The Strange and Unusual Podcast
Games You Shouldn’t Play After Dark: Nine Invitations to the Unknown
Episode Summary
From Bloody Mary to the Midnight Game, we explore the eerie histories, unsettling rules, and reported experiences behind games best left unplayed after dark. Turn down the lights, just don’t invite anything in.
Episode Notes
From Bloody Mary to the Midnight Game, we explore the eerie histories, unsettling rules, and reported experiences behind games best left unplayed after dark. Turn down the lights, just don’t invite anything in.
Sources
- Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board: Samuel Pepys’s diary entry for July 31, 1665, recording Mr. Brisband’s account of a similar lifting demonstration.
- Bloody Mary: Alan Dundes, “Bloody Mary in the Mirror: A Ritual Reflection of Pre-Pubescent Anxiety”, Western Folklore (1998).
- Mirror illusions: Giovanni B. Caputo, “Strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion”, Perception (2010).
- One Hundred Ghost Stories: Zack Davisson’s translation of “On Cutting a Spider’s Leg During a Game of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai,” from Tonoigusa.
- Ouija and The Exorcist: Saint Louis University, “SLU Legends and Lore: The 1949 St. Louis Exorcism.”
- Ouija and unconscious movement: Hélène Gauchou, Ronald Rensink, and Sidney Fels, “Expression of nonconscious knowledge via ideomotor actions”, Consciousness and Cognition (2012).
- Charlie Charlie: Lucia Peters, “The Most Dangerous Games: Charlie Charlie,” The Ghost in My Machine.
- The Elevator Game: Lucia Peters, “On the Elevator Game: The History of a Modern Urban Legend and Its Real-Life Connections & Consequences.”
- Hide-and-Seek Alone: Lucia Peters, “One-Man Hide and Seek (Hitori Kakurenbo).”
- Three Kings: FableForge’s original Reddit post, “Please don’t actually try this.”
- The Midnight Game: Lucia Peters, “The Most Dangerous Games: The Midnight Game,” including discussion of its traceable online history.