The Hook Man

Punishing teenagers for impure thoughts and feelings is a staple in the horror genre, and nobody knows how to interrupt an intimate moment between two high school lovers than the taunting man with a hook for a hand.

The legend starts in the middle of the night. Two teenagers, usually male and female, are alone in their car in the middle of a wooded area, completely private and all alone. While they're in the middle of.. a conversation.. the couple are disturbed when they hear a strange scratching sound. They stop and listen for a minute, but when they hear nothing they continue.. talking. And then the scratching starts again.

Interestingly, there are two variations on the ending of this story.

1) This time, the boy, annoyed at his "riveting conversation" being disturbed, decides to go and investigate the mysterious scratching noise, while the female teenager stays in the car. The scratching noise continues to get worse, scraping all down the side of the car from the front to the back. There is silence, before a series of strange noises, banging and scraping, come from the roof of the car.

Terrified, the girl gets out of the car and runs away. She turns to take a sneaky peek, and screams as she sees her boyfriend's bloodied corpse hanging from a tree above the car, his head and his finger tips scraping against the roof.

2) The boyfriend wants to get out of the car and investigate but the girl is terrified and insists that they leave. He eventually relents and reluctantly decides to drive the girl home. When they finally reach somewhere they are safe, they get out of the car and are horrified to find a bloodied hook dangling from the car door handle, as though it had been torn off from their attackers arm as they were driving away.

Both versions of the story act as a moral warning to teenagers; Don't engage in risky behaviour and don't drive into places where you cannot ensure your safety. The threat of attack from a mysterious killer with no clear motivation is prominent in both stories, inspiring a complete sense of helplessness in its characters.

So if you're thinking about taking a late night trip to the woods for some healthy conversation with a friend, you might want to rethink where you decide to park your car.