathroom. He went to the boy's bathroom, and I went to the girl's and we both tried to summon Bloody Mary. During recess, we lied and told each other of the horrors we had seen in the school bathroom mirror. We were so full of crap.
Also when using a mirror for some sort of ritual, you also have to be using a very specific kind of mirror, and that is one that is actually backed by silver. Silver was said to draw or attract spirits, which is why mirrors were often veiled after a death, so that you didn't accidentally trap or hinder a passing family member on their way to the afterlife. This is also why some people would actively avoid having their pictures taken back in the day, as the mechanisms inside old fashioned cameras were made of silver, and thus were believed to potentially snip away a piece of your soul when capturing the image in the picture. Most modern mirrors are made by chemical effect, as specific acids are poured over the back of regular glass and thus create a mirror finish, thus you wouldn't be able to actually pull a spirit like Mary to your standard mirror, if you believe in such things.
@@spaceylacey83 I was explaining the folklore significance of silver backed mirrors. If a true blue occultist was going to try summoning Bloody Mary they wouldn't be using a conventional medicine cabinet mirror was all I was saying.
@@robertgronewold3326 I've heard that that's reason why vampires can't see their own reflection in the mirror, because back in the day mirrors were made out of silver.
I find the "running water" element interesting! If you do it with hot water, that'll add some condensation to the mirror, making it even more likely to see something in it. Also this video got a little bit scarier when I watched it in front of the mirror, brushing my teeth while I was running a night time bath. Thank you for not saying her name three times in a row in that video!
A friend of mine wanted to summon her. Me, him and one other friend went to the bathroom at our school to do it. Mind you, we were 17 and all male, but me and the other friend knew, that wannabe summoner is easily scared and this situation just called for a prank. Summoner said her name three times with his eyes closed, opened them, sighed in relief that no ghost is with us... and then I said loudly: "She is behind me!" Never would I have though that an adolescent male is able to scream like a little girl.
My mom tells this story that when she was in like 7th grade, she was at a sleepover and some of the girls were talking about the Mary Worth legend while they were all lying around in their sleeping bags. Then, some of the other girls went into the bathroom to try summoning Mary Worth, but my mom was still lying in her sleeping bag, so when the girls in the bathroom finished chanting Mary Worth's name, my mom said "I'M HERE" in a creepy voice, and the other girls started screaming.
The origins of Bloody Mary I grew up with was that she was the daughter of a plantation family and when she "died" she was actually in a coma. They buried her and when her mother died a couple weeks later of a broken heart, they opened up Mary's coffin to find she had scratched up the inside of the coffin and was covered in her own blood. I think I also heard one along the same lines, but she was in a coma because she fell out a window.
Recently I played the game "The Wolf Among Us". Bloody Mary is a villian in this and I wondered where this myth (or fable) was coming from. And here you are giving me the answer :D
At my school (in the UK) it was a specific school bathroom, we also thought that bloody Mary was Mary I. We lived near a town which had several protestant martyrs so maybe that had something to do with it
I love Bloody Mary! Really fun memories playing that. Be careful not to stand too close to the mirror, though. If you feel any hands on your back, turn the lights on as quickly as you can.
Here in Brazil we call her "Maria Sangrenta" no more changes other than the name but we also have the more popular variation "Loira do Banheiro" ("Bathroom Blonde") which is just a blonde Bloody Mary except she must be summoned in a school bathroom.
I love Bloody Mary. One of the dumbest, and most protracted myths in the world but damn if she hasn't got staying power. She taps into the natural nervy feeling of something in the dark, a little bit of seeing human faces in nothing and the need for a little daring. There is a wicked (but really hefty) book called Phantoms of the Brain. Whenever she is discussed I just think of her in neurological terms.
Bloody Mary was a huge part of my childhood. Like, kids in my elementary school were so obsessed with it. I swear every month or year there was a new rumor/story of some girl being put into the hospital covered in scratches and cuts after doing the ritual. During a camping trip in grade 7 or 8 all the girls in my class did a ritual where everyone got into a circle and chanted her name 100 times. I obviously wanted nothing to do with it so I stayed in my bad lol.
I wouldn't quote myself on this, but here is Slovakia where i grew up, the Bloody Mary ritual dare was often further melded with a different historical figure, Elizabeth Báthory. I remember distinctly that the ghost bring summoned was specifically hers, given she's become a sort of a folk figure due to having been accused of being a serial killer, which later after her death grew into a large rumor of her killing young virgins to bathe in their blood to sustain her own youth. I can't recall hearing how she was being described tho, weather mangled or beautiful
There are similar urban legends like the Bloody Mary. Here in Brazil we have the bathroom blonde that works almost the same way as the Blody Mary legend. And in Japan they have the Hanako of the bathroom ghost that is really similar too.
It's so surreal to see a story like this. Something that's all pervasive and widely known, but so generic too. Everyone knows her, but they all know a different version of her.
The Bloody Mary legend absolutely terrified me as a kid. I don't remember my friends telling me any involved back story about her, just that she'd appear in the mirror after saying her name three times, her face pale, her eyes bleeding, and she'd attack you and try to claw out your eyes. Honestly, not knowing who she was or what motivated her only made her seem that much scarier. Mary lived in my head rent free for years, to the point where I wouldn't even look at mirrors in the dark, convinced that if I even *thought* her name she'd appear. I also made sure to sleep with my back to the big mirror in my bedroom, just in case. Luckily I grew out of that fear, and in my teen years Bloody Mary became more of a fascination to me, along with most other creepy urban legends. It was a lot of fun pouring over early Snopes till the wee hours of the morning, reading about all these legends, their many variations, and how they might have originated.
Growing up, the story was that you had to have a cup of water and tap it with something (usually a pencil but other stuff worked too) while saying "Bloody Mary come to me" 3 times, and she'd appear in the mirror. But you had to be sure that neither the cup or the object has any red on it or she'd attack you.
In the one we did growing up, one kid had to go flush the toilet repeatedly, another flicked the lights off and on, and the other kid stood at the mirror chanting bloody Mary while either turning around or turning the faucet off and on. It was a whole coordinated activity
Stand in front of the mirror together in the dark with ONE lit candle, face your reflections, and slowly say the phrase in unison: “Biggie, Biggie, Biggie, can’t you see, sometimes your eyes just hypnotize me.” Now count to eleven in your heads (it’s important to be remain silent for this part) and watch carefully to see if anybody’s reflection starts moving on its own. This is really fun to do with friends. Be careful, though. If any of the reflections start reaching towards you, blow out the candle immediately.
Nah, the really scary one is chanting "IRS" fast ten times in a row, and if you get it wrong, they'll show up for audit. . . . Actually, I lied. You're caught in a trap now because you read this message. If you don't spread this message to ten of your friends, you will get audited and prosecuted for back taxes. . . . Happy tax season 🙃
the mary wales story reminds me of a ghost story my summer camp used to tell. it was the one where someone picks up a hitchihker in the rain and after giving directions and talking for a bit, they disappear, but leave an item in the car. the driver gives the item to the person at the door of the house they were directed to, but the owner is either the hitchhikers family, or a new owner. the hitchhiker died years before in a storm just like the one happening in the story. ooooo spoooookyyyyyy. oh yeah thats the vanishing hitchhiker story lol
I grew up in a house from 1916, and there was an upstairs small powder room with a very old mirror badly in need of resilvering. It was the perfect setting for attempts at contacting Bloody Mary at sleepovers.
Every time I hear of Bloody Mary I have to tell this story: Now, it didn't happen to me, but I was partially a witness to an attempt at the "game". When I was in High School, our school had two floors: the second floor was basically from 9th Grade to Seniors, and the first was for the younger students. It was lunch time, and I went to the bathroom at the second floor (This year I was in 10th Grade.) and after washing up, as I was leaving, I noticed two girls I haven't met come in saying stuff like "OK, so do we go 'Mary Bloody' and do a cycle, or just say it certain amount of times?" I kinda knew where they were going, and they waited until I finished washing my hands before closing the windows, shutting off the light, and closing the door. I thought nothing of it and went back to hang out with my friends before lunch break was over. When we went back to class, one of my more gossipy classmates said that two girls from Middle School were playing Bloody Mary in the upstairs bathroom, and that they came out looking super pale and in a nasty state of shock. Guess who the two girls I passed by in the bathroom were? Yup. I don't know what the heck they saw that day, but I'm thankful they waited to be alone before doing this ^_^0
In the version I heard first, Bloody Mary not only pulls you into the mirror, she then exits the mirror, takes on your appearance, and lives out the rest of your life as the new you while you take hers as the new Bloody Mary. I think it was also said or at least implied that you couldn't escape just by turning on the lights; once you summoned her your fate was sealed. That scared me out of ever wanting to try the ritual ever in my life. I still don't know if I could.
The bit about her being someone burned at the stake at Salem is definitely a part of the tale that's grown in the telling. No one was burned during the Salem Witch Trials, they were all hanged. Except Giles Corey, who was pressed to death by piling rocks on top of him, because he refused to plead guilty or not guilty. He knew if he did the local government would seize his property, so he willingly submitted to this torture that killed him to ensure his sons received their inheritance. His final words were "More weight."
I remember the afternoon I was horrified when I saw Bloody Mary's hideous visage in bathroom mirror. And then I realized it was because I had four Bloody Marys at brunch and was actually looking at myself.
Lol! I actually tried to find the exact time Mary Queen of Scotts started getting called Bloody Mary and couldn't find it. Now this episode answers my question and also gives me the age of the children's game. Thanks!
This is a terrific episode. I love how this series always takes origins, variations, and cultural implications of monsters into account, and this episode is a perfect example. Exploring why we have these monsters and which functions they serve is so interesting.
One variation on the Bloody Mary legend that I learned as a kid was that there was also a dead baby involved. (Either she had killed her own baby and was subsequently executed, or her husband had killed them both, I can't remember.) If you held your arms out as if holding a child while chanting Bloody Mary's name, you might feel the weight of the baby in your hands.
One of my strongest childhood memories was going into the bathroom to summon her after being dared to lmao My version was: name three times, spin three times, face mirror, "Bloody Mary I summon thee"
I came across an article many, many years ago about children in Florida (I think it was specifically foster children but I might have that detail incorrect) who developed a whole extra mythology around Bloody Mary and her opposition to the Virgin Mary (who I think might've been referred to as the Blue Lady?). I need to see if I can track this down again because I'm mangling it here.
@@Vox-Multis I managed to track it down (and thought I posted it here), but unfortunately in doing that I also discovered that the whole article is widely considered to be a fabrication. The article, originally published in the 90s in a Miami indie newspaper, was called "Myths Over Miami." Apparently it has become something of an Internet sensation at various points since then but there's never been a follow-up or any corroborating work.
One of the most famous urban legends of all times, I'm glad you covered it and I hope some more of these are coming. Since you've mentioned her, I would love an episode on the Vanishing Hitchhiker. Anyway, I say that the fact you are "in control" of summoning Bloody Mary kind of makes her scarier because it becomes a battle against your self control and reason.
Here in Brazil we have the "Loira do Banheiro", literaly translated to "the blonde of the bathroom", which is a young blond woman dressed in white and with cotton inside her nose, as if having walked out of the morgue. She is summoned just like Blood Mary (including the many different versions) but the most known (as far as I am aware) is calling YOUR OWN name to the mirror. In here, she is linked to a young girl born at the end of the 19th century, Maria Augusta de Oliveira Braga, who was forced to marry a much older man when she was 14 and that ran away to Paris at 18. She then dies at 26, for unknown reasons, and her mother decides to bring her body back and, until her tomb was built, was kept in a glass coffin at their family home. ...then the mother decided NOT to bury her after all, until there were many visions of her asking to be. Years later, at 1902, the family home is turned into a school. There were already rumors of a ghost walking the hallways, but it got stronger after a fire in 1916, and now the ghost is also seen opening faucets due to a severe thirst and begging to be buried.
I remember the huge ARG Universal Studios Orlando built around Bloody Mary for Halloween Horror Nights 18. There, her origin was reimagined as Dr. Mary Agana, a young New York psychologist who, in 1958, proposed a radical new form of exposure therapy for the treatment of crippling phobias. As more and more patients came into her private clinic however, fewer and fewer came out. It turns out that Dr. Agana was using the sessions to drive her patients to madness and death, for her own perverse pleasure as she slowly began losing her mind, watching her patients suffer and die from behind a two-way mirror (like what police use in interrogation rooms). A NYC P.I. confronted her one night, and the only things the police found in the morning were a trashe office, a shattered mirrior, and blood splatted _everywhere._ Dr. Agana's body was never found. The goal of the game was to identify the victims, uncover their hidden connections, and follow clues in the park that could uncover what happened to Mary Agana. th-cam.com/video/cSeAjMDcClU/w-d-xo.html
Bloody Mary is probably my first brush with conscious skepticism. The ritual went through my middle school around 1990 to the point that there was an assembly where the principal told us to knock it TF off (probably some idiot parent complained). I drew a picture of a hag and showed one of the girls who really bought into it, and she was all, "Oh my God, you've seen her! You've seen her!" Of course I hadn't seen a damn thing.
Here in Brazil we have our adaptation of the Legend of Blood Mary. But before sharing the legend here, let me tell you that I LOVE the Channel SO MUCH! 💖👻🧙♀🦄 I have been following you for a few years now! MONSTRUM, along with FATE & FABL are my Favorites (I've watched each video a dozen times). Now back to the legend... Here in Brazil we have 'the Blonde (or woman) of the Bathroom'. She is basically the Blood Mary, but in the legends of Brazil she does not have a specific name. The invocation must be done in the bathroom, with the lights off and in front of the mirror. And instead of invoking her by name, one must flush, or turn the faucet on and off (3 times). Depending on the region of Brazil, there are subtle changes in her appearance or invocation, but the essence of the legend is the same. That's it, I LOVE YOU FOLKS!! 💖
Here in Brazil we have our own versions of Bloody Mary, whose names can change from region to region: Loira do Banheiro (Blond Girl of the Bathroom), Mulher do Algodão or Maria do Algodão (Cottom Woman or Cottom Mary) and Maria Degolada (Beheaded Mary). I think the main difference from the rituals of the USA is that normally they can only be done at school bathrooms and normally involve opening and closing the sink while looking at the mirror or flushing the toilet 3 times before turning at the mirror. Very interesring how this folklore can spread so widely and gain so many regional variations.
I learned the spin around 3 times, in a dark bathroom, alone version. I've never liked mirrors at night/in the dark & this myth sure didn't help 😣 Also we had to chant "bloody mary I have your baby".
In the version I grew up with, the chant was, "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, let me see your baby." I'm surprised you didn't mention anything about the baby, but maybe it's less common than I realized. Did anyone else have an experience like that?
I've never tried that, but it does make sense if we consider the version that I grew up with: That Bloody Mary is the ghost of Mary Tudor. There is evidence that she did have a phantom pregnancy during her reign, though I forget exactly which year. Then, five years into her reign she died of what likely was ovarian cancer.
I've read there's a variant that goes "Bloody Mary, I killed your baby." Either one is probably more than enough to seriously piss off the ghost of a grieving (would-be?) mother. Can hardly blame her for wanting to claw your eyes out. Funny thing... I was sort of muttering to myself as I recalled this, and I got as far as "Bloody Mary, I..." Then I felt the need to stop myself mid-sentence. Just in case.
This was really interesting. Growing up in rural NH, the Bloody Mary story was tied to Queen Mary for us. We thought it was her ghost that would appear in the mirror.
What I just wish I could see you create is an episode on dinosaur monster movies and the impact created by Jurassic Park. You can also break down your favorite dinosaur movie in the video.
I would love to hear your guys’ versions of this tale! In the version I heard, you run the bath and chant her name 3 times into the mirror. She then picks you up and drowns you in the bath!!!
I think one reason why bathrooms are the preferred hunting ground of this ghost is because they’re usually small with very little big pieces of furniture. There’s also usually only one door. This makes it difficult to run or hide.
I remember we were on the school bus and we were talking about the legend. We started doing the chant when another kid got on and asked if we all drank.
When I was a kid we were told to summon Bloody Mary by standing in a darkened, but not fully dark, bathroom & yell "Bloody Murder" at the mirror. Some folks said you had to chant "bloody murder" before yelling it or saying it in a whisper 2x then yelling it.
In the 90s, my dad and his friends were driving back home from a night out at a bar in the next town over. They spotted a woman in a white dress on the side of the road. They stopped to ask her if she wanted to join them, and when the woman proceeded to look up at them directly, her face transformed into an old woman's face. They quickly drove off after that. My mom says that's what they get for having bad intentions
That awesome analysis about the paralelisms beween bloodymary and female puberty makes me wonder how much we may project our subconciousness onto seemengly random inventions.
Still haven’t tried it. Even there is a good chance ghosts aren’t real, I’m not gonna become the skeptic protagonist of this horror movie. No thank you.
Speaking of the Salem Witch Trials, you should do a video on that. They were executed by hanging and one of them was pressed to death. I'm related to Rebecca Nurse so if you did a video about that...that would be great.
Bloody Mary also appears in the video game Infamous: Festival of Blood, in which she's depicted as a vampire & serves as the big bad villain of the story, she is even the one who turned the game's protagonist Cole into a vampire, and he has only one night to stop her before he becomes her puppet forever.
I sold obsidian mirrors for scrying at the occult shops I worked at. Supposedly John Dee, Queen Elizabeth's court magician (among other things like mathematician) used one.
There was a book of short ghost stories I would read as a young teenager that included Bloody Mary picture which always freaked me out, even at that age.
There is a phenomena that happens if you stare into in a dimly lit mirror long enough (especially with a candle that may flicker the image). Your reflection may start to change or make faces at you, grin etc. It will happen naturally, but psychedelics can really intensify this effect - the last time I remember clearly (at least a decade ago) was my face taking on an ape-like , caveman look, the stubble on my face appearing long, my forehead and jaw distorting. Other times I have seen myself grin or stick my tongue out at at me.
Uh oh, Dr. Zarka, don't look in the mirror behind you, I think you said her name a few too many times! 🤣 I remember this being a big thing in elementary school, in primary grades, pre-puberty. And that she was very firmly the ghost of Queen Mary. Running the water was part of the ritual, and she apparently specifically haunted our school (in Canada) for some inexplicable reason, haha.
The version I was told went like this: Mary was a young mother that went to an amusement park with her baby. Some unknown creep snatched the kid and ran into the hall of mirrors. Mary followed and the guy pushes a mirror on top of her which slices up her face and kills her. So you chant "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, I'm the one that took your baby". Anyone else ever heard this variant?
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I remember the episode of Supernatural where they had issues chasing her down because of how all over the place the lore is. Great video, Dr. Z!
I remember that one!
One of the best episodes!
Please make a video of the dobhar-chu and cat-sith.
"Dude, your confusing reality with porn again"
I watched that episode in a dark room at 2:00 a.m. my grandmother had just passed away and I had her Victorian era full length mirror in my room. At some point I started to get creeped out and I had to turn the lights on and cover the mirror with a sheet. I felt mildly embarrassed because I was a full adult when I did this 👻
"You have to say her name anywhere from 3 to 100 times"
"A few tales even specify you have to run water, flush the toilet or spin around 3 times"
"And in some versions of the legend, you even have to offer your own blood"
Damn, inflation got even Bloody Mary increasing her prices.
I think the more popular she became, what with all the sleepovers trying to get her, she had to increase her prices. She can't be everywhere at once.
Okay, now I'm imagining a series where all the supernatural occurrences are just simple jobs, and Mary's just an overworked lady having to attend the calls of multiple sleepovers. She always has to rush to each mirror portal, and then take a second to assume character, frighten the kid, only to run to another mirror portal to do it all over again.
Title it like:
*_Being a Scary Supernatural Entity is a Chore!_*
Instead of blood, you could offer some vodka & tomato juice: that might pacify her...
@@jocosesonatathat's an anime I would watch for sure! (Because that is 100% an anime title lol)
Ba Dum, Ching!
Seriously!!! Have it like a call center in an office building and a room full of cubicles with mirrors in each one and different departments. Bloody Mary in one department, candyman, the magic mirror from Snow White…
Loved the added touch of having Bloody Mary appear in the mirror on the backdrop when you said her name at the end.
We love those little Easter eggs-*Dr.Z*
Indeed! I scrolled down the comments to check if anyone had already noticed it. Good eye!
also here to see if anyone noticed! Glad it wasnt missed
I won't lie, I yelped when I saw it haha
Great detail to add!
Ooh, good catch! Now I feel like I have to watch the video again and count how many times Dr. Z says, "Bloody Mary."
when we were kids we all tried to summon bloody mary by chanting her name in the mirror and none of us ever actually saw her but the fact is she had quite a packed schedule and can only visit a few kids a night. Also, she's a union worker and entitled to a 30 minute lunch and a smoke break every 2 hours.
she's retired now and her job has been outsourced to a call center in the phillipines.
At school, some of us succeeded. I had a few experiences with her, not in the form of figures in the mirror, but in sounds.
Makes sense 🤷🏼♂️ as far as I know the new popular sleepover trend is red door yellow door
Historically, the divination ritual encouraged young women to walk up a flight of stairs backward holding a candle and a hand mirror, in a darkened house. As they gazed into the mirror, they were supposed to be able to catch a view of their future husband's face.
That call center joke got me as a Filipino. LOL.
😂😂😂
I honestly did try the Bloody Mary ritual when I was in middle school. I was alone in the bathroom at school and the light switch was right next to the mirror closest to the door. I did the chant, flicked off the light and a heartbeat later a dark shape seemed to grow coming closer to me in the mirror. I remember apologizing as I bolted out the door and practically ran back to my class. Thank you for jogging my memory! I love you videos Dr. Z!
Ok...definitely not going to do it then. You ok? :'(
You apologizing made me smile.
There is some debate on the identification of Bloody Mary and if she is based on a real woman.
I like how when you do stare into a mirror (in low light) it doesn't take long before your brain starts...Making stuff up. It can be freaky. Couple that with pareidolia, our blind spots, rapid eye movement, and you have a great basis for a scary myth.
In the 1800s there lived a young girl named Mary. An illiness washed over the place where they lived, making people drop dead after a short period of time
Most of these monsters don't scare me, but Bloody Mary never fails to freak me out, even on a sunny day. To this day I still refuse to look in mirrors in the dark.
Elizabeth Báthory, a 17th-century Hungarian countess who allegedly tortured and killed around 660 girls and women, bathed in their blood, and was accused of vampirism
Can you please do an episode that explores the view of bats as monsters and their bad reputation like you did with sharks? I'd love another misunderstood animal to have some light be shined on.
to be fair i don't think it's that complex, a lot of bats look like their face got caught in a lawn mower and some of them drink blood.
if most bats were the size of fruit-eating bats i'm pretty certain we would have wiped them out long ago just because we couldn't stand the horror of having them around.
Not all cultures see them as monsters. Chinese cultures view them as lucky. The more bats, the better.
Please make a video of the dobhar-chu and cat-sith.
Idk, bats can carry diseases.
I think they are cute, though. Worth the rabies.
@@R.Merkhet mosquitoes, on the other hand...
I still relish the look on my daughter's face when she came home from a sleepover and asked me if Bloody Mary was real, and I replied 'Oh Yes!'... and then explained about Mary Tudor of England. Almost as good as the time I told her I didn't believe in ghosts because I'd seen too many of them - and then explained sleep paralysis, which I'm occasionally subject to. 😆
There's a real phenomenon where starting at the same spot on your face in a dimly lit mirror causes your mind to slowly distort the image. As I recall, the explanation is a combo of dim lights and refusing to move your eyes, preventing your brain from reseting the image it sees. It's freaky fun, and I wonder if it's part of the Bloody Mary effect. Chanting a name 100 times would be more than long enough to start seeing things.
We did this in the 70s and early 80s. Our version was a teenager that was royalty and fell in love with commoner. Her family placed her in a windowless room with a bed, some books, some personal items, and a mirror. She had a slit in the door for food, drink, and a chamber pot. She died looking into the mirror. She supposedly came and helped with your TRUE love...and it better be true or she would haunt you forever.
A murderous spirit said to appear in the mirror when her name is chanted, Bloody Mary may be inspired by the infamous Tudor Queen Mary I
I actually have a story I plan to write one day that has a glass sword containing the soul of Bloody Mary. I've become obsessed with urban legends and creepy monsters since last year. Glad I found this channel.
That sounds really cool! I'd read that!
Well I'm going to steal this for D&D. Thank you.
@TheEndKing Go for it man. My story is basically entirely made of prexisting fairy tales, urban legends, mythologies, and other public domain stuff anyway.
@Hannah Brennan Thank you for the kind words. But sadly, I have a lot of stuff under my belt, and I haven't even finished college, so it's probably not coming out for many years.
@@CeHee123 No rush. I can wait. :)
Never really understood the whole blood Mary thing so your video came in a good time.
The fact that I'm watching this in the middle of the night with no lights on and a mirror beside the bathroom door where my bed is just next to is almost like somebody is already watching me. Add the creepy sound effects
👀
i can see you
@@pbsstoried bloody Mary : 🇬🇧 united kingdom room mirror blood ghost witch woman scratching eyes blood people not eye
Mary Tudor (Mary I of England), who put many Protestants to death for heresy, giving her the nickname "Bloody Mary.
When I was in first grade, a boy in my class started talking about Bloody Mary and we decided to play it in the school bathroom. He went to the boy's bathroom, and I went to the girl's and we both tried to summon Bloody Mary. During recess, we lied and told each other of the horrors we had seen in the school bathroom mirror. We were so full of crap.
Also when using a mirror for some sort of ritual, you also have to be using a very specific kind of mirror, and that is one that is actually backed by silver. Silver was said to draw or attract spirits, which is why mirrors were often veiled after a death, so that you didn't accidentally trap or hinder a passing family member on their way to the afterlife. This is also why some people would actively avoid having their pictures taken back in the day, as the mechanisms inside old fashioned cameras were made of silver, and thus were believed to potentially snip away a piece of your soul when capturing the image in the picture. Most modern mirrors are made by chemical effect, as specific acids are poured over the back of regular glass and thus create a mirror finish, thus you wouldn't be able to actually pull a spirit like Mary to your standard mirror, if you believe in such things.
Nah, the bloody Mary effect happened on my normal mirror. It's occurring in the brain so the material of the mirror doesn't really matter.
@@spaceylacey83 I was explaining the folklore significance of silver backed mirrors. If a true blue occultist was going to try summoning Bloody Mary they wouldn't be using a conventional medicine cabinet mirror was all I was saying.
@@spaceylacey83You ok?
@@dubuyajay9964 of course. It's an optical illusion.
@@robertgronewold3326 I've heard that that's reason why vampires can't see their own reflection in the mirror, because back in the day mirrors were made out of silver.
I find the "running water" element interesting! If you do it with hot water, that'll add some condensation to the mirror, making it even more likely to see something in it.
Also this video got a little bit scarier when I watched it in front of the mirror, brushing my teeth while I was running a night time bath. Thank you for not saying her name three times in a row in that video!
Bloody Mary used mirrors to help her locate and enchant her victims, and she cursed all mirrors when the villagers executed her
A friend of mine wanted to summon her. Me, him and one other friend went to the bathroom at our school to do it. Mind you, we were 17 and all male, but me and the other friend knew, that wannabe summoner is easily scared and this situation just called for a prank.
Summoner said her name three times with his eyes closed, opened them, sighed in relief that no ghost is with us... and then I said loudly: "She is behind me!"
Never would I have though that an adolescent male is able to scream like a little girl.
My mom tells this story that when she was in like 7th grade, she was at a sleepover and some of the girls were talking about the Mary Worth legend while they were all lying around in their sleeping bags. Then, some of the other girls went into the bathroom to try summoning Mary Worth, but my mom was still lying in her sleeping bag, so when the girls in the bathroom finished chanting Mary Worth's name, my mom said "I'M HERE" in a creepy voice, and the other girls started screaming.
Mary's parents decided to visit a neighbor's house. While they were gone Mary woke up and started ringing the bell, but her parents weren't
The origins of Bloody Mary I grew up with was that she was the daughter of a plantation family and when she "died" she was actually in a coma. They buried her and when her mother died a couple weeks later of a broken heart, they opened up Mary's coffin to find she had scratched up the inside of the coffin and was covered in her own blood. I think I also heard one along the same lines, but she was in a coma because she fell out a window.
The roots of the mirror game known as Bloody Mary stretch back to a folk tradition practiced by young people in the 19th century
Recently I played the game "The Wolf Among Us". Bloody Mary is a villian in this and I wondered where this myth (or fable) was coming from. And here you are giving me the answer :D
At my school (in the UK) it was a specific school bathroom, we also thought that bloody Mary was Mary I. We lived near a town which had several protestant martyrs so maybe that had something to do with it
I find it funny that her persecution of people for religious reasons was totally ignored as one of the reasons she's known as "bloody Mary "
As an American I read this with alittle British voice in my head
That's the version I heard...
I love Bloody Mary! Really fun memories playing that.
Be careful not to stand too close to the mirror, though. If you feel any hands on your back, turn the lights on as quickly as you can.
Here in Brazil we call her "Maria Sangrenta" no more changes other than the name but we also have the more popular variation "Loira do Banheiro" ("Bathroom Blonde") which is just a blonde Bloody Mary except she must be summoned in a school bathroom.
I came here to write about this! I'd be interested to know how the legend came to Brazil and why our Monster isa blonde!
I love Bloody Mary. One of the dumbest, and most protracted myths in the world but damn if she hasn't got staying power.
She taps into the natural nervy feeling of something in the dark, a little bit of seeing human faces in nothing and the need for a little daring.
There is a wicked (but really hefty) book called Phantoms of the Brain. Whenever she is discussed I just think of her in neurological terms.
Bloody Mary was a huge part of my childhood. Like, kids in my elementary school were so obsessed with it. I swear every month or year there was a new rumor/story of some girl being put into the hospital covered in scratches and cuts after doing the ritual. During a camping trip in grade 7 or 8 all the girls in my class did a ritual where everyone got into a circle and chanted her name 100 times. I obviously wanted nothing to do with it so I stayed in my bad lol.
I wouldn't quote myself on this, but here is Slovakia where i grew up, the Bloody Mary ritual dare was often further melded with a different historical figure, Elizabeth Báthory.
I remember distinctly that the ghost bring summoned was specifically hers, given she's become a sort of a folk figure due to having been accused of being a serial killer, which later after her death grew into a large rumor of her killing young virgins to bathe in their blood to sustain her own youth.
I can't recall hearing how she was being described tho, weather mangled or beautiful
Queen mary, the first of england. . She burns hundreds of protestants at the . stake and received the nickname bloody mary
There are similar urban legends like the Bloody Mary. Here in Brazil we have the bathroom blonde that works almost the same way as the Blody Mary legend. And in Japan they have the Hanako of the bathroom ghost that is really similar too.
This is built into a folklore that is passed from generation to generation.
Hanako isn’t as bad as red cape tbh
It's so surreal to see a story like this. Something that's all pervasive and widely known, but so generic too. Everyone knows her, but they all know a different version of her.
Bloody Mary has always been my favorite… great first thing in the morning after a night of drinking lol
Bloody Mary was my #1 fear as a kid. I was worried thinking about the chant counted and I would inadvertently summon her!
The Bloody Mary legend absolutely terrified me as a kid. I don't remember my friends telling me any involved back story about her, just that she'd appear in the mirror after saying her name three times, her face pale, her eyes bleeding, and she'd attack you and try to claw out your eyes. Honestly, not knowing who she was or what motivated her only made her seem that much scarier. Mary lived in my head rent free for years, to the point where I wouldn't even look at mirrors in the dark, convinced that if I even *thought* her name she'd appear. I also made sure to sleep with my back to the big mirror in my bedroom, just in case. Luckily I grew out of that fear, and in my teen years Bloody Mary became more of a fascination to me, along with most other creepy urban legends. It was a lot of fun pouring over early Snopes till the wee hours of the morning, reading about all these legends, their many variations, and how they might have originated.
Damn, the sound design in this episode was outstanding!
This was a really great episode. I'd like to see a whole playlist about modern urban legends that have been influenced by older folklore. 🤘🏼
Most are actually.
Growing up, the story was that you had to have a cup of water and tap it with something (usually a pencil but other stuff worked too) while saying "Bloody Mary come to me" 3 times, and she'd appear in the mirror. But you had to be sure that neither the cup or the object has any red on it or she'd attack you.
In the one we did growing up, one kid had to go flush the toilet repeatedly, another flicked the lights off and on, and the other kid stood at the mirror chanting bloody Mary while either turning around or turning the faucet off and on. It was a whole coordinated activity
You know what’s really scary? Chanting “Biggie Smalls” 3 times.
Butters: Dont ice me homie.
No that's how you get Hypnotize to start playing and have good times.
Stand in front of the mirror together in the dark with ONE lit candle, face your reflections, and slowly say the phrase in unison: “Biggie, Biggie, Biggie, can’t you see, sometimes your eyes just hypnotize me.” Now count to eleven in your heads (it’s important to be remain silent for this part) and watch carefully to see if anybody’s reflection starts moving on its own. This is really fun to do with friends.
Be careful, though. If any of the reflections start reaching towards you, blow out the candle immediately.
@@Tentacular by system of a down?
Nah, the really scary one is chanting "IRS" fast ten times in a row, and if you get it wrong, they'll show up for audit.
.
.
.
Actually, I lied. You're caught in a trap now because you read this message. If you don't spread this message to ten of your friends, you will get audited and prosecuted for back taxes.
.
.
.
Happy tax season 🙃
the mary wales story reminds me of a ghost story my summer camp used to tell. it was the one where someone picks up a hitchihker in the rain and after giving directions and talking for a bit, they disappear, but leave an item in the car. the driver gives the item to the person at the door of the house they were directed to, but the owner is either the hitchhikers family, or a new owner. the hitchhiker died years before in a storm just like the one happening in the story. ooooo spoooookyyyyyy. oh yeah thats the vanishing hitchhiker story lol
I grew up in a house from 1916, and there was an upstairs small powder room with a very old mirror badly in need of resilvering. It was the perfect setting for attempts at contacting Bloody Mary at sleepovers.
Bloody Mary from Telltale's The Wolf Among Us is one of my favourite interpretation of the myth- perfectly gory and psycho in every way!
Well said
Every time I hear of Bloody Mary I have to tell this story:
Now, it didn't happen to me, but I was partially a witness to an attempt at the "game".
When I was in High School, our school had two floors: the second floor was basically from 9th Grade to Seniors, and the first was for the younger students.
It was lunch time, and I went to the bathroom at the second floor (This year I was in 10th Grade.) and after washing up, as I was leaving, I noticed two girls I haven't met come in saying stuff like "OK, so do we go 'Mary Bloody' and do a cycle, or just say it certain amount of times?" I kinda knew where they were going, and they waited until I finished washing my hands before closing the windows, shutting off the light, and closing the door.
I thought nothing of it and went back to hang out with my friends before lunch break was over. When we went back to class, one of my more gossipy classmates said that two girls from Middle School were playing Bloody Mary in the upstairs bathroom, and that they came out looking super pale and in a nasty state of shock. Guess who the two girls I passed by in the bathroom were? Yup.
I don't know what the heck they saw that day, but I'm thankful they waited to be alone before doing this ^_^0
In the version I heard first, Bloody Mary not only pulls you into the mirror, she then exits the mirror, takes on your appearance, and lives out the rest of your life as the new you while you take hers as the new Bloody Mary. I think it was also said or at least implied that you couldn't escape just by turning on the lights; once you summoned her your fate was sealed. That scared me out of ever wanting to try the ritual ever in my life. I still don't know if I could.
The bit about her being someone burned at the stake at Salem is definitely a part of the tale that's grown in the telling. No one was burned during the Salem Witch Trials, they were all hanged. Except Giles Corey, who was pressed to death by piling rocks on top of him, because he refused to plead guilty or not guilty. He knew if he did the local government would seize his property, so he willingly submitted to this torture that killed him to ensure his sons received their inheritance. His final words were "More weight."
This may be my favorite Monstrum episode of all time! Such a great subject and so masterfully and compellingly recounted.
Stock tantrum scream at 6:29 always perks my ears up.
I remember the afternoon I was horrified when I saw Bloody Mary's hideous visage in bathroom mirror.
And then I realized it was because I had four Bloody Marys at brunch and was actually looking at myself.
Lol! I actually tried to find the exact time Mary Queen of Scotts started getting called Bloody Mary and couldn't find it. Now this episode answers my question and also gives me the age of the children's game. Thanks!
This is a terrific episode. I love how this series always takes origins, variations, and cultural implications of monsters into account, and this episode is a perfect example. Exploring why we have these monsters and which functions they serve is so interesting.
omg the reflection in the mirror at 9:16 almost killed me
Awesome video! The more I watch this channel, the more I love it
There is a great episode of Modern Rogues that goes into the actual mental trick that Bloody Mary is. It is very interesting.
One variation on the Bloody Mary legend that I learned as a kid was that there was also a dead baby involved. (Either she had killed her own baby and was subsequently executed, or her husband had killed them both, I can't remember.) If you held your arms out as if holding a child while chanting Bloody Mary's name, you might feel the weight of the baby in your hands.
One of my strongest childhood memories was going into the bathroom to summon her after being dared to lmao
My version was: name three times, spin three times, face mirror, "Bloody Mary I summon thee"
I came across an article many, many years ago about children in Florida (I think it was specifically foster children but I might have that detail incorrect) who developed a whole extra mythology around Bloody Mary and her opposition to the Virgin Mary (who I think might've been referred to as the Blue Lady?). I need to see if I can track this down again because I'm mangling it here.
That does sound intriguing - if you do happen to dig anything up I'd love to know the details!
@@Vox-Multis I managed to track it down (and thought I posted it here), but unfortunately in doing that I also discovered that the whole article is widely considered to be a fabrication. The article, originally published in the 90s in a Miami indie newspaper, was called "Myths Over Miami." Apparently it has become something of an Internet sensation at various points since then but there's never been a follow-up or any corroborating work.
@@such_a_dork Aw, that's unfortunate. But thanks for the followup!
One of the most famous urban legends of all times, I'm glad you covered it and I hope some more of these are coming. Since you've mentioned her, I would love an episode on the Vanishing Hitchhiker.
Anyway, I say that the fact you are "in control" of summoning Bloody Mary kind of makes her scarier because it becomes a battle against your self control and reason.
Here in Brazil we have the "Loira do Banheiro", literaly translated to "the blonde of the bathroom", which is a young blond woman dressed in white and with cotton inside her nose, as if having walked out of the morgue. She is summoned just like Blood Mary (including the many different versions) but the most known (as far as I am aware) is calling YOUR OWN name to the mirror.
In here, she is linked to a young girl born at the end of the 19th century, Maria Augusta de Oliveira Braga, who was forced to marry a much older man when she was 14 and that ran away to Paris at 18. She then dies at 26, for unknown reasons, and her mother decides to bring her body back and, until her tomb was built, was kept in a glass coffin at their family home. ...then the mother decided NOT to bury her after all, until there were many visions of her asking to be.
Years later, at 1902, the family home is turned into a school. There were already rumors of a ghost walking the hallways, but it got stronger after a fire in 1916, and now the ghost is also seen opening faucets due to a severe thirst and begging to be buried.
Bloody Mary always fascinated me. There used to be a whole website about her, but that has been a long time ago.
I remember the huge ARG Universal Studios Orlando built around Bloody Mary for Halloween Horror Nights 18.
There, her origin was reimagined as Dr. Mary Agana, a young New York psychologist who, in 1958, proposed a radical new form of exposure therapy for the treatment of crippling phobias. As more and more patients came into her private clinic however, fewer and fewer came out. It turns out that Dr. Agana was using the sessions to drive her patients to madness and death, for her own perverse pleasure as she slowly began losing her mind, watching her patients suffer and die from behind a two-way mirror (like what police use in interrogation rooms). A NYC P.I. confronted her one night, and the only things the police found in the morning were a trashe office, a shattered mirrior, and blood splatted _everywhere._ Dr. Agana's body was never found.
The goal of the game was to identify the victims, uncover their hidden connections, and follow clues in the park that could uncover what happened to Mary Agana.
th-cam.com/video/cSeAjMDcClU/w-d-xo.html
Bloody Mary is probably my first brush with conscious skepticism. The ritual went through my middle school around 1990 to the point that there was an assembly where the principal told us to knock it TF off (probably some idiot parent complained). I drew a picture of a hag and showed one of the girls who really bought into it, and she was all, "Oh my God, you've seen her! You've seen her!" Of course I hadn't seen a damn thing.
The way Demonology (the game) did Bloody Mary was super cool. 10/10 jump scare.
Here in Brazil we have our adaptation of the Legend of Blood Mary.
But before sharing the legend here, let me tell you that I LOVE the Channel SO MUCH! 💖👻🧙♀🦄
I have been following you for a few years now!
MONSTRUM, along with FATE & FABL are my Favorites (I've watched each video a dozen times).
Now back to the legend... Here in Brazil we have 'the Blonde (or woman) of the Bathroom'.
She is basically the Blood Mary, but in the legends of Brazil she does not have a specific name.
The invocation must be done in the bathroom, with the lights off and in front of the mirror.
And instead of invoking her by name, one must flush, or turn the faucet on and off (3 times).
Depending on the region of Brazil, there are subtle changes in her appearance or invocation, but the essence of the legend is the same.
That's it, I LOVE YOU FOLKS!! 💖
I've been waiting for this episode! Blood Mary TERRIFIED me as a child. It was so bad I'd take off the hanging mirror in my bathroom
Here in Brazil we have our own versions of Bloody Mary, whose names can change from region to region: Loira do Banheiro (Blond Girl of the Bathroom), Mulher do Algodão or Maria do Algodão (Cottom Woman or Cottom Mary) and Maria Degolada (Beheaded Mary). I think the main difference from the rituals of the USA is that normally they can only be done at school bathrooms and normally involve opening and closing the sink while looking at the mirror or flushing the toilet 3 times before turning at the mirror.
Very interesring how this folklore can spread so widely and gain so many regional variations.
I learned the spin around 3 times, in a dark bathroom, alone version. I've never liked mirrors at night/in the dark & this myth sure didn't help 😣
Also we had to chant "bloody mary I have your baby".
I will forever remember that Supernatural episode. It was freaking great
In the version I grew up with, the chant was, "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, let me see your baby." I'm surprised you didn't mention anything about the baby, but maybe it's less common than I realized. Did anyone else have an experience like that?
I've never tried that, but it does make sense if we consider the version that I grew up with: That Bloody Mary is the ghost of Mary Tudor. There is evidence that she did have a phantom pregnancy during her reign, though I forget exactly which year. Then, five years into her reign she died of what likely was ovarian cancer.
I've read there's a variant that goes "Bloody Mary, I killed your baby." Either one is probably more than enough to seriously piss off the ghost of a grieving (would-be?) mother. Can hardly blame her for wanting to claw your eyes out.
Funny thing... I was sort of muttering to myself as I recalled this, and I got as far as "Bloody Mary, I..." Then I felt the need to stop myself mid-sentence. Just in case.
This was really interesting. Growing up in rural NH, the Bloody Mary story was tied to Queen Mary for us. We thought it was her ghost that would appear in the mirror.
What I just wish I could see you create is an episode on dinosaur monster movies and the impact created by Jurassic Park. You can also break down your favorite dinosaur movie in the video.
I would love to hear your guys’ versions of this tale!
In the version I heard, you run the bath and chant her name 3 times into the mirror. She then picks you up and drowns you in the bath!!!
Human 👥👥👥👥 curiosity is often stronger than fear .
Meanwhile, in WI, we keep saying it hoping a bartender will appear with the drink...LOL. Fun breakdown!
9:17 - I was waiting for her to appear! Well done!
I think one reason why bathrooms are the preferred hunting ground of this ghost is because they’re usually small with very little big pieces of furniture. There’s also usually only one door. This makes it difficult to run or hide.
Also heard you can summon a man with a large hook for a hand who's all about the 🐝
Candy man
Candy man
Beetlejuice
Wait...
@@Firegen1
It's SHOWTIME!
@@epsi You win! 👑
Anything but Michael Keaton!!!
J/k he's pretty chill.
I remember we were on the school bus and we were talking about the legend. We started doing the chant when another kid got on and asked if we all drank.
When I was a kid we were told to summon Bloody Mary by standing in a darkened, but not fully dark, bathroom & yell "Bloody Murder" at the mirror. Some folks said you had to chant "bloody murder" before yelling it or saying it in a whisper 2x then yelling it.
In the 90s, my dad and his friends were driving back home from a night out at a bar in the next town over. They spotted a woman in a white dress on the side of the road. They stopped to ask her if she wanted to join them, and when the woman proceeded to look up at them directly, her face transformed into an old woman's face. They quickly drove off after that. My mom says that's what they get for having bad intentions
Suprised you finally got to this urban legend for this series.
That awesome analysis about the paralelisms beween bloodymary and female puberty makes me wonder how much we may project our subconciousness onto seemengly random inventions.
The best portrayal of Bloody Mary has to be Dominique Jackson in American Horror Stories. Slay of the century. Literally.
9:17 SUN OFA BISCUIT the creepy reflection got me
Still haven’t tried it. Even there is a good chance ghosts aren’t real, I’m not gonna become the skeptic protagonist of this horror movie. No thank you.
About time you guys covered this!
Lol, turning horror into fun? Tell that to all of the traumatized elementary schoolers who grew up with her myth
Speaking of the Salem Witch Trials, you should do a video on that.
They were executed by hanging and one of them was pressed to death.
I'm related to Rebecca Nurse so if you did a video about that...that would be great.
You've talked about Godzilla and Mothra. Can you please do one on King Kong. I wish you could talk about his original movie and franchise.
I Always wonder where Bloody Mary came from . Very cool to know the lore . When I was a child I used to play with friends. Was scary and fun
I was just thinking an episode on this would be awesome. Thanks, Monstrum!
In Tennessee, we always use Bell Witch for the chant (obviously a regional variation)
Bloody Mary also appears in the video game Infamous: Festival of Blood, in which she's depicted as a vampire & serves as the big bad villain of the story, she is even the one who turned the game's protagonist Cole into a vampire, and he has only one night to stop her before he becomes her puppet forever.
I sold obsidian mirrors for scrying at the occult shops I worked at. Supposedly John Dee, Queen Elizabeth's court magician (among other things like mathematician) used one.
There was a book of short ghost stories I would read as a young teenager that included Bloody Mary picture which always freaked me out, even at that age.
this is our cousin, Emily Zarka :) what a rockstar
There is a phenomena that happens if you stare into in a dimly lit mirror long enough (especially with a candle that may flicker the image). Your reflection may start to change or make faces at you, grin etc.
It will happen naturally, but psychedelics can really intensify this effect - the last time I remember clearly (at least a decade ago) was my face taking on an ape-like , caveman look, the stubble on my face appearing long, my forehead and jaw distorting.
Other times I have seen myself grin or stick my tongue out at at me.
Nice touch with the mirror at the end!
Uh oh, Dr. Zarka, don't look in the mirror behind you, I think you said her name a few too many times! 🤣
I remember this being a big thing in elementary school, in primary grades, pre-puberty. And that she was very firmly the ghost of Queen Mary. Running the water was part of the ritual, and she apparently specifically haunted our school (in Canada) for some inexplicable reason, haha.
"Oculus" is one HELL of a movie! lol
Hot take…until the end.-*Dr.Z*
I’ve never done the Bloody Mary thing. Was always too afraid.
I loveeeeeeee this. So informed and allways light hearted. She almost got me wanting to throw a sleep over just to do this chtick
Well, that was a bloody good and scary episode, Dr. Z!! Thanx!!!
The version I was told went like this: Mary was a young mother that went to an amusement park with her baby. Some unknown creep snatched the kid and ran into the hall of mirrors. Mary followed and the guy pushes a mirror on top of her which slices up her face and kills her. So you chant "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, I'm the one that took your baby". Anyone else ever heard this variant?