The Hook (Ella Ostheimer)

## Legend Summary

A popular urban legend among teenagers, *The Hook* has been told countless times throughout the US. Folklorist Bill Ellis claims the version of *The Hook* we are familiar with emerged in 1950s Los Angeles (63). However, many versions of the tale are localized with many of the “lover’s lane” being attributed to one in the teller’s area (Brunvand 49).

Jan Harold Brunvand’s The Vanishing Hitchhiker contains two well-known versions of the legend. The first, and the first sighting of the legend, comes from 1960. There, a teenager wrote to the Dear Abby newspaper column, claiming that the legend was an important cautionary tale for teenagers:

“A fellow and his date pulled into their favorite “lovers’ lane” to listen to the radio and to do a little necking. The music was interrupted by an announcer who said there was an escaped convict in the area who had served time for rape and robbery. He was described as having a hook instead of a right hand. The couple became frightened and drove away. When the boy took his girl home, he went around to open the car door for her. Then he saw—a hook on the door handle!” (Brunvand, 48 – 49)

Another version found in an archive from a student from Albuquerque, also in 1960:

“...over the radio came an announcement that a crazed killer with a hook in place of a hand had escaped from the local insane asylum. The girl got scared and begged the boy to take her home. He got mad and stepped on the gas and roared off. When they got to her house, he got out and went around to the other side of the car to let her out. There on the door handle was a bloody hook” (Brunvand, 49).

Since then, *The Hook* has had many adaptations, such as 90s slasher film *I Know What You Did Last Summer*, an episode of science fiction TV series *Supernatural*, and the trollpasta *Man Door Hook Hand Car Door*.

## Legend History

*The Hook* seems to have originated sometime in the 1950s, with some folklorists like Jan Harold Brunvand arguing it was sometime in the late 1950s (49) and others like Bill Ellis arguing in the early 1950s (63).

Since then, there have been some attempts to research the urban legend since then, most being in the form of analysis. In 1968, Linda Degh brought the urban legend to many people’s attention when she published “the first detailed demonstration of ‘The Hook’” in an academic journal (Ellis, 61). Years later in 1981, Jan Harold Brunvand had included *The Hook* in his book The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings. There, he used many collections of urban legend accounts and gave a brief history and analysis. He also connected it to other urban legends, such as The Boyfriend’s Death, which later emerged in the 1960s (Brunvand 49). One of the most well-known analyses of *The Hook* came from folklorist Alan Dunde. Taking a more Freudian stance, he suggested *The Hook* may have been warning women against premarital sex (Dundes 169). Folklorist Bill Ellis would later publish a research article in 1994, questioning how *The Hook* had been previously classified by folklorists and its place among “contemporary” urban legends.

## Adaptations

***Man Door Hook Hand Car Door***

First sighted on a 4chan post from 2012, *Man Door Hook Hand Car Door* is a trollpasta adaptation of *The Hook*. Being a trollpasta, the story has a more absurdist and comedic tone, often emphasizing more “cliche” parts of the story. It ends with the climax abruptly ending with “man door hook hand car door” (Know Your Meme). Despite the ending being *The Hook*, many of the plot beats are borrowed from The Boyfriend’s Death: a couple’s car breaks down and they park on the side of the road, causing the boyfriend to leave but never return. Since its original post, the meme has spread throughout the internet, usually combined with other memes or formats.

***Supernatural***

The seventh episode of *Supernatural*’s first season, titled Hook Man, follows an investigation of the titular antagonist in an early 2000s setting with science fiction influences. The opening scene retells *The Hook* with some noticeable differences. The radio is absent, being replaced by a phone call from the girl’s father. Additionally, the latter half of the scene plays out more like The Boyfriend’s Death, with the boyfriend leaving the car and getting hanged from the bridge. The episode also expands the hookman's character. The hookman, Jacob Karns, is the centuries-old spirit of a preacher who had been executed for murdering prostitutes on the same “lover’s lane” from the opening scene. There have been patterns of similar murders ever since, with stopping them being the focus of the episode.

***I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)***

This slasher film from the 90s has the hookman hunting down four young adults for the accidental murder they tried to hide the summer before. One of the film’s first scenes also includes a telling of the original urban legend. However, the hookman villain has many differences from the original legend, such as his hook just being a hand-held weapon. The authorities also do not acknowledge the villain, with many of them dismissing the teenagers’ fears. Lastly, while there is not a “lover’s lane,” roads still play a vital role in the film as being the scene of the accident and where the hookman is first seen.

## Analysis

The original narrative of *The Hook* is often considered to be a warning to young women. In the legend, the girl narrowly escapes death only by listening to the radio’s warnings. If she had ignored it, she would have had to face the consequences: the hookman and the murder of herself and her boyfriend. However, one could assume that if the two had avoided the place entirely, there would be no threat. The teenager writing in the 1960 Dear Abby column claims that she hoped spreading the story would help keep other teenagers from doing the same thing. In addition to the thrill of sharing a scary story, one could imagine many tellers held similar hopes throughout the years.

In 2005, the science fiction series *Supernatural* released an episode adapting the plot of the urban legend where a young girl named Lori is haunted by the hookman. Unlike the original, he only kills those closest to her, with the authorities dismissing his existence as her fear. The opening scene contains a modern retelling of *The Hook*, with the radio that originally warned the young girl replaced by Lori’s father. His call in this scene, as well as his actions throughout the episode, reminds Lori of the dangers of “immoral acts” and the consequences. Like in the original urban legend, she listens. However, even when listening and obeying, she is not rewarded- someone still dies, and hookman continues to haunt her. Additionally, strictly listening to the warning only makes her more unhappy. Throughout the episode, it is shown that she considers many things to be a strict black-and-white binary, making her conflicted between doing the things that would make her happy and avoiding “immoral” actions. By the end of the episode, it is revealed that hookman is a spirit feeding off Lori’s repressed and conflicting feelings. His victims were those who had stirred up those feelings, people who Lori had considered to be “good” doing “immoral” deeds- her boyfriend wanting to have premarital sex, her roommate wanting her to partake in “party girl” behavior, or her father having an affair- and going unpunished.

This narrative, which could be seen as condemning strict black-and-white thinking or judgement, could be reflective of social shifts in the early twenty-first century. What people had considered to be previously social “taboos” become more socially acceptable, such as premarital sex and casual drinking. The villainization of hookman’s black-and-white thinking as a means for violence could also be seen in the greater push for laws protecting people against discrimination and hate crimes. *Supernatural*’s hookman, the spirit of a preacher named Jacob Karns, weaponizes his religious authority and views against others in acts of violence. Additionally, he had been executed in the 19th century for killing prostitutes as a warning to the town against immorality. It is only once the true cause of hookman’s presence is addressed and changed that he is ultimately defeated.

## Works Cited

Brunvand, Jan Harold. “‘The Hook’ and Other Teenage Horrors.” The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, New York, NY, 1981, pp. 48–52.

C., Aidan. “Man Door Hand Hook Car Door.” Know Your Meme, Know Your Meme, 1 July 2012, knowyourmeme.com/memes/man-door-hand-hook-car-door.

Dundes, Alan. “The Crowing Hen and The Easter Bunny.” Interpreting Folklore, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1980.

Ellis, Bill. “‘The Hook’ Reconsidered: Problems in Classifying and Interpreting Adolescent Horror Legends.” Folklore, vol. 105, 1994, pp. 61–75. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260630.

“Hook Man.” Supernatural, created by Eric Kripke, season 1, episode 7, Warner Bros. Television, 2005.

I Know What You Did Last Summer. Directed by Jim Gillespie, performances by Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr., Mandalay Entertainment, 1997.