English Topics Scary Stories
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Alisha: Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha.
Today, I am joined again by…
Michael: Michael. Hello!
Alisha: And today, in a special Halloween
episode of English Topics, we’re going to
be talking about English Scary Stories.
So, let’s begin.
Each of us have prepared a few things.
Particularly, things that scared us when we
were kids, I think.
But, maybe there are some things that still
scare us today.
I don’t know.
Before we start, how are you for scary stories?
Do they bother you?
Do they get to you as an adult now?
Michael: Mm.
Not really.
But, it’s not, trying to be macho like, “Oh,
I’m not scared.”
When I watch scary movies, I get really scared
and get really into it.
Not “gore” as much.
Gore, I don’t care about.
I grew up with violent video games, that kind
of stuff.
That doesn’t faze me.
Internet, you see all sorts of crazy stuff
but like when it’s psychological, I get into
it and it stays with me, then I get scared.
But stories, I don’t know, it’s tough to be
scared by story.
I think I’m spoiled now.
So, a story?
I don’t know.
I mean when’s the last time someone told you
a story and you got really into it and like—
Alisha: Ah, just hearing the story?
Michael: Yeah, just imagining.
Alisha: Probably get a little bit dark but
when someone tells me about something really
shocking that happened to them, not so much
a ghost story but it’s something scary that
happened to them in real life.
Then I feel shocked.
But, when you’re watching a scary movie, do
you–?
I’m really bad with scary movies.
I hide or I like to turn off the sound or
turn all the lights in my house or I cry sometimes.
I can’t handle scary at all.
Scary movies?
Nope.
Michael: Really.
Alisha: They’re fun to a point but then I
can’t watch them.
Okay.
Well with that in mind maybe…
Michael: Anyways, so—
Alisha: Alright.
I’ll start off.
I went very generic with mine.
The first one, again, this is something from
childhood.
For me, “The Boogieman.”
The Boogieman is sort of a generic, it’s a
word that parents would use with kids, I think,
just for the bad guy.
So, Boogieman–if the child is misbehaving
or maybe they’re supposed to go to bed, they’re
off being mischievous or whatever.
Maybe mom or dad would say, “The Boogieman
will get you.”
Or “Watch out for the Boogieman.”
The Boogieman is just a catch-all term for
a bad guy or somebody bad, some bad monster
creature.
So, if there wasn’t a specific name for the
monster, a specific name for the bad guy or
the bad person, you could just call it the
Boogieman.
And it was adequately scary, I think, for
most kids.
Did you—?
Michael: Yeah, everybody knows the Boogieman.
And I think that’s true, it’s just kind
of a catch-all, archetype monster.
But, I think, for most families, at least
I never knew anybody who said the Boogieman
blah, blah, blah, blah.
You see it in movies when people talk about
monsters they say, “the Boogieman.”
It’s kind of when you’re just trying to think
of a name for a person and you’re “Joe”
or “John.”
It’s just kind of a name.
But, for me, as a kid, or if there are monsters,
it was, “The blah, blah, blah monster under
your bed.”
It would have a specific the–that forest
or the closet ghost or whatever.
Something like that.
I don’t know.
Just for an example, it would be a specific
monster like this, I think–I never had anybody
actually tell me the Boogieman was going to
get me.
I would just see it movies and you just see
it when I’m talking about—
Alisha: Maybe that’s true.
I don’t know.
I feel maybe that’s true.
It’s maybe more in movies and it is actual
parental child conversations.
Michael: But, at least nowadays, I don’t know.
Maybe back in the day.
This one was an urban myth that was one of
the only ones that I was told and it scared
me so bad, is “Bloody Mary.”
So, not the drink, but Bloody Mary, I wasn’t
sure if it should be capitalized or not.
I don’t know if it’s—
Michael: Oh!
Alisha: Samesies!
Michael: Samesies.
Did you do it?
So—
Alisha: No!
I was too scared.
Please explain what is Bloody Mary.
Michael: So, Bloody Mary, I remember this
in elementary.
There’s a vivid memory and I remember most
things back in elementary.
But, me and my friends are sitting there in
the hallway in between the classes and they’re
like, “If you go in the bathroom, turn off
all the lights, look in the mirror and say,
‘Bloody Mary,’ three times.
Then she’ll appear and she’ll get you.”
And, I don’t remember the backstory.
It was just some dead woman.
I think this comes from a long time ago like
Queen Mary.
But, at the time, as a kid, it was just a
scary old lady or something and I saw her.
And, of course, it’s just my own reflection,
your eyes are playing tricks on you but I
ran out the bathroom.
I was so scared, heart-pumping, out of my
chest.
Alisha: Yup, yup.
Absolutely.
That was terrifying for me, too.
I never had the guts to do it.
You actually did it?
Michael: Yeah.
Alisha: I didn’t.
Michael: It was stupid for me to do it.
I was so scary.
I ran into the class.
Alisha: I never had the guts to.
There were a couple times when I thought I
would try or I thought I had the guts to do
it in a slumber party with my friends.
But I’d get to the bathroom and all the lights
would be off and I’m like, “Nope, this is
not happening.”
And then I just leave.
I just can’t handle this stuff.
The other one that I thought of, that was
similar to this and I think there’s a movie
made out of it.
I don’t know.
It’s an urban legend but it was called “Candyman.”
It was a similar thing like you say, “Candyman”
in the mirror a few times but in this case,
it was a man who would appear behind you and
then.
I don’t know.
Cut you or something.
I picked a really generic one that’s still
sort of scary.
I just went with “Haunted Houses” and
what I mean by haunted houses is in your childhood,
at least I imagine in American childhoods,
there are often be around Halloween at a school
or at a neighborhood house.
Someone’s house or someone’s whole school
will be transformed into just this scary,
scary place.
So, they’ll hang up decorations, they’ll turn
off all the lights, there will be all this
sort of scary things to do.
The one that always really scared me was they
would take a bowl of grapes essentially but
they’d peel them and put them in and put them
in a dark place so you couldn’t see anything.
But they’d say, “Put your hand inside.”
And then maybe the next one would be like
cold spaghetti and they’d say, “This is
someone’s eyeballs.”
“This is someone’s brains.”
I could never handle that kind of thing or
behind curtains, people will jump out.
Nope.
So, I still can’t do that kind of thing.
It’s still terrifying to me, I won’t do
it.
Really.
I’m really not good at scary at all.
Michael: I like haunted houses.
I mean there was a couple we’d go to.
There was one of those in my neighborhood
and I think it was abandoned.
I don’t think anyone lived there.
We called it “the goat house” because
everyone said all we’d see is a goat on the
area.
I didn’t live in like a farm area, it was
a suburb.
So, it was really weird.
And it was just once in a blue moon, there
would just be a random goat in this plot of
land.
Alisha: Okay.
Please tell me how you made a goat house scary.
How is that scary?
Michael: Yeah, it sounds stupid when I tell
you guys but it was so creepy, man.
Well, I’m going to kind of cheat and use this
one.
This one scared me so much as a kid and I
don’t know if this is a universal or Western
thing like in English movies is the “mannequin”
or the “doll that’s alive.”
Right, that scared me so much.
I think once you see it, then you think it.
Even the “Toy Story” because of the toys.
It’s a happy movie but even that, it’s in
my imagination.
So, as a kid, I would just stare at my dolls
and just kind of give them the skeptical eye.
Are you alive?
And, I’d close my eyes and I’d do that and
I try to catch him.
“Chucky.”
Alisha: Yeah, there are a few movies.
I think they were made at that time.
It’s like a killer doll or some inanimate
object that would come to life and get you.
That never got to me.
What did get to me though was, I think, I
saw that Jim Carrey movie, “The Truman Show.”
There was that movie where the whole–it wasn’t
even meant to be a scary movie but just the
whole life was not real and there were people
watching around everything that you did.
That made me paranoid for like a good 20 years.
Michael: Amen, dude.
I don’t know if we talked about this before
but that was the same thing that I would look.
I’d be going to the bathroom and I’d be there’s
a hidden camera somewhere.
This is like that movie you know–kid’s
imaginations are too big.
I think you see a movie, reality.
And you hear a story, reality.
Alisha: That one’s stuck with me for a really
long time.
I’d like a word with the people who made
that movie.
I would like several words with them.
Anyway, you have one more, I think.
Michael: I do.
Alisha: I can see it.
Michael: Well, this one’s kind of lame but
“la Chupacabra.”
So, it’s not really English but because at
least in America, we’re very close to Mexico,
we have had a lot of Spanish influence.
So, that’s basically our story as well so
I grew up hearing stories about this.
It was a demon monster that would eat goats.
Oh, men.
Full circle, there we go.
This wasn’t something that really scared me
but this is one of the few urban legends that
I still heard and people still believed like
Bigfoot or something like that.
Alisha: This is a monster story, right.
It could eat small animals, he could eat kids
or people, right.
Michael: But, they believed it.
There’s a lot of monsters that you’re like,
“That doesn’t exist,” but–
Alisha: But “Chupacabra” is one that’s
like, “Well there’s some legitimate evidence
that there is a Chupacabra.”
Michael: Yes, just like Bigfoot.
Alisha: A “Chupacabra” colony.
Okay.
All right.
That was actually a nice little, varied group
of things that are scary especially for young
American children.
Maybe if you have the guts, you can try Bloody
Mary in the mirror.
See how it goes for you.
We’re not responsible if anything bad happens
to you, by the way.
Alright.
Great.
So, maybe around Halloween you can think of
a few of these and maybe try them on your
friends, see how they react.
That could be kind of fun.
Is there anything that you’d like to do
to your friends around Halloween?
Michael: Jump out and scare them.
Alisha: Yeah, that’s a good one.
Michael: Drawn a blank.
Alisha: Well, if all else fails just jump
out and scare your friends this Halloween.
Alright. Thank you very much for joining us for this
episode of English Topics.
We will see you again soon.
We have something else fun to talk about.
Bye.