Monstrum

Currently Playing: Don’t Let Them In! The Urban Legends of Black-Eyed Children | Monstrum

Thanks to Ancestry for supporting PBS. Check out your family's history at http://www.ancestry.com Don’t miss future episodes of Monstrum, subscribe! http://bit.ly/pbsstoried_sub An urban legend that exploits our fears of an obstructed gaze and the deeply unsettling idea that the youngest of our species are out to destroy us, the lore of Black-Eyed Children, or Black-Eyed Kids, is a modern construction. Powered by the ever-broadening influence of the Internet, B.E.K stories began circulating in the final years of the 20th century, but the “evil spawn” child archetype of the horror genre and hundreds of years of social expectations of childhood inform these unsettling monsters. Find out how the Black-Eyed children challenge biological impulses and cultural expectations—and learn why you should never blindly open a door to a stranger, even a small one. #blackeyedchildren #urbanlegend #MonstrumPBS Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka Director: David Schulte Executive Producer: Amanda Fox Producer: Stephanie Noone Illustrator: Samuel Allen Editor: Nicole Kopren Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios. The world is full of monsters, myths, and legends and Monstrum isn’t afraid to take a closer look. The show, hosted by Emily Zarka, Ph.D., takes us on a journey to discover a new monster in each new episode. Monstrum looks at humans' unique drive to create and shape monster mythology through oral storytelling, literature, and film and digs deep into the history of those mythologies. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monstrumpbs/ ---------------------------- Bibliography Bethel, Brian. “Brian Bethel recounts his possible paranormal encounter with ‘BEKs.’” Abilene Reporter-News, April 13, 2013. Escalas Ruiz, María Isabel. ¿Es YouTube una nueva esfera digital para leyendas urbanas? La representación de la infancia perturbadora a través del fenómeno cultural de los Black-Eyed-Kids (BEKS).” Caracteres: Estudios culturales y críticos de la esfera digital, 7.2, 2018. pp. 88-109. Kord, T. S.. Little Horrors: How Cinema's Evil Children Play on Our Guilt, McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers, 2016. Lennard, Dominic. Bad Seeds and Holy Terrors: The Child Villains of Horror Film. Stave University of New York Press, 2014. Lockley, Michael. “Chilling sightings of ‘Black Eyed Child’ ghost spark a paranormal hunt.” The Daily Mirror, 29 Sept. 2014. Malloy, Pat. Not the Moors Murders. Gomer Press, 1988. Sinan Alper, Elif Oyku Us & Dicle Rojda Tasman. “The evil eye effect: vertical pupils are perceived as more threatening.” Cognition and Emotion, 33:6, 2019, pp. 1249-1260. The Cultural Construction of Monstrous Children, Ed. Leo Ruickbie and Simon Bacon, Anthem Press, 2020.