Has everyone heard about the urban legend about the girl in the basement? It’s an urban legend from the past few years. Some people also describe it as a ghost story, but I believe that this is a story which is very much worth investigating.
For readers who haven’t heard of this, I’ll explain the story briefly. Supposedly “the girl in the basement” appears in the basement of schools, much like how Hanako is supposed to appear in the bathroom of schools. But what’s different from other scary stories is that the girl in the basement doesn’t do anything, she just appears there.
In different versions of the story, she’ll appear and ask people, “Who killed me?” or “Have you seen my mother?” and things like that. Just if you run into the girl in the underground room, you won’t be killed, and nothing bad will happen to you. The story ends usually with the witness running out of the basement.
This makes me feel somewhat confused here. Nothing too scary happens, so why has this urban legend spread so widely? The most interesting part is that with the spread of this urban legend online, there’s even an image that goes with it. And it’s not just one picture. Which is to say, if this isn’t a fake picture, these are photos taken by eyewitnesses, or are ghost pictures. I’ve posted the picture you see most often below.
Though these are all taken in different places, these are all the same person. The same person or the same face. It’s hard not to think of another urban legend, “This man”. The legend goes that many people encountered a man who looks the same in their dreams.
But that “This man” always looks like the same man is the main point, the main structural similarity of this story. For the girl in the basement, this isn’t necessary. Like in certain folk legends, we might just know that a specific ghost or spirit appears, but you don’t know what they necessarily look like.
“Appearances”–this may be something we only began to place great value on after the development of photography. Even with there being so many urban legends, it’s very unusual for an urban legend to have these specific elements. Why is “the girl in the basement” different? I’ve decided to investigate this.