"We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones," wrote fantasy and horror author Stephen King. Psychologically, telling scary stories is a means of processing fears about the dangers that may lurk just out of sight, wherever we go.
The urban legends we remember as scariest — “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs,” for example, or “The Hook Man” — are those we likely heard, and innocently believed, in childhood. We’ve gathered up some of our favorite horror legends for a special Halloween collection.
Feeling apprehensive? Just keep telling yourself they’re not real ...
Horrors!
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