Folklore
By: Syahirah binti Kamarudin (2023218074)
Folklore is the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations from mouth to mouth. It is also similar with myths, legends and mythos.
Bloody Mary is a well-known urban legend and supernatural ritual. According to the myth, if you stand in front of a mirror in a dark room (usually a bathroom) and chant “Bloody Mary” three (or more) times, a ghostly figure—often a woman with a blood-covered face—will appear behind you in the mirror. Bloody Mary, who is frequently portrayed as a spectral appearance that might change in appearance according on local interpretations, is said to appear in the mirror if the ritual is carried out correctly. Outcomes vary depending on the version: she might scratch your face, kill you, scream, or simply appear silently.
Bloody Mary is well known in the United States. The roots of the Bloody Mary mythology are uncertain because many cultures have told stories that attribute her character to different historical persons. These myths may include witches or tragic young girls, as well as potential connections to Queen Mary I of England. The Bloody Mary narrative has been attributed to Mary I, the English queen who ruled for five years in the middle of the fifteenth century. The Catholic Mary was referred to as “Bloody Mary” in real life because she persecuted Protestants while in power. Some versions of the legend also claim that the Mary apparition appears holding a dead baby because Queen Mary had multiple miscarriages and false pregnancies. Although the English queen’s biography may have influenced parts of the legend’s themes over the years, many researchers do not think the legend is based on her. (Zukauskas & Rebecca, 2023)
According to Caffrey & Cait (2023), In June 2009, Eric Knudsen invented the fictional character Slender man, also known as Slender Man, on an online forum. Slender man, who is described as being abnormally tall, thin, and dressed in a suit, is said to possess supernatural abilities that he uses to kill individuals and force others into carrying out criminal acts. Before gaining traction in popular online culture and turning into something of an urban legend, the Slender man mythos developed on underground Internet forums. Because Slender man is a collaborative construct, it is challenging to pinpoint the roots of the various traits he exhibits.
Teenage internet users were particularly drawn to the Slenderman mythology, especially after it started to show up on Creepypasta, a website that compiles the vast number of paranormal and spooky online memes and stories. Many of the short stories posted on the site are presented as though they are actual events, and users can also submit directly to the site. The style caused many misconceptions among the site’s most sensitive viewers, especially children who were not aware of the character’s fictitious origins. In 2014, the persona gained national attention after two teenage girls committed a violent crime in Slenderman’s name.
On May 13, 2014, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, police apprehended two twelve-year-old girls after they lured their classmate into the woods and stabbed her nineteen times. After questioning the girls, police learned they had committed the attempted murder to please Slenderman. The girls had read about Slenderman online on the Creepypasta website and believed that he was real. They told police Slenderman was stalking them and had threatened to hurt their families if they did not kill their classmate.
The growing awareness surrounding the Slenderman myth motivated several movie studios to adapt the legend into film. In 2015, a film adaptation of the Marble Hornets web series was released as Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story. The character served as the direct inspiration for the 2018 film Slender Man, which follows the terrifying events four teens experience after performing a ritual meant to summon Slender Man.
In the article by Space.com, it is stated that the primary cause of the connection between Area 51 and UFOs is probably the testing of new and classified military aircraft. Despite its widespread use in popular culture, the term “UFO” actually refers to any unidentified flying object, not just alien spacecraft.
“It’s true that strange lights and aircraft can sometimes be spotted in the area, so it’s an obvious leap to UFOs, but of course, new aircraft might look identical,” Radford said. “The basic, flawed premise behind the Area 51 mythology can be boiled down to this: The government won’t reveal what’s going on there, so it must be something ultra-super-amazingly secret.”
The mythology surrounding Area 51 was enforced in 1989 after a man named Robert Lazar claimed to have worked on extraterrestrial technology within the site, in addition to the sightings of unusual craft.
Lazar told television reporter George Knapp in Las Vegas that the US government utilized Area 51 to look at recovered extraterrestrial spaceships and that he had seen autopsy photos of aliens within the facility. Despite Lazar’s discrediting, his assertions gave rise to a number of government conspiracy theories, the most of which deal with extraterrestrial life.
The southern Nevada military complex known as Area 51 has long been the focus of rumors, secrecy, and tales of extraterrestrial technology and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
Area 51, which is situated in the isolated desert close to Groom Lake, has gained popularity due to conspiracy beliefs that it holds extraterrestrial spaceships and carries out experiments covertly. Although pop culture and the general public have been fascinated by these hypotheses for decades, Area 51’s true mission is probably more practical, if yet unknown (Lea and Dobrijevic (2025)).
