Simply known as 1999, this story is one of the most realistic and chilling urban legends on the Internet. The tale follows the journey of a Canadian blogger named Elliot as he tracks down the meaning of a mysterious TV channel that he watched in the year 1999. He remembered it being extremely sketchy and, in hindsight, he realized that it was most likely run by a local predator. As he continued to investigate, he learned that the man running the channel was attempting to lure children into his house for sacrificial purposes. To top it all off, Elliot also realized that the crazed man was torturing and killing children while wearing a bear costume and calling himself “Mr. Bear.”
There were only a couple of “shows” that aired on this mysterious channel, most likely because it was only operational from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM. The first show was called Booby and featured characters that were live-action hands on top of a table, which was obviously very low budget. The show starred a hand named Booby that would find itself in a different situation every episode. However, the episodes got progressively weirder.
In fact, during an episode entitled “Playing with Scissors,” Booby appeared to be holding a pair of scissors while another, smaller hand was jerking violently in the background, as if it were being forcefully held in the air. Booby then proceeded to repeatedly stab the smaller hand with the scissors while a muffled child’s scream could be heard. The scissors eventually got to the bone and made a horrific crunching sound. That was the last time Elliot ever watched an episode of Booby.
Next up on the psychotic schedule was Mr. Bear’s Cellar, which featured the mentally unstable man dressed up as Mr. Bear. What actually went on during the Mr. Bear episodes are too gory to describe here, so you’d have to read the rest of it for yourself. Eventually, the police intervened and shut down the sadistic TV channel for good.
9. Candle Cove
This story starts off with a forum thread that talks about an old children’s show from the ’70s, which was about a little girl who imagined herself to be friends with pirates. The show had some controversy because, during one particular episode, it showed every character screaming for the whole duration of the episode. All they did was literally stand in one place and scream, while the little girl moaned and cried like she had been going through hours of this. As memories of the show were shared back and forth between the commenters on the thread, it became clear that beneath the show’s “cute” and low-budget appearance, there was something dark and disturbing.
By the end of the comments section, it was implied that the show was much more sinister than a half-remembered childhood memory. One particular memory that really stood out was the main villain of the show, a skeletal character called the “Skin-Taker.” Apparently, his mouth slid back and forth instead of opening and closing. A commenter even recalled that when the little girl asked him about his mouth, the Skin-Taker ignored her, looked directly at the camera, and responded, “To grind your skin.”
As it turns out, one of the commenters got curious about the legitimacy of the show, so he asked his mother if she remembered a ’70s kid’s show called Candle Cove. She was genuinely surprised that he remembered it. Apparently, he would ask her for permission to watch it, and then proceed to tune the television to static to watch dead air for 30 minutes.