Bloody Mary

Personal Background:

Heidi is a freshman at the University of Southern California and is studying psychology. She has grown up in Los Angeles with a lot of Mexican/American influence. She really enjoyed being able to have part of the two different cultures come together.

Legend:

Heidi heard a lot of the legendary people who tend to haunt a lot of Mexican culture, but the one about Bloody Mary is the one she liked the most.

“When you are looking in the bathroom mirror, you say her name three times and she appears. The room has to be dark, and it has to be at night. She then comes out and kills you.”

This was all Heidi was able to remember. She did say she heard something about Bloody Mary being related to the Queen Mary. She thinks Mary might have been killed in a dark room while looking in a mirror, which is why she comes out of mirrors. She said she heard about this when she was watching TV when she was younger, and it just happened that everyone knew what she was while she was at school. It scared her terribly when she was younger, and still scares her today. She has never tried it, and says she will never try because she thinks it might be the one time Bloody Mary will appear.

Analysis:

This legend has been a big part of a lot of children horror. Bloody Mary could have been someone who existed at one time, but she has become a legend. She is a story told to young children as a way to scare them.

To me, this story has been told so many times I do not believe it anymore. My older brother used to try to scare me with in when I was younger by trying it. It did not work, so there was no need to believe it. Even if I think of if that way, it is something that keeps getting revised, and will keep changing for the new generations.

There are more versions at “Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary.” VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever. Ed. Jim Craddock. 2012 ed. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 602. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 May 2014.