What Happens When Bloody Mary Steps Outside The Mirror
Hi Ghostlies. We received a story from a young reader about her experience with Bloody Mary just the other day. She asked me to use a pseudonym, so I’ll call her Donna for this story. The encounter happened in Des Moines, Iowa.
Now, let’s jump into her experience, and we can compare it to what we already know about the legend.
Donna’s Bloody Mary Encounter
On August 29th, Donna held a sleepover with 4 of her friends. They had just started their freshman year in high school, and she said it had been a stressful week for her. Donna’s parents went bowling that night and left the teen girls alone in the house.
The girls ordered pizza and brownies from a popular pizza chain, and they were watching scary movies when one of the girls started an impromptu session of Truth or Dare.
While most of the girls picked Truth, Donna picked Dare. And she got dared to summon Bloody Mary.
Donna said she thought this was “kinda dumb” because she didn’t think anyone still played these games. But she grabbed a candle and went upstairs to a bathroom.
Her friends gathered around the bathroom door, leaving it cracked enough to see Donna complete the summoning ritual. It’s one you know well: Light a candle, turn off the lights, say “Bloody Mary” three times, blow out the candle, and wait for the jump scare.
Donna stated she felt nervous about it, but she performed the ritual exactly as mentioned.
Except there was a big change …
As Donna went to blow out the candle, a strange woman stood next to her. She had black hair, pale skin and blood-shot eyes. The woman blew out the candle, plunging the bathroom into darkness.
Donna didn’t see Bloody Mary in the mirror. She stood next to her.
Donna dropped the candle and fell back against the door slamming it shut. Her friends banged on it and pushed against it, trying to help Donna.
But the door wouldn’t budge. It seemed locked.
Inside the dark bathroom, Donna could hear something like bare feet pacing the tile floors. The shower curtain rings slid along its rod, and the temperature dropped … by a lot.
Donna screamed and cried and said she’d never use her (meaning Bloody Mary) name again.
… and with that, all the sounds and cold stopped.
The door opened and Donna’s friends pulled her out. One of her friends, a red-haired girl, said she thought she saw a woman standing next to her before all the chaos started.
The teens ran downstairs and called 911 and said someone was in the house. The police came in a few minutes. A female officer checked each room and tested the windows. The bathroom window was still locked when the officer checked it. The police didn’t find anyone else in the house.
The Bloody Mary Legend
Most of us know some version of the ritual. The details change from kid to kid and place to place. That’s normal for urban legends, especially when you perform them.
In fact, one the best documented examples comes from Iowa. The Indiana State University Folklore Archives holds a Mary Worth/Bloody Mary account collected in Marshall County, Iowa, in 1970. That version also involved calling a supernatural woman and seeing her in a mirror.
USC’s Digital Folklore Archives has a much more recent example from a child living near Des Moines. He heard the legend from other kids at school. His version was simple: go into the bathroom, say Bloody Mary three times into the mirror, and she would appear. He tried it. Nothing happened. He decided Bloody Mary wasn’t real and went back outside.
Donna apparently knew almost the same ritual. Her reported experience went somewhere very different.
But this makes me stop and think, why were the results so different for Donna. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Donna’s Bloody Mary Didn’t Stay in the Mirror
Donna’s story deserves attention because of two elements: a physical manifestation; and, revoking Bloody Mary’s invitation.
Bloody Mary is usually a mirror legend. The ritual summons an apparition into the reflection. Mary may look terrifying. She may appear behind you. Different versions give her different powers. But the mirror remains the center of the experience.
Donna says the woman she saw wasn’t reflected in the glass. She was beside her. That’s closer to a physical manifestation than the usual Bloody Mary sighting.
And the encounter didn’t stop when the candle went out. Donna heard feet moving through the bathroom. She heard the shower curtain rustling. The door wouldn’t open from either side. The room became cold.
In other words, the familiar mirror ritual seems to turn into something resembling a haunting. That’s what makes Donna’s experience such an interesting addition to the legend.
Did Donna Revoke the Invocation?
There’s one more detail I really like. Donna started the encounter by calling Bloody Mary’s name. She apparently ended it by promising never to call her again.
Then the door opened. The cold disappeared. And whatever Donna thought was in the bathroom was gone.
I couldn’t find this as an established rule of the Bloody Mary ritual. But inside Donna’s experience, it makes perfect sense. Calling Mary’s name invited her. Promising never to call her again revoked the invitation.
People pass down urban legends. They perform it. Sometimes they have an experience they connect to it. Then that experience adds something new to the story.
Donna’s version adds two pretty creepy possibilities to Bloody Mary lore:
Mary doesn’t have to stay in the mirror. And maybe you can send her back by taking back the invitation.
Have You Encountered Bloody Mary?
Sources
Indiana State University Folklore Archives. “Bloody Mary.” Indiana Folklore Collection, Marshall County, Iowa, 1970. Indiana State University.
USC Digital Folklore Archives. “‘Bloody Mary’ Test of Courage.” 2021. University of Southern California.
Caputo, Giovanni B. “Apparitional Experiences of New Faces and Dissociation of Self-Identity during Mirror Gazing.” Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 110, 2010.
Dundes, Alan. “Bloody Mary in the Mirror: A Ritual Reflection of Pre-Pubescent Anxiety.” Western Folklore, vol. 57, nos. 2–3, 1998, pp. 119–135.
Dundes, Alan. Bloody Mary in the Mirror: Essays in Psychoanalytic Folkloristics. University Press of Mississippi, 2002.
USC Digital Folklore Archives. “Bloody Mary.” Various collected performances and accounts of the children’s ritual.
Williams, K. D., et al. “Strange Face Illusions: A Systematic Review and Quality Analysis.” Consciousness and Cognition, 2023.
Thanks for reading this Bloody Mary encounter from Des Moines, Iowa. If you’ve experienced something similar, tell us about it in the comments below. Much appreciated and take care!
