The VERY Messed Up Origins of THE PALE LADY | Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

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» 1:00 - Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
» 3:17 - The Dream (Book)
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▼ Credits ▼
» Written & Directed by: Jon Solo
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» Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 3
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#messeduporigins #scarystoriestotellinthedark #palelady

[@JonSolo]

Thanks to Bespoke Post for sponsoring this video! New subscribers get 20% off their first box of awesome - go to bespokepost.com/jonsolo20 and enter code JONSOLO20 at checkout.

[@Thornfinna876]

Hey @Jon Solo could you please do a mess up origins to both Dracula and Frankenstein please and thank you

[@lashonnakennybrew4847]

Jon solo you should do a video about 5 monster so powerful even the gods and Titans fear them please 🙏 Greek mythology

[@ajerman9978]

JonSolo I’m such a big fan of your channel of course however can you please review The Drum from this series. By far one of the scariest stories from this series to me n no one ever done a review on it🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[@daslez2475]

Can you cover the story the girl with the green ribbon who lost her neck from the book series in a dark dark room?

[@TheCommonGentry]

i liked the night mara connection. the whole pressure against the chest. what the pale lady ends up doing is like that but vertical. i have two suggestions from the 1/2/3 Book. i dont remember where they thy're at, but 1) THE VIPER and 2) the room number one [where the mom {i think} feels ill in a foreign country with her daughter; so they go back to their hotel room -- daughter leaving mom behind and returning to the city {i think it's paris}; when the daughter returns, the mom is gone and room is totally rearranged with different decor, lay out, everything, and the hotel admins tell her they were never in that hotel to begin with -- emphasizing that a woman going by her mom's name never checked in.] The second story freaks me out all the time and to read the ""lore"" behind it is terrifying. THE VIPER is just awesome, especially when you do the set up just right and hit the delivery. it's great at parties.

[@NicoUnken]

The pale lady plays on the uncanny valley effect so well. She isn't really terrifying, but she's so skin-crawlingly creepy to look at.

[@littleredpony6868]

I agree and this video is my introduction to her

[@Landooblitz]

I think she is quite cute and funny when you think about it from the comedic standpoint

[@jamesvictorbarrera6836]

That's how I see these monstrosities

[@GrosvnerMcaffrey]

I always thought the thing was worse but that's just me

[@RodentMcGregorTheRodentMan]

She kinda looks like a porpoise

[@lilygamingtheories1410]

Honestly the pale lady isn’t even evil, she was warning Lucy… not sure why most people say she’s the worst when Harold literally flayed you alive… she seems harmless

[@vanhornfamily3757]

I was literally saying this to my husband.

[@anyathepanther7977]

Honestly i am more curious what the old Lady does to her visitors.... Was paly one of her Victims? Does she look like that becouse of Granny?

[@NameWitheldByRequest]

Because she looks terrifying🫥

[@PyroWolfofEarth]

I honestly forgot about all of them and had to look them up, but as soon as someone mentioned Harold in the comments and what he did it all came flooding back. My poor traumatized brain was protecting me from Harold.

[@spicybeantofu]

@@NameWitheldByRequest the drawing is cute

[@stephanieleland8671]

The Pale Lady’s picture was always a little unsettling, but she also has that little smile that makes her seem kind. And reading the story as a kid, I was certain the Pale Lady was trying to save Lucy. In fairness, I didn’t suspect the old lady until I read the story again as an adult. I think as a kid, I imagined the house was going to collapse or burn down. The story that sticks with me the most is The Drum. I was a difficult kid to manage and the idea that my mother might get fed up and ditch me, and leave a monstrosity behind to take care of me, was terrifying.

[@kristajones7202]

'The Drums TERRIFIED me, both because children would terrorize their mom like that over a drum, and that the mother actually followed through with what she said.

[@troin3925]

@@kristajones7202 Surprisingly, the original story that The Drum was based on "The New Mother" was one of the two main inspirations for the Coraline novel (the other I assume to be Alice in Wonderland). Who knew that two great examples of scary children's horror that haunted my childhood (Coraline and Scary Stories To Tell in The Dark), were associated with each other in some way.

[@GothicKitty22]

"...but remember, when Alvin Schwartz wrote this series, he didn't come up with these tales off the top of his head. He scoured the globe for the spookiest tales he could find, and then adapted them perfectly to give children nightmares for decades..." lol I love this quote.

[@jbear3478]

Honestly who would we be without them

[@WhiteMageRae]

“The Dream” story itself doesn’t freak me out, but The Pale Lady artwork scared the crap out of me and still unsettles me. Seeing her in the Scary Stories to tell in the Dark movie made me sooo uncomfortable!

[@thatbeaatcch9884]

I’m glad I’m not the only one

[@nompingwenyama1222]

😭😭😭 me too

[@Justme-zh5gc]

Got mad shivers watching this

[@TTerilee]

Exactly

[@jasonkaplan7575]

I’m so scared of the pale lady

[@Haley_Halo]

You should absolutely make this series a staple of the channel!

[@gravethebeyond]

I agree.

[@damonrobinson5458]

Approved

[@bane5807]

Yes I agree!

[@ShellShock11C]

HARD AGREE

[@NordicDan]

Seconded

[@Aidenfirewing3470]

Elizabeth's story reminds me of a story on Reddit I came across many years ago. This man started seeing a male figure in the corner of his vision, every now and then. First, out on the streets, later staring at him from his window. He started getting paranoid but brushed it off. The figure was always too quick to get a picture. As time went on, his sightings became more and more frequent, and he made the reddit post after seeing him in front of his moving car, and other impossible places (on or in buildings, on power lines, etc), and understandably, he was extremely frightened. Commenters asked some questions about his family history, and he updated weeks later that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. It can make you extremely paranoid, because for all you know it feels so real. And when your biggest tool for interpreting and managing the world around you is working incorrectly, how could you be expected to know better? Especially when at Elizabeth's time, mental health wasn't really understood. I wonder if thats what she had, and if so, I can very much believe it.

[@aanimavilis1492]

I have hallucinations for time to time. Also I'm dealing with chronic nightmares. Hallucinations happens usually when I'm stressed out. Like one I saw flay and I notice that on table is lying rotten apple full of maggots. I was hearing cat drinking water while there's was no cat, even seeing a very big spider under chair in doctor office (he run under other chair and disappear) It's just very stressful bc i feel like I can't trust myself anymore. I thankfully can identify what is real and what's not but only when hallucination ends. When I see this "alive" that's very difficult. Nightmares also are exuasting. Sometimes I have a dream that someone tries to enter my house with knife, in other I'm locked in cage with monster eating my veins. That's so scary.

[@Cammyhavok]

ITS SO LONG

[@Tyvurss]

Holy shit?

[@SpydersByte]

@@aanimavilis1492 man that must be rough. Ive had chronic nightmares at periods in my life and theyre really horrible to go through. Especially when you first wake up and you still feel like that terrible thing really happened and it takes a while to get out of that awkward feeling. I have one somewhat recurring theme where Im in a house I recognize but isnt my own and I can just FEEL that there is something evil inside it and often there is a voice but Im never able to look at whatever is making it no matter how hard I try, and I never remember exactly what it says. I guess its kinda like sleep paralysis but the kind that takes place in a dream not after waking, usually I can kinda force my actual body to move and wake me up. But at the same time Ive always considered myself to be lucky that I dont experience actual waking sleep paralysis where people see things or, even worse, actual hallucinations because that seems like a true waking nightmare. Hopefully you find some treatment that works for you.

[@Guernicaman]

The design of the "Pale Lady" is akin to that of a victim of drowning at sea. If you've ever had the misfortune of seeing a corpse of a person who's drowned at sea - w/its pale skin & bloated body, you can see where the illustrator likely got the idea from for the Pale Lady.

[@Human_81]

This was a while ago but I once saw a drowning victim while biking near a local lake, the police were investigating the area, and I was curious of what happened. I couldn’t tell if they were a man or a woman. But what sticks in my mind today is their bloated belly and their super pale and rotting skin. I saw them from far away so I couldn’t see their face well either, but it looked insanely pruny and deformed. To this day I still wonder what happened.

[@jeff-hd9og]

@@Human_81bro couldn’t swim

[@Human_81]

@@jeff-hd9og nope I guess not, it’s surprising a lot of people can, every year there are A LOT of life’s lost to drowning, it’s crazy.

[@alio6051]

that's terrifying

[@samanthahenson382]

The pale lady doesn't scare me. It's the sense of foreboding that her presence eminates.

[@Jackson-9mk]

Do the big toe next

[@nuuuuuuuut]

I just found this video randomly, but as a kid I couldn't even read her story. The image just scared the fck out of me

[@samanthahenson382]

@@nuuuuuuuut The artwork is fabulously creepy.

[@thatbeaatcch9884]

@@samanthahenson382agreed!

[@user-lp1fn8rg4n]

​​@@thatbeaatcch9884as an Indian when I first read about this i had some very scary dreams and I was waking up in the middle of the night for 5 weeks

[@mcmptn]

This story always scared me because there have been times in my life when I've been somewhere I've never visited before, and it looked just like a place I once saw in my dream. My mother also used to have a recurring dream that my father was killed in a car accident, and she knew the specific car and that there were Little Debbie wrappers on the floor, and the accident happened next to a field of Angus cattle. After having the dream one too many times, she ended up selling the car to my uncle...who had an accident, but survived. It was just across from a field of Angus cattle, and there were Little Debbie wrappers on the floor. I don't think every dream we have means something, but sometimes they do. There are also a lot of stories about people having gut feelings or premonitions or even seeing ghosts/visions/whatever you believe of their dead relatives warning them about something, and because they listened, those people are alive. I'm not saying we should all be paranoid, but sometimes if something feels off, or if it starts to feel familiar in a bad way, getting out of the situation might be a good idea.

[@Queen_Katt]

That’s crazy! Glad to know everyone ended up okay

[@yamisarkar91]

I agree 💯👍..... I had dreams that came true years later as a warning or the seem sweet but don't feel right was true too.

[@jbear3478]

Woah that car was haunted as hell

[@reetasaurusrex2884]

See I have the premonition type dreams too....its just I dream exactly how madden 1v1s against my friends go, not anything important

[@phantomspaceman]

"Elizabeth was too tired from riding to places and ordered to take a few weeks to lie in bed. Then she disappeared forever." Nobody could gaslight a woman harder than a Victorian-era doctor.

[@MsAvaDirnt]

Great video, but i think you may have missed something. The 3 tales (Pale Lady in book, Pale Lady in movie, and Elizabeth's nameless man) have 1 thing in common: they were ultimately encountered after the protagonist actively tried to *avoid* meeting them. If Lucy had simply gone to Kingston, she wouldn't have ended up at the house in Dorset. If Chuck had entered one of the several rooms he passed up (the obviously red rooms or the ones with "red" in their names) he wouldn't have ended up in the white room/hallway. And if Elizabeth hadn't fled to Rome and then acted so scared that The Major elected to leave her there, rather than risk her health by traveling.... she wouldn't have been left vulnerable to the man. I'm not an expert on storytelling or symbolism, but I find stories like these are scary due to the uncertainty that goes along with premonitions. Had these dreams never occurred, would they have encountered the "monster" at all? Maybe the dreams didn't warn of danger to come, but actually set in motion the series of events needed to draw the dreamer in? I don't know the answers but I thought it was an interesting thought 😅

[@birdchild2008]

Amazing theory!!! The story itself is not as scary to me, but the idea of the dreams scaring them so much that it lead them to the very thing they dreaded not to come true, absolutely terrifying.

[@jbear3478]

Right!!!! I feel like that's the catch. Like in buffy when she's foretold she'll die if she meets the master, and he's like well if you hadn't come down here it wouldn't have come true. We have to take their knowledge of the prophecy into account as the catalyst for its activation, or something.

[@DragonSlayer1417]

First time I'm seeing The Pale Lady. Heard of her, but always assumed it was either a painting or a ghost story that wasn't really talked about. First impressions? I'd be scared if she appeared out of nowhere with no warning, but thankful above all else. Curious though how the Pale Lady appears in people's dreams before they go to their destination, only to change it last minute in fear of seeing her, only to meet her in the flesh...in that sense hard to tell if she's in cahoots with the "evil place" or not. Cause dreaming of her leads you to her. Kind of freaky in that regard. Just finished watching, ignore this comment, I'm stupid and understand the scariness now.😱🥶

[@Amy-G-Dala-]

I remember the series got uploaded online - stories & drawings. While I was reading the Pale Lady's story, her drawing blinked. For the first and only time in my life, my blood turned cold. The Pale Lady's drawing turned out to be a gif, but my God, I thought I stumbled on a cursed website and was dead meat 😂

[@ShellShock11C]

NICE

[@KnightsaysNi]

I would've shit my pants, that's horrifying

[@Nutcruncher]

@@KnightsaysNi as an american, when im high in stress and i shit, my feces manifests into an M16. I have had many situations where a gun barrel was sandwiched between my bootycheeks and my sweatpants.

[@soupseer]

😭😭😭

[@HELyasss]

I’ve never been scared of the Pale Lady. Even in the artwork she didn’t feel like a threat. I had always pictured her as being kind, and in the story she was warning Lucy of imminent danger that likely saved her. In the movie I understood she was more than likely a threat but I felt like she was trying to protect the boy rather than harm him.

[@user-od3rb5qc2p]

Exactly, she’s always looked sad and kind to me, and I always felt sorry for her

[@ilovenightcrawler]

I actually hadn't read this story as a kid, so I ended up laughing when the Pale Lady appeared for the second time. She was like "OMFG I literally told you this was an evil place LAST NIGHT. How'd you forget about this creepy room in less than 12 hours?" 😂

[@hunterian2218]

Lol 😆

[@Angelo-tp3xg]

In the girls defense , we do forget what we dream about in around 10 seconds of waking up and that's only if we even remember that we dreamed at all.

[@DarkMark-cf1ec]

idk what you call it, but I call it "prophets fall" where when a person is warned of the future, they run into it. similar to a story where a king did everything to avoid being drowned, only for the bad weather to hide his figure, making his own army trample him in a puddle

[@Wolfbane382]

The Pale Lady never really scared me as a kid. Yes, she's very unsettling to look at, but she never was trying to harm the protag in her story. But rather warning her of her possible death if the protag actually stayed in the room she dreamed about. I don't see the Pale Lady as bad, but more of a warning of impending doom should you choose not to listen. Edit: On the topic of prophetic dreams I've experienced three of them myself. Two of which involved me going to a high school I had never seen before and led me to meet my now husband. And the third was going to a completely different middle school due to my mom having us move. I had all three of the dreams on three different nights when I was in the 6th grade. And they all ended up coming true.

[@Ashley-zg9jo]

I had a dream my GMA died 3 years ago . Called her the next morning she was fine. She died about a week later.

[@Ashley-zg9jo]

I told my bf about the dream in detail . Just so if it came true I wouldn't spend forever feeling insane. I suggest everyone to do this with someone they trust

[@Wolfbane382]

I did tell my mom about mine and begged her not to have us move again. Because I didn't want to go to a different school and leave all my friends behind. You can imagine how well that went over. She blamed it on my ADHD and overactive imagination. When I did have to go to a different middle school for my 8th-grade year, I asked her why did she have to make us move. The only answer she ever gave me? She wanted bigger office space.

[@bloodybee3553]

Apparently prophetic dreams are just kind of a thing in my family, as kids. I have two siblings, and each of us has had a prophetic dream. I don't remember what my older sister's was, but mine was about my pet lizard dying, and my little brother's was about his dad trying to uninstal life. However, these dreams seem to stop for us when puberty hits

[@Wolfbane382]

Wow, that's interesting. Maybe one day down the line it won't vanish once the children hit a certain age.

[@aliciakitchens1810]

This is the one and only stores to tell in the dark. That really shook me not only in the book, but in the movie Netflix adaptation..

[@low-keydrama1260]

I always saw the pale lady appearing to Lucy the final time to give her another/final warning about the situation and Lucy actually heeded it.

[@FaunaJoy]

I never read these books as a kid, but it's fascinating to watch Jon's videos on stuff like this. I would definitely love it if it became a mainstay of the channel.

[@leperface]

I'm so stoked you're covering these. Happy Halloween!

[@XmatineeX]

The movie version of the Pale Lady (at least the hugging scene) reminds me of Moomin's The Groke. She's supernaturally cold and turns everything she touches to ice, and because of this and her ghastly appearance people run away from her. But all she wants is a friend, and to love and be loved. There's a scene in the Moomins where she saves them from a forest fire by roaming around, killing the flames with her presence. Super cool!

[@eriettam2970]

Both the pale lady and the Elizabeth stories remind me of the "Appointment in Samarra" tale. They all saw something that made them believe they were in danger resulting in them actually going to the place where they would actually be in danger

[@EveTheRaviolo]

Woah, you just reminded me of this italian old song called "Samarcanda" about a soldier who is celebrating his victory after war, and he sees a darkly dressed woman which he recognizes as death, staring at him, so he gets scared and tells this to his king, begging him to give him the fastest horse in the land to escape death. The king gives him the fastest horse, and the soldier rides for two days towards Samarcanda. When he gets there, he sees death again, and exhausted he tells her he noticed her looking evilishly at him, and despite his running he couldn't escape her. So death explains him that she wasnt looking at him evilishly, she was just looking at him surprised, because she was waiting for him that day in Samarcanda, and he was so far two days ago that she was afraid she wouldnt make it there in time for her to take him. I just googled the book you mentioned, and apparently the book references an old mesopotamian tale (featured in the book) with this literal exact plot! (except instead of a soldier and a king it's a servant who asks the horse to his master, a merchant) So cool, I had no idea this folk song from my country was inspired on an ancient mesopotamian tale! Thanks for having me find this out haha

[@kendallthompson2027]

I never read the story but I recently watched the movie and I think the fact that she doesn't appear malicious is what is actually terrifying about her. It's extremely unsettling because of the way she just looms there for several minutes giving the audience a sense of doom with a little sliver of hope that Chuck's friends will be there in time. She was the most terrifying to me from the movie because she was the only one that was just kind of there.

[@AY-qy4jn]

Yeah the scariest part of the movie. That thing just kept on coming like gimme a break😂

[@capnd.g.4711]

30 minutes and 3k views. I remember when a vid of his was out for an hour and barely got 1k views. Really moving up there Jon. Just glad all your hard work and dedication to both entertaining and educating people is paying off. Or at least starting to

[@ScarletRain613]

The story that freaked me out the most was the girl who had a nest of spiders explode from her face. Next up probably would have been 'The Thing'.

[@Chickn420]

I have vivid memories of reading these books on the bus ride home after school in the fall. I remember flipping the pages slowly because I was so scared of whatever picture was on the next page. The dead woman’s face haunted my dreams for YEARS and so did Harold. I would walk home from the bus stop and listen for the wendigo in the wind. The pale woman was another one that struck me as terrifying but for some reason I was captivated by this art like nothing else. Thank you for this!

[@bethanyk7475]

I had all 3 books when I was like 12 or 13. I would read stories at Halloween parties and town Halloween events. I always ended with... "the worms crawl in and the worms crawl out" poem. Love when people remember these stories. ❤❤❤

[@lilygamingtheories1410]

Crazy that elementary schools let kids read these stories, I would have figured parents complained about their kids being freaked out. I mean I was the weird kid too but I don’t think my mom would let me read this as a kid. But I do love hearing Jon tell stories

[@alexafuqua8727]

They only care about books talking about sexuality and choices.

[@nmoney6655]

I was shook in elementary school reading this book also Diary of a Wimpy Kid for some reason I found it disturbing how this kid was always complaining about something like his older brother messing with him and his younger brother touching his stuff so I’m glad he was finally doing this story

[@sarahtamblyn8339]

This was before the days of being triggered. We read Stephen King too😅😅😅

[@lalehiandeity1649]

The reprints with new (pussified) illustrations was their stab at paranoid overprotecting.

[@in_vino_veritas7938]

These stories are just like campfire stories, a rite of passage for kids. I was a kid in the 80s/90s and it was great. VC Andrews books however, why my mom let me read those when I was a kid...always thought that was disturbing, but not ghost stories

[@sundaivu5155]

I never clicked a video so fast in my life

[@tiffiebaebee]

Me too. I've never heard of this one.

[@sillybabycats]

ME TOO

[@poly_morphedvoid7190]

​same bruv im not British but I do say bottle'oowwtaaaoooeawatea💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

[@OtsutsukiMelvyn]

@sundaivu5155 me too I was waiting for this episode ever since Harold

[@PixelFurr]

The pale lady is one of my absolute favorite stories in the series!

[@dietcake_222]

Thank you so much for this series! I remember hiding in my closet as a kid with a battery-powered lantern, plopped on a pile of stuffed animals just to read these books over and over again. Your research and telling of these stories that are so dear to me is like a childhood 2.0. I'm not hiding in my closet btw... although...

[@rebasack21]

i was born in the 80s and half lived in the library growing up. i had never encountered this series before this new series about it on here. very interesting. i did read a few goosebump books but they were never scary, just sad. in highschool i devoured a ton of stephen king and dean koontz novels so i do still enjoy horror and fantasy. i look foreward to the rest of this series and learning more about it from the other comments!

[@crystalray2907]

The story of the stowaway on the ship and harold are the stories that got me hooked on the series when I was in middle school before they banned the books. I have those books that I signed out from middle school as my librarian let me have them :)

[@timothygreer188]

It's a wonderful day when @BaileySarian and @JonSolo both do episodes about sleep paralysis demons

[@AdamIshak01]

I want them to collaborate so bad on Dark History for the Messed Up Origins of Disney stories.

[@becksharp5282]

The picture always creeped me out, but Harold has GOT to be the scariest. Even now I HATE scarecrows, and just on the off chance an inanimate object could come to life I'm always super nice to everything 😅

[@HOODBARZ_STUIDOS]

I’m still scared of scarecrows like dam

[@hereverydayadventure]

I was too anxious as a kid to read these books, so I had no idea they were based on folktales until you started featuring them, but now I’m a bit obsessed, gotta say!

[@jacobharris5266]

I have been really enjoying this series and I have never heard of these stories before and your videos made me pick up the first of those books

[@bovineapples3012]

This is definitely one of my favorite ones. Not sure if it was in this series, but the one with the ribbon around the girls neck always gave, and to this day gives me nightmares

[@pipermeh3350]

Omg yessss!!! I had completely forgotten about this but I remember reading it and my mother had to hold a sobbing little me and convince me that ribbons didn't kill people. I still can't believe I was able to check that book out from the library because I think I was too young for that. My parents weren't readers and after that episode my mom put the book in a closet until I found it a couple of years later. I wonder if we still owe fees on it....

[@bovineapples3012]

@@pipermeh3350 😆 probably! Watch out for librarians with ribbons!!!

[@susannahmcquinney7247]

I think it's like, beware the stranger bearing gifts. Or beware the harbinger of death. She seems altruistic, but her actions brought the person off the path they were on, into the path of danger. That's why she is so terrifying. Because she appears to be helpful, when she is the one steering you toward your own demise.

[@jbear3478]

I thought this said autistic and enjoyed the modern day interpretation

[@HOODBARZ_STUIDOS]

@@jbear3478word

[@Nylak-Otter]

Oh, also, a trapdoor carpet square is a full carpet that has a spot in the carpet, like 2' x 2', that has been removed and replaced, just enough that you notice. It's separated from the rest of the carpet because it has a trap door underneath, so the door needs to lift and push the carpeted floor apart. It's less visible if you use long-pile carpet. I have a trap door in a wood floor, so I have a light throw rug over it (you can still push it open, but you can't see it from above).

[@rotten.peachrings]

THIS IS CRAZY!!! BECAUSE I JUET GOT THE BOOK FROM THE LIBRARY LIKE YESTERDAY!!! OMG THANK YOU JON!!

[@thisisEHAM]

I think one thing you miss about the inspiration the mysterious man’s face story has on Pale Lady/The Dream is the thematic comparison. It makes even more sense that the female victim is the Pale Lady from the past because it’s as if the Pale Lady appears to you to make sure you don’t ignore that hunch like she did when she had those premonitions. And I like what you said about the boy from the movie who falls victim to her. She’s merciful in her approach. But I also like that his paranoia to avoid it led to his demise. We see that symbolized onscreen when each turn he makes down a different path, he still sees her. It adds a darker, more “this fate is inevitable” tone vs the book’s wake up call warning.

[@lauraoldmixonbeastmaster6849]

It’s been forever since remembering the stories, but one sticks out to me that still haunts me. It’s one where you look out the window and see the red eyes. Then the eyes get closer and closer. It’s all I remember of it. But wow, it was terrifying

[@TylerRakstis]

It should be a staple of your series, since there's lots of folklore and urban legends to explore with what Alvin Schwartz wrote.

[@jaysonthespasian2563]

The Dead Woman was also sad. She wanted her story heard to put her at peace and finally move on. As creepy as that picture scared, I and a whole generation, it always made me feel saddest amongst the other stories.

[@Decadent_Dandy]

I still remember checking out the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books from my middle school's library. I also recall desperately trying to cover my eyes the first time I saw the Pale Lady. Definitely gave me nightmares, but the series helped introduce me to the horror genre and are probably a big reason I love horror-related stuff today 👍

[@AnnaVaughn4351]

the dream lady story always gave me chills. even you reading it for this story I immediately got goosebumps. I don't have dreams to this severity, but I do have sleep paralysis at times. Not as often then when I was younger, I would be able to dream my future. like the next day a certain event or new person I would meet. I know this could all be coincidence but it was still an errie feeling. my most recent and vivid thing I remembered while sleeping was my bedroom door opening slightly, and in the dark room I could hear the slight shuffling of someone coming close to me and whisper yelling that I needed to wake up in my sister's voice. (We do not live together). I woke up to a start and called her immediately to make sure she was OK. She was but this whole thing shook me.

[@moonkissed5303]

If you're a child from the 80s, 90s, or early 2000s your sleep paralysis is an illustration from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. That's the most truthful statement I've ever heard about my generation. The Pale lady never bothered me, i always felt like she was trying to warn you of some greater evil. Now The Haunt and the weird horse with high heels, I still see those and I'm halfway to 40 lol

[@Allenluvable]

Thank you. I was starting to gaslight myself into thinking that I had remembered this story wrong, because I too remembered her being a kinder spirit, but then all the comments I would read about her would say she was the most terrifying. I didn't have this problem with Harold, he STUCK with me, I only remember all the other stories vaguely, and some not all, but I told everyone i knew the story of Harold, and I never got it wrong. When I saw your Harold video, my sister asked about it, so I started telling it, only to be like, "Well let's just watch the video." But I had been correct in everything I had said and remembered.

[@shannarafrench2716]

It makes me think of the unmother from Inuyasha. She tries to absorb Inuyasha in the same way but the heroine Kagome saves him just in time.

[@user-cj9pn6mw1r]

Probably because this book serious wasn't famous in my country, but I've never felt fear of the Pale Lady. Her expression always made me feel sympathetic towards her, and even a little bit of safety from her. Can't exactly explain, but since I've only came to know this character in my adulthood, my brain and personality had already been molded. Her expression seems so delicate and kind, idk

[@ZeldaQueen64]

I can kind of see how that one story inspired the Pale Lady's story. Both deal with premonitions/visions of a frightening individual, the appearance of whom rattles the woman who sees them. In both cases, it initially appears that the woman escaped the figure and is in a happier place, only to find the fogure still found them. And in both cases, much of the terror comes from the unknown elements of the dangers.

[@nrgbunni.]

Yes you should definitely turn this into a series weather you just want to cover the backstories of scary stories to tell in the dark or just the mythology backstories of film and literature I'll be down for that and I'm sure others would too.

[@jessicamadsen7092]

I knew she wasn’t supposed to be inherently evil, so I was curious how her role would play out in the movie. It made me SO uncomfortable seeing her corner Chuck and then hug and absorb him. 😳 Probably because I figured he was going to suffocate when going inside, and that’s one of my biggest fears. Also, I would LOVE if you could tell the origins of The Wolf Girl.

[@deziiluv]

Maybe it'll turn out in the 2nd movie tht she absorbed him in order to protect him from the other characters from the stories. I mean the 1st movie definitely set had the set up for a second one

[@AY-qy4jn]

What?! That thing looked evil af and her behavior wasnt surprising😂

[@danialarceus5724]

0 matches? Make that 1.

[@ninaricasereybalagat2473]

Agreed

[@Anonymousopposum]

Make it 2.

[@BrokenEyeballs]

make it 3

[@iceeeyy3557]

Lmao

[@Leopard_seal123]

Make it 4

[@theanimeunderworld8338]

The Pale lady dominated the votes as the queen

[@playwright82]

I have only ever read the first 2 Scary Stories books. It's interesting to hear about stories from the 3rd book.

[@smileyanddevin]

Please go over every story lol I love this series and I can’t wait to see you cover the story “The thing” where two guys on the side of the road see a skeleton like thing walk towards them from a field

[@insomania1840]

For me it’s always been the story of the man who met a woman, only to take her jacket or whatever to her supposed home. Someone then always says “she’s been dead for X years…” would love to know the origins of that one.

[@RadCat_Studios]

Is it the lady with the green scarf?

[@somedudesstuff801]

digging this series. These books were more significant to me as a kid than any other folklore.

[@k-lukawaii9573]

The Toe, The Viper, and the Boil are my top 3 Favorite Stories!! I used to check this series out CONSTANTLY from my Library as a kid.

[@Chaos_birb]

I never knew her name, but I often saw her here and there around the internet. I always saw her, wondered who she was, and forget her until I saw her again. Thanks for telling me about her… the mystery is solved. Also geez, that’s creepy… 😅

[@sharonrigs7999]

The severed head that fell down the chimney was the scariest. The funniest was ' Bloody Fingers ' " Hey man, knock that off! And get yourself a damn Band-Aid! " 😂

[@UnaRose13]

I never read these stories myself, so I'm very very interested in listening to the retelling this way. I would love for this to be a whole series!

[@OrpheusRGB]

Thanks for covering this series. The book was in my house as a kid, but I don't know where it came from. I didn't open them because of the pictures. 😅

[@amatheiyafey8812]

Pale Lady never bothered me. the story that haunted me the most was the Red Spot. I knew it was coming in the movie and I had to shut my eyes. I still haven't watched that scene. That was the only time I have ever shut my eyes during a film and continued to do so on every rewatch. In the book, she's in a bathtub when they hatch. That means she is naked and wet in a room with a slippery when wet floor, which doesn't have a whole lot of items designed to combat those creatures if you are panicking and terrified. And how do you escape what is under your skin? I don't think I will ever stop being afraid of that story.

[@Wolffang1996Hyano]

0:59 EMOTIONAL DAMAGE!! XD Seriously though, that was cold XD Side notes, 1 the way they portrayed the Pale Lady in the movie at the end where she hugs the kid to her as if trying to comfort him kind of makes me think of the UnMother from Japanese folklore... or at least the character from Inuyasha. 2 In the story she's just trying to warn the poor woman and save her life and it seems she succeeded. In that way she reminds me of an Absol, and Absol's entries in the pokedex often state that they appear to give warning that something bad is about to go down.

[@emily7103]

I was never afraid of the pale lady illustration as a kid. After reading the story, I had come to the conclusion that perhaps she was an angel or something. She did save that young woman's life by warning her. True, her appearance is a bit unnerving but appearances can be deceiving which I believe is the overall moral of the story.

[@donnagoldsmith7078]

I am loving these episodes! I love all your horror, folklore and mythology videos and these do not disappoint. I would love you to make them a staple of the channel. Keep up the good work!

[@paulinetrivago.7540]

I remember so many stories from the 3 books, I hope you eventually cover all of them and not just the ones in the movie. The ones I remember are (not the names as I can't remember the names) the one with the girl making a blood pudding or blood sausage, one of a woman eating a liver and being Haunted by the Corpse wanting their liver back, one where there's a truck following a woman in a car cuz there's a killer in the backseat, and the one where a teenage couple is parked in the woods on prom night with the 3 knocks where the boy is killed

[@lindsey.13]

as someone who read these books several times as a kid, i’m shocked that harold wasn’t voted as the scariest. those voters definitely didn’t read the books because i had nightmares about harold for weeks lol

[@monicarae9457]

I've been looking forward to this one! Gonna watch the movie with my teenagers this weekend.

[@theanimeunderworld8338]

Do it

[@loralouise3865]

As usual, love your content! You should cover all the Scary Stories to tell in the Dark! Great idea!!

[@fleurpouvior2967]

Was just rewatching the movie. I grew up with the books, and I'm always blown away by just how good they did bringing the artwork and stories to life

[@Evilnor7]

This reminds me of a story (I forget the origin, maybe middle-eastern) that a man sees Death, who shakes a fist at him. Terrified, the man takes a horse and travels as fast as he can to another, distant city, where he dies. When Death collects him, it explains that it was angry seeing the man in that city, because they had an appointment so soon in the distant city.

[@mr.head09]

I only remember four stories: One about a girl doing homework and hearing a man climbing the stairs to her sister’s room One about a couple bringing their son a dog from Mexico that turned out to be a rat One about a dude who moved into an apartment and being attacked by a black dog And one about a wife who ate liver she was cooking for her husband so she stole one from a dead guy in a church next door who haunted her for it

[@hayleyvaughan2390]

Please do more! Especially from the first book! Even the song would be cool to see it’s origin. My sister took so much pleasure in traumatizing me with these stories. Especially when the ones that told you to scream all of a sudden. I swear it’s why I hate jump scares to this day 😂

[@alliekat1431]

Something that I noticed is that the Pale Lady seems to have drowned. Pale, slippery looking, blue fingers from hypothermia or possibly frost bite, bloating…. What an awful way to go.

[@user-my7xr9cn6r]

Bro bro, when you said she had "more cushion for the pushin" that made my morning!😂😂

[@TrineDaely]

The Thing, the one with the cats, the original cover, wendigo... most of the ones in the first book. I was lucky to land a set of these with the original art before the price got crazy.

[@PatrickRsGhost]

"Phantasmagoria" is also the name of an awesome horror video game that came out back in the 1990s. The first one was good. The second one, not so much. You should do a series on popular horror games and some of the inspiration behind their stories, monsters, etc. I know you've covered some basics like vampires and witches, but still show how those elements have been employed in some of the best horror games of all time, like Phantasmagoria, Shivers, Layers of Death, Pineview Drive, Castlevania, and many others.

[@bellablue5285]

Hey someone else who knows about Shivers! I only played the 3rd one admittedly, but that game was *eerie* to the max (good soundtrack and good graphics, but damn it had atmosphere in spades)

[@PatrickRsGhost]

@@bellablue5285 There's a third one? I know of the first one, which takes place in the museum, and the second one, which is some southwestern desert town. I've tried playing the second one but it was just a bit confusing to me. May need to go back and retry it. I've played the first one so many times, I'm surprised I haven't seen the museum in my dreams by now.

[@bellablue5285]

@PatrickRsGhost just double checked the disc, it was the second one, sorry about that (I haven't played it in over a decade admittedly). Yeah southwestern town with the band, I figured out how to get the bad endings. Repeatedly. I think I managed the good ending once or twice I'll have to see if the first one is available anywhere nowadays, museum sounds intriguing

[@victoriacheuvront3429]

I hope you do all of the stories! And I hope you make these videos into a playlist I loved these books as a child. The Pale lady to me is a nice ghost, warning people to not suffer the same fate as her

[@lashonnakennybrew4847]

All I got to say is this my friend Jon solo it takes a lot of effort to do all the background the story The background story The folklore is so much more that's why I showed mad respect to you in love

[@gamerstheater1187]

I love how accurate her design is

[@monkosanchez2344]

Thank you so much for making these videos on these books. They are beautifully detailed and have relit my dormant love for these types of books I loved so much growing up.

[@colinwilson7988]

I've always loved Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and have read them time and time again. Definitely do more of these.

[@mono9578]

She always seemed so off putting to me. Not necessarily scary but disturbing. But a few years ago I was camping with my friends and we were sitting in the dark of the tent. As was tradition we read scary stories, and id chose the pale lady. Up the campground was a joint pavilion that had wifi, so we were able to look up the stories we wanted. So anyway, I had searched up the pale lady and was reading the online story when I got to a picture of the Pale Lady. At least I thought it was a picture. It was actually a gif and when she blinked I threw my phone and nearly toppled the tent on my way out screaming. I scared my friends who followed suit, and after freaking out for a bit we found out it was a gif. I have never felt so scared, stupid, and relieved all at once 😂.

[@sabrinaulrich4180]

As I sip on my red wine, I am reminded of my childhood and Halloween time, eating the nostalgic years of yesterday... Heck yeah man!!! Make these "Scary Stories" a "thing" for Halloween!!! Thanks Jon, love what ya do!!!

[@expjose6781]

A stip club for ghosts is a funny concept lmao

[@laconic6077]

That phantasmorgia joke was phenomenal 👏🤣 I love it

[@Jason-wp7ed]

Let’s be real, Jon…The Pale Lady wouldn’t have 0 matches on Tinder.

[@jbear3478]

Seriously. He can speak for himself

[@cloakspirityt]

CaseOh lookin ahh spirit

[@dreamboigameplayz7207]

8:05 this is actually funny. you know, the next time I see something like a wendigo or a zombie, imma be like, "You're beautiful, no matter what anybody says."

[@houseofdellanotte]

This particular artwork reminds me a lot of the "people" in the first little nightmares. The monsters look similar to this pale lady!

[@UndeadCrabstick]

In Latvian folklore the sleep paralysis are caused by spirits of dead children. And the advice the lore gives is to move your toes to get them to leave. I can tell you for a fact that this works lol.

[@Lutherstrode17492]

Do The Messed Up Origins of Batman

[@Zenwithapoop]

That goddamn horse is the most horrendous goofy thing I’ve ever seen in a book illustration. Like bro that thing when I first saw it made me laugh my brains out 💀

[@joeypledger4253]

If the Pale Lady passes the vibe check, she can chill with me, my sleep paralysis demon, and the Civil War ghost

[@austingomez9630]

I'm terrified of the ring and The Grudge. But now I'm also terrified of the Pale Lady. I think there's a theme with these three. Black hair + whitest skin= nightmare