Bloody Mary folklore in popular culture

Both folk and urban legends have served as inspiration for a number of popular culture depictions of Bloody Mary,^[1] especially in movies and television shows dealing with the supernatural.

Specific cultural references

Specific reference to Bloody Mary are made in the following:

Film

• Bloody Mary, a 2006 film set in a psychiatric hospital which is based on the legend;^[2]
• Paranormal Activity 3, a 2011 sequel/prequel in the Paranormal Activity film franchise.
• The Legend of Bloody Mary, a 2008 film by director John Stecenko includes a character, Amy, who goes missing for good after playing the game "Bloody Mary".^[3]
• Urban Legends: Bloody Mary a 2005 sequel to the Urban Legend film franchise.

Stage

• In 2008, for its annual "Halloween Horror Nights" event, Universal Studios Florida developed a new variation of the legend. In their version, "Mary" was a doctor who studied fear by exposing her patients to it.^[4]

Television

• A season two episode of Charmed ("Chick Flick"), involves a demon who makes killers from different horror movies come to life. One of these killers is Bloody Mary.^[5]
• In the Ghost Whisperer TV series' third season, an episode ("Don't Try This at Home") involves the Bloody Mary legend.^[6]
• Supernatural, the paranormal TV series, had an episode that was titled, "Bloody Mary", during its first season, involving a ghost that attacked those who were looking into a mirror while her name was repeated. She was only capable of 'leaping' into mirrors within a certain range of the mirror that she killed herself in front of, and would only attack people who looked in a mirror while her name was being invoked- whether they were the ones who said her name or not- if they had some secret relating to their role in another's death, whether it was a man killing his wife and disguising it as a suicide or a young woman whose obsessive boyfriend killed himself because she left him.^[7]
• An X-Files episode (Syzygy) concerns her legend;^[8]
• Mentioned in Warehouse 13 at various times, about a large mirror in the warehouse, in relation to Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland story.
• In the South Park episode Hell on Earth 2006, the Bloody Mary chant is parodied, with the boys daring each other to chant "Biggie Smalls" into a mirror 3 times. When Butters finishes the chant, Biggie Smalls appears.

Video games

• The Wolf Among Us, a video game based on the Fables comic book series, introduces the Bloody Mary legend as a Fable and one of the key antagonists in the game.^[9] She is voiced by Kathryn Cressida.

Books

• Say Her Name by James Dawson
• Mary: The Summoning by Hillary Monahan

Other

• The Bloody Mary Show, a British comedy webseries which portrays Bloody Mary's daily life.^[10]
• Bloody+Mary, a manga by Samamiya Akaza which tells about a vampire named Bloody Mary who asked a human priest to kill him.

References and notes

1. Bloody Mary at Urban Legends
2. IMdB: Bloody Mary plot summary
3. IMdB: The Legend of Bloody Mary plot summary
4. Bevil, Dewayne (2008-09-25). "Universal crafts Bloody Mary bio for Halloween Horror Nights". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
5. Charmed episode; TV.COM
6. "The Ghost Whisperer Season 3 Episode 2, "Don't Try This At Home"". Internet Movie Database.
7. "Supernatural Season 1, Episode 5 "Bloody Mary"". Internet Movie Database.
8. • Lowry, Brian (1996). Trust No One: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. ISBN 0-06-105353-8.
9. Tito, Greg (2014-04-08). "The Wolf Among Us Episode 3: A Crooked Mile Review - Yes!". Escapist. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
10. The Bloody Mary Show at YouTube.