Myths, urban legends, cryptozoology? We love them. We love to read about them. We love the local legends from the Beast of bray Road, to the chupacabra? Do they exist? Who Knows? Every legend is born with some grain of truth, however minuscule. They’re still fun to read about though, and they’re exciting to research, to boot. The world is so vast and still so mysterious, who knows what we have yet to find? Here are five of our favorite myths/urban legends that deserve a great movie. It has to happen, eventually.
Slenderman
The Legend: Admittedly, this legend is made up on the internet and was a contest entry for Creepypasta. Oddly enough the legend was so good it cemented the character of Slenderman as a modern boogeyman of pop culture. And surely enough some people are convinced he’s existed and is an actual legend. He’s a mysterious suited monster with a blank white face prone to luring children in to his world and kidnapping them.
How We’d Adapt The Legend: Slenderman should be shrouded in mystery and should be a constant menace in the background. The film should be about the legend of Slenderman and how he affects a group of people that have been tainted by his legacy in one way or another. No rampaging monster, no full reveal of the being, just Slenderman really destroying peoples’ lives, and then displaying his sentience a few times to show that he’s a being to truly be feared. He’s the boogeyman, so keep him mysterious, and consistently terrifying.
Spring Heeled Jack
The Legend: Spring-heeled Jack is an entity in English folklore of the Victorian era. The first claimed sighting of Spring-heeled Jack was in 1837. Spring-heeled Jack was described by people who claimed to have seen him as having a terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy, clawed hands, and eyes that “resembled red balls of fire.”
How We’d Adapt the Legend: This would be a part slasher film, and part mystery. Is there really some being out there stalking people and murdering them? Is there something paranormal or supernatural stalking innocent victims? Or is it all just one big case of hysteria. I’d focus the movie on perhaps a detective or investigator who comes across people that have experienced Spring Heeled Jack, and perhaps is hell bent on tracking the being down to see if there really is something extraordinary at work in the darkness. It should be a film very similar to a Val Lewton movie.
The Mothman
The Legend: Mothman is a moth-like creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia from November 15, 1966 to December 15, 1967. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register dated November 16, 1966, titled “Couples See Man-Sized Bird…Creature…Something”. The 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, claimed that Mothman was related to a wide array of supernatural events in the area and the collapse of the Silver Bridge.
How We’d Adapt the Legend: I’d make a film very similar to “The Mothman Prophecies” except… scary… and you know… actually garnering something of a glimpse of a moth man somewhere. I don’t think we have to see the creature in all of its glory, but rebuilding the monster by the recollections of people that have survived encounters with the monster would be really good. I’d also set the movie in the sixties, shortly before the bridge collapse, and hint that the mothman is something much more dire than just a monster hiding in the woods. Maybe he’s an omen of even worse events to plague man kind. “The Mothman Prophecies” almost got the formula down and was, in its own right, a solid drama mystery, but it could have amped up the terror much more. My movie would embrace the horror element, and keep the mothman consistently horrifying and yet mysterious.
The Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter
The Legend: The Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter was a series of incidents of alleged close encounters with supposed extraterrestrial beings. Members of two families report seeing unidentifiable creatures. The seven people present claim that they were terrorized by an unknown number of creatures similar to gremlins. They described them as being around three feet tall, with upright pointed ears, thin limbs (their legs were said to be almost in a state of atrophy), long arms and claw-like hands or talons. Although the creatures never entered the house, they would pop up at windows and at the doorway, waking up the children in the house in a hysterical frenzy.
How We’d Adapt the Legend: This is a movie that’s most deserving of a great horror science fiction film. I’d mix the claustrophobia of “Night of the Living Dead,” the menace of “Signs,” and the horror of “Ils Them” to really pack a horrifying alien home invasion movie. It’d keep the aliens constantly shrouded in the dark and utterly enigmatic for most of the film, and what features we’d see of them would be absolutely haunting. When we finally do see them it should be memorable, and perhaps even slightly disturbing. I’d focus on a disjointed family, and how they come together to attack a series of very powerful intruders that will stop at nothing for a seemingly inexplicable reason. This legend is overdue for one really great horror film.
The Hound of Mons
The Legend: The result of Horrific Mythic experiments by German scientist Dr. Gottlieb Hochmuller during World War One, with the intention of creating the ultimate terror weapon. Utilizing one of the many types of Black Hound, Dr. Hochmuller removed the myths brain and inserted the mind of a deranged killer. After being given time to heal, the Hound was given training and released into no mans land. After two years of terrifying the British front, the Hound vanished.
How We’d Adapt the Legend: I’d transform this legend in to “Saving Private Ryan” meets “The Edge,” with a hint of “Dog Soldiers.” It’d be a trek across the war zone to get to safety and finding a company of soldiers hopelessly fleeing for their lives as they’re stalked by the hound of mons and knocked off one by one. Maybe they’d also eventually have to team up with a few of their enemies to reach the common ground of not being horribly mutilated by a very powerful and utterly supernatural monster fiending for blood. It’d be creepy, action packed, and keep the hound consistently enigmatic and ambiguous. We don’t have to learn the complete back story of the hound, just what the characters have heard over the years, and from locals. It also would be very gory.