(Image Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)
The ‘90s were a crazy time to be a kid, especially in the days before the internet. Unable to fact-check every story we heard on the playground, urban legends spread like wildfire through schoolyards and on the bus home. Today we’re looking at some of the most bizarre, terrifying pieces of nightmare fuel that we totally believed at the end of the millennium.
Bloody Mary
The first urban legend that comes to mind is obvious – Bloody Mary. Able to be summoned in a dark bathroom simply by chanting her name three times in the mirror, this creepy ghost/witch/thing was the scariest thing about going to a sleepover aside from running into your best friend’s dad in his underwear. It’s not totally clear what Bloody Mary would do to you if she appeared in the mirror; some versions of the story say that you’d be murked, other stories claim that you would be pulled into the mirror to become the new Bloody Mary. Whatever the case, it’s not something you want to deal with.
Pop Rocks and Soda
Did you ever drink Pop Rocks and soda? We’re guessing no, because the combination of these two elements were said to be strong enough to either make your head explode or just totally poison your body. It’s not clear what would happen to anyone combining these elements, but ‘90s kids often heard that Mike, the life cereal kid, drank soda while eating Pop Rocks and was never heard from again.
Was Your Furby Spying On You?
Furbies were everywhere in the ‘90s, which is probably why we were so worried about these little stuffed animals doing… something to us. The idea that these chirping, blinking creatures were able to remember and repeat our conversations led to the idea that they were watching us at all times. Who didn’t know someone at school who claimed that their Furby was watching them? Was these fuzzy little creeps our first run-in with the modern surveillance state? Best not to think too much about it.
Humans Can Lick Too
The urban legend known as “Humans Lick Too” is one of the scuzziest, creepy things we remember from childhood. The story goes that a young girl is alone in her home at night and she can’t sleep because she hears a constant dripping sound outside her room. Every time she hears the sound she puts her hand down beside her bed where her golden retriever sleeps. Whenever she does this the dog licks her hand and she’s a little more comforted than before. This goes on for hours, until one time the dog doesn’t lick her hand. She calls for the dog, but he doesn’t answer. She finally goes to find the dog and discover the source of the sound, but when she makes her way to the bathroom where the dripping is coming from she finds the dog and he’s not in a good spot. On the side of the shower wall, written in the dog’s blood is the phrase “Humans Lick Too” or alternately, “Humans Can Lick Too.” Did this ever happen? Probably not. But it’s the kind of story we loved to scare each other with back in the day.
Footprints In The Snow
One of the weirder urban legends from the ‘90s is known as “Footprints in the Snow.” In this spooky story, a young girl (again with these young girls), is sitting at home alone on a snowy night watching TV. No big deal, right? Wrong. With her TV placed next to a sliding glass door she immediately sees an old man staring at her from outside. Yikes. Naturally, she freaks out, calls the cops, and hides under a blanket. When the police arrive they look around outside but they can’t find any footprints in the snow. However, once they check around inside they notice watery footprints directly behind the couch. It turns out that the creepy old guy was actually inside the house, behind the girl, and what she saw was his reflection in the glass. What was this supposed to teach us in the ‘90s? To always check behind us? To stay under a blanket? Maybe it was just supposed to freak us out.
Highway Gang Initiation
A classic urban legend from the ‘90s was the claim that gangs were roving the streets at night with their headlights off just waiting for someone to flash their lights at them. Supposedly, any driver who flashed their lights at a car with its headlights off would be the target of a gang “initiation game” where the group would turn around and follow the driver. They would either drive the car off the road or do something even more sinister. We’ve never heard of this actually happening, but in the ‘90s this story was creepy enough to keep us from flashing our lights at an oncoming car.
Razorblades In Halloween Candy
The idea of someone putting razor blades in Halloween candy has been an urban legend in every decade, but it really took off in the ‘90s. There are a ton of variations on this story, with razor blades in candy apples (something we’ve never received when trick or treating), poison rubbed on chocolate, and even drug laced snacks. We remember reports of this kind of scary behavior popping up every year around Halloween, but we’ve never actually met anyone who had any kind of trouble with their candy. That being said, Ronald Clark O’Bryan did murder his eight-year-old son Timothy on Halloween 1974 with a potassium cyanide-laced Pixy Stick, so this urban legend does have some basis in fact.
Black Eyed Children
There’s nothing creepier than a spooky little kid, and in the ‘90s stories of “Black Eyed Children” began to pop up on school yards and early online message boards. These kids are purported to be paranormal creatures that resemble young children with pale skin and empty, black eyes. The story has been traced back to Texas based reporter Brian Bethel, who claims that he had a run-in with these paranormal entities near Abilene, Texas in 1996. If you’ve ever been to the desolate area outside of Abilene, especially at night, then you know how creepy the place can be. It’s not clear what we’re supposed to learn from sightings of these children, but the concept remains popular in creepypasta forums.
The Blue Star Tattoo
In the 1990s there was nothing scarier to parents than the idea that their kids would be corrupted without their knowledge, specifically through temporary tattoos that were jacked up with LSD. The main culprit was the “Blue Star” tattoo that was allegedly a lick-and-stick tattoo soaked in LSD and made in the form of a blue star, or of popular children’s cartoon characters (Bart Simpson, Mickey Mouse, you name it). Why would someone do this? To get kids hooked on LSD, man. Now, as far as we know LSD isn’t addictive, but that doesn’t matter when you’re dealing with urban legends. It’s all about creating fear.