Bloody Mary
Posted by Disastrous-Tap-3353@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 72 comments
Did any of you guys ever hear that saying “Bloody Mary” several times into the mirror would bring some ghost out behind you in the reflection or something like that? It might’ve been a Lizzie Borden thing from New England. I have a memory in the late 80s early 90s of being scared to death to say Bloody Mary in the mirror and I remember a bunch of boys in a scary grade school bathroom too scared to say it with the lights off. Was pure terror.
Defiant-Hurry-6091@reddit
We did this in Florida and scared ourselves silly., and about knocked ourselves out running over eachother trying to get out of the bathroom. But we played light as a feather stiff as a board…crazy stuff happened once and I never messed with it again…girl was levitating and then someone started screaming and she fell, hard.
Wild-Sky-4807@reddit
We did it in the Midwest, minus Lizzie Borden, because no 9-year-old at a sleepover from St. Louis knew who that was.
hozay17@reddit
We would in the bathroom at our elementary school
agentfantabulous@reddit
We actually summoned her in one of the bathrooms, and then we were all too scared to use that one the rest of the year.
Temporary-Sugar-5363@reddit
YES!! Same!
PersianCatLover419@reddit
I grew up in Philadelphia and it was something people did. Wasn't there a story about it in one of the " Scary stories to tell in the dark" books?
Ippus_21@reddit
100%
And I never tried it. Whether that's because it was a stupid embarrassing superstition that only dumb preteen girls did at sleepovers.. or because I was, not superstitious, per se, but juuuust not quite sure enough that it was bullshit to be willing to tempt fate... I've never been quite sure.
SnowMission6612@reddit
Where I learned it, you had to be in the bathroom by yourself with the lights off and say it into the mirror 3 times. I said it once and then noped the fuck out of there. Couldn't bring myself to say it even a second time.
peekaboooobakeep@reddit
A little stitious
Ippus_21@reddit
'xactly. Slightlystitious. Substitious.
Jefari_MoL@reddit
I had a younger sister and a group of her friends trying it one time. About the time they got to the third Bloody Mary, I banged on the bathroom door a few times. They screamed. I got in trouble. A few of them went home. Good times
Babymakerwannabe@reddit
I got suspended for telling my peers about it 🙈
kuchikopi81@reddit
I was terrified of this up until adulthood. Then I found out who Bloody Mary is (Queen Mary the first) and I lost all interest/fear lolol
Qcastro@reddit
There was just a Lore podcast episode about the origins of the Bloody Mary legend this week.
thetoobdog@reddit
I literally just finished listened to the Lore podcast (ep 294) about Bloody Mary! Also remember her being a staple of 6th grade sleepovers…
PuzzleheadedAbies678@reddit
Candyman
CelticSith@reddit
Say it 4 more times. ;)
PuzzleheadedAbies678@reddit
CelticSith@reddit
Braver soul than me
PuzzleheadedAbies678@reddit
DocWednesday@reddit
Yes. In grade 3 we were so freaked out our teacher had to have a talk with us about it. My cousin and I armed ourselves with yo-yos and went into the bathroom at his house to do it and then nothing happened and we were over it. I guess we thought we’d fling around the yo-yos and knock her out. This was in Canada. Our variant was saying “Black Bloody Mary” three times.
Amda01@reddit
Yanks aside, it was a thing in Europe too.
EmmalouEsq@reddit
We had a few days where we did this in our evangelical Christian school bathrooms after recess. Teachers were NOT happy with us conjuring demons, which they totally believed in. It was a huge scandal.
tacitjane@reddit
Yes, and those of us who actually knew who Bloody Mary actually was had so much fun fucking with the other kids.
We also did Baby Blue. Same idea, but I can't remember the details.
Candy-man was more popular, but that checks because I'm from Chicago.
DigDugDogDun@reddit
What?! I thought the Candyman thing was entirely made up for the movie!
Lcky22@reddit
I was so scared of this among other random supernatural stuff.
ptatersptate@reddit
Literal pure terror. I remember being with some distant cousin that tried to do it with me when I was 5/6. I ran away and uphill half a km as fast as my little legs could go, straight to my cabin because of course we were up north in the middle of nowhere.
coffee_and_physics@reddit
In first grade I was terrified to use the class restroom because Bloody Mary was in there. She scared me so much I had an accident one day because of it.
keto_and_me@reddit
“Back in the day??” I’m not doing that shit, now as a whole grown ass 46 year old woman! I don’t even look straight at a mirror in the dark because I do not want to see what’s behind me. Keep your eyes down, wash your hands, dry, and get out.
synnarella@reddit
Totally did this as a kid, heart pounding like it was the end. Best horror adrenaline ever!
Silocin20@reddit
AZ here too, girls even did here too.
Astrazigniferi@reddit
I think I’ve told this story in here before, but in middle school, my friends and I convinced each other to play this at a sleepover. As everyone crammed into the bathroom, I snuck into the bedroom next door. When I heard them chanting, I banged on the wall behind the mirror. They screamed so loud that we woke my friend’s mom up and she came out to yell at us. Good times, good times.
nicunta@reddit
This was a thing in Michigan!
Earlasaurus02@reddit
Aaron Mahnke's Lore episode 294: Upon Reflection is all about this
endtheme@reddit
We had this urban legend in Toronto Canada too. I tried summoning her all the time as a nine year old in a dark bathroom and eventually gave up. Nothing happened. Confirmed bullshit. 🫡🙃
Kacodaemoniacal@reddit
Had this in the Midwest. There was also a variant where you ran the water in the sink and after you changed for her you listened for footsteps or her closing a door or something (who knows, like looking for images in clouds.) good times.
DJmagikMIKE@reddit
I heard about it when I was a kid, but never actually done it. Now my wife, she has a GREAT story about it. When she was little she was telling her step dad about the whole Bloody Mary thing since she had heard about it at school that day. Well, her step dad was kind of a dick and not only wanted to tell her it wasn’t real, but to do it in a way that would make her feel as foolish as possible and basically make fun of her. So instead of just saying it wasn’t real, he dragged her into the bathroom to show her it wasn’t real. Well as he was saying it and spinning around and stuff, he banged his foot on the bottom of the bathroom cabinet. Apparently He hit it just right, the story goes blood squirted/sprayed all over the bathroom, he slipped and fell broke the sink, all kinds of chaos ensued. Needless to say, by the time it was all said and done it sure looked like Bloody Mary showed up lol. He doesn’t like that story, but she tells it every chance she gets.
Treadingresin@reddit
Michigan checking in, yep played it at a few sleep overs, never saw a thing, still scared the screams out of us.
TurtleSandwich0@reddit
It is an optical illusion.
You stare at yourself in the mirror. Your eyes adjust to your own image. When you turn the lights off your eyes see a "person", which is your image in the color negative of what you were looking at, the form of a person. As you look around the "ghost" moves with your eyes.
The higher the contrast between your clothing and the background the more visible the "ghost" will be.
C1sko@reddit
I love a good Bloody Mary for breakfast.
GaryNOVA@reddit
That’s a coincidence. I just took over moderating r/Bloodymarys !
Sebastian_dudette@reddit
Yep. Say it in the dark mirror 3x while spinning in a circle, if I recall correctly. Still don't like mirrors in the dark.
Sinead_0_rebellion@reddit
Oh yeah. Def did that at some sleepovers and had the absolute shit scared out of ourselves. I still can't look at my reflection in a mirror in the dark at night.
hiding-in-the-webz@reddit
Jersey kid here, and SAME.
elusive_won@reddit
It was definitely bloody Mary and I was definitely too scared to do it. My sister would do it though then come out running and scared
bikeonychus@reddit
Yeah, kind of. It got mixed in with some local lore in my town. Our original one was you had to go to Rosamund's Tower in the castle in town, and say 'White Lady, white lady, I stole your babies' and the tower was supposed to shake. But somewhere in the 80s/90s, there was a lot of playground arguments about whether it was 'White Lady' or 'Bloody Mary'. It never seemed to involve a mirror.
throwawayhbgtop81@reddit
Yeah it was a thing where I lived
bitsy88@reddit
My friends and I did this when we were about 7 or 8 and away at Girl Scout camp. It was night and the bathrooms had no lights inside 😭 I could only get through saying it twice before I chickened out.
lorenzo463@reddit
My daughter discovered Bloody Mary through cartoon spoofs when she was 5 or 6- Teen Titans did a sleepover episode involving “Scary Terry.” She immediately started playing a game where whenever we were in a room with a mirror, she would turn out the lights, quickly say “Bloody Mary” three times, and then bolt, slamming the door behind her, and cackling as I was left to fend for myself with whatever monster was going to come out of the mirror.
She’s either a psychopath or a skeptic. I’m going with the latter, but the jury’s still out.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
Yes. No matter how many times you disproved it there was some idiot who always believed.
AshDogBucket@reddit
Yep, I was in mass and NY and it was a thing!!
LikelyLioar@reddit
"Bloody Mary, witch witch."
You had to say it in front of a mirror by candlelight, and you had to say it three times while turning three times. I did it, but she never showed.
cellrdoor2@reddit
We did this at sleepovers in the Midwest when I was a kid. I had a book about the supernatural/ghosts that said it was a game based on Queen Mary the 1st because she killed so many Protestants. A possible precursor to the game is even mentioned in Pepy’s diaries in the 17th century. I haven’t looked it up recently though so this might be 1980s outmoded info at this point!
TimeEfficient1588@reddit
It was definitely a thing in South Jersey
echochilde@reddit
Oh yeah. Bloody Mary was definitely a thing. Say her name three times in the mirror with the lights off and she’ll appear.
Not gonna lie, it took me a long time to work up the courage to do it despite never believing in the paranormal.
Ggface36@reddit
Yes. I remember 3rd grade at a sleepover, some kids started doing it, after watching Child's Play, as if that wasn't scary enough at the too young age of 8
CompletelyBedWasted@reddit
Yup. In the south we have a version called the Bell witch too.
Pharmacy_Duck@reddit
At middle school in the UK in the 80s it was "Mary White". Once or twice a school year, a third-hand rumour would go round the playground that somebody had "seen" her, but only the 1st years (8-9 yrs old) ever believed it.
anxious_matter1101@reddit
🪞 I believe in bloody Mary I believe in bloody Mary I believe in bloody Mary
She didn't believe in me, she never showed. What a bitch.
ebzees@reddit
For sure! I never did it and still too scared to try. That one buried in deep
lavasca@reddit
Absolutely! It was the thing to do at sleepovers and sleep away camp. Nobody wanted to do that in their own house or was at least okay with it coming for their guests.
bascule@reddit
Same thing happens if you say Biggie Smalls three times
someguyfromsk@reddit
Yup, there was a girl in my class who claimed to be able to have full, lengthy conversations with "Mary"
Epicardiectomist@reddit
absolutely, my sister used to force me to do it. Mysteriously, nothing happened.
Turned out the bloodthirsty witch was my sister.
Temporary-Warning883@reddit
Yes I remember and my neighbor who was 3 years older than me was the one who told me when I was pretty young (maybe 10?). Anyways I was afraid to go into a bathroom with the lights out for a long time
SweetCosmicPope@reddit
Grew up in Texas.
I had a sleepover with two of my friends for my birthday when I was like 8. Now the way the bathroom was setup in our house was a jack and jill full bathroom. So my room had a powder room attached that then went into the bathroom, and on the other side, my sister's room also had a powder room that went into the bathroom.
At this sleepover, we decided to play bloody mary with the lights out and with some candles lit in one of the powder rooms. One of my friends excused themselves to the restroom while the other friend and I did our magic. We said the name the three times, and after the third time my other friend came walking out of the bathroom and scared the living shit out of us and we were knocking each other over to get out of the powder room. lol
deefunkt01@reddit
South Florida here, we had that too.
MrsSpookyMulder47@reddit
Yup! North Jersey and it was definitely a thing.
red-eye-green-tree@reddit
We had this in Minnesota. Bonus points if you did it in a red bathroom with some red candles.
Moxie_Stardust@reddit
Learned about this on an American military base in Japan in the mid-80s.
NoAnnual3259@reddit
Yes, we did this both in Canada and Northern California when I was a kid.
cloudydays2021@reddit
Grew up here in NYC and it was definitely a thing!