Depending on where you grew up, you might feel like you’re surrounded by urban legends of what went on there in years past. Way back in the pre-internet days these were spooky things told to mess with young kids and some a bit older, especially with stories of things that went on in high schools years ago to mess with new arrivals. It’s a fertile cottage industry for horror stories of all stripes and one way a lot of young writers get their feet wet in the genre.

There are a lot of them throughout the world and having spent more of my time being familiar with Japanese horror than US horror, I’ve managed to get burned out on them but I still have a favorite. That one being Hanako-san, a Japanese urban legend about the spirit of a young girl named Hanako-san who haunts school bathrooms.  There’s been some comical uses of this in anime but we’ve also had a couple of spooky and dark live-action iterations as well.

What’s your favorite urban legend? And as an obvious bonus, which one do you hate or bores you to tears with how often it’s used?