Scary stories

One thing I'm considering for my novel is having the characters tell scary stories to each other.

The setting of the novel is going to be kind of a creepy place. And one thing I want to incorporate is the way the setting affects the characters. So I thought it would be fun to incorporate some of those scary stories you hear when you're a kid.

Here are some I've found so far. I think I remember hearing all of these at some point in my childhood.

• The Hook: A classic. Couple making out on Lover's Lane hears there's a killer with a hook on the loose; the girl gets scared and insists on going home; when they get home, they find a bloody hook hanging on the door.
• Bright Lights (also known as High Beams): A woman is driving home late at night and gets freaked out because a man in a truck is following her -- and repeatedly flashing his brights at her! Turns out there was a killer in the woman's backseat, and the truck driver was flashing his brights every time the woman was about to be stabbed to death.
• Humans Can Lick Too: Old reclusive lady reaches under the bed whenever she feels scared; if everything's okay, her dog licks her hand. One night she hears something dripping; she reaches down and feels a lick, so she goes back to sleep; then in the morning, she finds her dog dead in the bathroom, with a note on the wall in blood: HUMANS CAN LICK, TOO. I think the variation I heard had the lady getting murdered as well.
• The Babysitter Story: Another classic. Babysitter gets harassed by creepy phone calls, only to find out that they're coming from inside the house!
• The Roommate: Girl goes to fetch something from her dorm room late at night and then spends the night at her boyfriend's house. When she comes back in the morning, she finds that her roommate has been stabbed to death, and the murderer has written in blood, "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?"
• Tap, Tap, Tap: This is another variation on the hook story. The boy and girl get in a car accident and he goes for help, warning her to lock her doors because there's a madman on the loose. Time goes by . . . then the girl starts to hear a tap! tap! tap! on the roof. She gets more and more scared until a policeman comes and takes her out of the car, telling her not to look back . . . but she does, and she sees the madman holding her boyfriend's severed head on a stick, tapping it the roof.

I like these stories. I like the little shiver they still give me, despite their lameness, as I remember the effect they had on me as a child. I can imagine getting more spooked if I heard these in a scary place.

The thing I like about these stories is the same thing I like about horror movies: you can laugh at them and be scared by them at the same time. The good ones aren't usually like that -- I certainly wasn't laughing at The Ring, for instance -- but the bad ones . . . they can scare and amuse all at once. I think that's weird. But I also think it's kinda cool. Maybe that's part of the reason why I'm writing a pseudo-horror novel. It's interesting.