Have you ever wondered why so many ghosts in horror films are female? What is the reason for this? Do they appear to be scarier? If you try to think of two famous film ghosts, you’ll probably come up with Samara from “The Ring” and the old woman from “The Shining.”
Female ghosts have far more interesting stories than male ghosts: they’re grieving the loss of their children, they’re a wrathful darling, they’re mourning the loss of their energetic excellence, or they’re attempting to resurrect themselves by engaging in sexual relations with a living person.
But before looking at the famous ghosts and Urban legends around the world, read a short story of Unfinished Business:
There’s a ghost in town, you know. And not one of the harmless ones either.
She died of a broken heart after the loss of her daughter. If you’re sensitive you can see her walking the streets, screaming and rending her clothes. She says she won’t rest until she’s found out who murdered her child.
And she means it. The daughter’s boyfriend, thrown out of the window over and over. Her school rival, face pressed against an iron. Her father- the ghost’s husband- nearly drowned in a bathtub.
She appears hurling accusations and hurts you until you confess. It usually doesn’t take long. But she still doesn’t move on and realizes its a lie, so she leaves. And finds the next person on the list.
Sometimes, her screams become sobs. What if it was some wandering vagrant who left town weeks ago? Some serial killers who picked a random target they have no connection to? What if she never learns who took her daughter away?
I try to tell her she does know, of course.
I point to the note. I tell her over and over. No-one killed me. I took my own life. You don’t need to keep hurting people. It was all my fault.
And she leans down, and gently takes my skeletal face in bony hands, and shakes her head. “Of course you didn’t. I know my daughter. I always accepted you. I did everything I could to make you happy. You wouldn’t do this. Someone faked the note. I know it. I was a good mum. You wouldn’t have done this.”
I try to explain, over and over, but she’s not listening. She suspects the local priest now. She’d never quite trusted him anyway. My guilt is no match for her rage, so all I can do is watch as she floats away. Shortly, I hear screams from the church.
There’s a ghost in town, you know. And not one of the harmless ones either.
Some the scaries ghosts and Urban legends are female, from Bloody Mary to The White Lady, have you seen any of these women?
The Vanishing Hitchhiker
This one appears to be straight out of “Terrifying Stories,” and it is one of the most well-known urban legends of all time. The story tends to differ from teller to teller, but the basic premise is that the Vanishing hitchhiker is an urban legend in which people traveling by vehicle pick up a young, beautiful hitchhiker. They drive her home and notice she has vanished when they park! The person who answers the door informs them that the girl died many years ago.
The common variation of the story involves:
There is a similar story which is about two travelers sitting next to each other on a train (normally a man and a woman). One of them is reading a book, and the other person asks what the book is about. The first person says that it’s about ghosts, and they then have a conversation about ghosts. The second person then asks if the first person believes in ghosts or has ever seen one, to which the first person says that they have never seen or believed in ghosts at all. The second person then says that this is doubtful, and with that, the second person vanishes. This was the version used in the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book series.
La Llorona
“Weeping Woman,” “The Wailing Woman” or “The Cryer” us an oral legend about the ghost of a woman who steals children to drown them. La Llorona is always crying when you see her. She’s crying because she killed her children.
There are multiple versions to the story, The legend states a lady was unloved by her husband but the husband adored their two children. She caught her husband with another lady and drowned her children in a river.
Out of pain and outrage, she at that point drowned herself. She was denied passage to paradise until she found the spirits of her two children. She cries and moans and takes youngsters and suffocates them in the stream she and her children suffocated in. The legend represents La Llorona as an individual or ghost.
Another variation: In one variation the lore states that after giving birth to, and raising two sons, an aging wife felt that her husband fell out of love with her and only loved their sons. After catching her husband cheating on her with a younger woman she was consumed by grief and anger, so she drowned her sons in a river to punish her husband, then drowned herself as well because of what she had done.
She was tricked by a demon that told her her son’s souls were lost, but she would be granted entry to Heaven if she found their lost souls and brought them to Heaven where they belonged. The demon knew that her son’s souls were in Heaven, so the woman would be stuck in the land of the living trying to find her sons forever, crying constantly for the sins she committed. After having spent a long time without finding her sons, her grief, and her desperation to just be able to die and be at peace caused her to start taking other children’s souls by drowning them.
Slit-Mouthed Woman(Kuchisake-onna)
The famous Japanese ghost is a woman who targets children. She’s usually wearing a mask over her lower jaw.
According to the legend, she asks her victims if they think she is attractive. If they respond with “no”, she will kill them with her weapon. If they say “yes”, she will reveal that the corners of her mouth are slit from ear to ear, and she will then repeat her question. If the individual responds with “no”, she will kill them with her weapon, and if they say “yes”, she will cut the corners of their mouth in such a way that resembles her own disfigurement.
While as horrifying she sounds there are some methods to escape from her, methods include including answering her question “Am I pretty?” by “average,” or by distracting her with money or hard candies.
As per legend, Kuchisake-onna was mutilated during her life, with her mouth being cut from ear to ear. In certain variants of the story, Kuchisake-onna was the double-crossing spouse or courtesan of a samurai during her life. As discipline for her unfaithfulness, her better half cut the edges of her mouth from ear to ear. Other forms of the story incorporate that her mouth was ruined during a clinical or dental method, that she was mangled by a lady who was desirous of her magnificence, or that her mouth is loaded up with various sharp teeth.
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn was famously beheaded on the orders of her husband Henry VIII when he became frustrated that she didn’t bear him a son and heir.
The ghost of Anne Boleyn is said to haunt the Tower of London, where she was imprisoned before she died. The king divorced her and beheaded her for not giving him a male heir, and accused her of black magic and incest. Anne’s ghost has her head, thankfully, but she’s still said to frighten passersby as she wanders through the halls. She’s even been seen in other historic buildings; she’s probably looking for justice. Poor Anne!
Ghost of Sir Thomas, Anne Boleyn’s father is also believed to haunt the Tower of London, having been cursed for taking no action to prevent two of his children being executed by Henry VIII. Each year his ghost has to attempt to cross 12 bridges before cockcrow. His frantic route takes him from Blickling to Aylsham, Burgh, Buxton, Coltishall, Meyton, Oxnead, and Wroxham.
La Planchada
La Planchada in Spanish means “The Ironed Lady.” La Planchada is a well-known ghost legend in Mexico and the southwestern part of the U.S. It is a story of a ghostly nurse who is seen in hospitals in central Mexico in Urban areas. The nurse is seen wearing an old-fashioned nurse uniform.
Story behind La Planchada:
In the 1930s, a nurse named Eulalia worked at the hospital, she always wore a clean, crisply ironed uniform. She was an excellent nurse and her patients were lucky to have her. Soon this changed when a handsome doctor entered her life. They both engaged and started living a happy life.
Shortly after the engagement, the doctor left to attend a seminar, and to Eulalia’s concern, he did not return the following week. Several weeks later she found out that he found another woman and married her.
This left her hear-broken and she lapsed into depression. She was so distracted by the pain that she became ill herself and died in the hospital she worked.
After her death, multiple staff members started experiencing strange things in the emergency room. Some believed that she glows and floats in the hospital corridors, while some believed that she walked normally but her footsteps are not heard.
Hospital staff started to call this ghostly nurse, “La Planchada” because she always appears wearing a clean, freshly pressed uniform.
There are various versions of the story: In one of the versions, Eulalia was a cruel nurse who didn’t treat her patients right, and due to she was being punished to take care of the patients for eternity.
Kate Batts, The Bell Witch
The legend of the Bell Witch is probably one of the most famous pieces of Southern lore. It’s a story of a spirit who tormented Bell family.
In 1817, a man named John Bell and his family began experiencing ghostly happenings in their Tennessee home. The poltergeist-like activity (things being thrown, strange sounds, sugar being taken from bowls, ghostly laughter, spooked animals) was thought to be the cause of a witch named Kate Batts.
However, it was later found that daughter Betsy was probably causing the activity. However, the Bell Witch lives on; “The Blair Witch Project” was based in part on the Bell Witch legend.
Bloody Mary
Standing in the dark bathroom facing a mirror, and chanting her name three times; “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary” and Bloody Mary ghost is said to appear right behind you, sometimes holding a baby, and other times telling you how she will come after you.
Bloody Mary is a folklore legend consisting of a ghost, phantom, or spirit conjured to reveal the future. She is said to appear in a mirror when her name is chanted repeatedly. Bloody Mary appearances are mostly “witnessed” in group participation play.
Bloody Mary’s story originated with Queen Mary 1 being childless and thus she was replaced by his husband by another woman. When you dim the lights and repeat her name in the mirror three times, she thinks you’re taunting her for being childless.
The Murdered Peddler(Murdoch Grant)
At some point, in the mid-1840s in Hydesville, New York, a young peddler showed up at the home of Mr. Mrs. Bell to sell his housewares. He was welcomed into the home by the Bells’ servant and in certainty remained for certain days. The house cleaner was in the blink of an eye excused from the administration yet unexpectedly rehired seven days after.
The merchant was gone, however huge numbers of his things were currently being used in the Bells’ kitchen. The housekeeper barely cared about it until she started encountering abnormal, spooky wonder, just to discover from the merchant’s apparition that he had in truth been killed in her absence.
The sisters who told the story claimed to communicate with the ghost, but years later the sisters admitted it had all been a hoax. The sisters had inadvertently founded a religion called Spiritualism, which is still practiced today.
The Drury Lane Theatre Ghost
There are numerous auditoriums in the Covent Gardens region in London’s West End. Plays have been created here for more than 300 years, and a portion of the world’s most prominent on-screen characters have shown up there. However, one auditorium is better known more for its apparition than its creations.
There is, in reality, more than one apparition said to haunt Drury Lane’s lobbies and wings, including those of a few on-screen characters. The most celebrated, in any case, is a “Man dressed in Gray” seen as an aristocrat conveying a sword. Any venue deserving at least moderate respect (and numerous that aren’t) reputedly have an occupant ghost stepping the sheets, and the Drury Lane apparitions carry on their piece of theater tradition.
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