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

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.

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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.

[samjuan]

The scariest part of this is that the kids want to see the Mortal Kombat movie.

[tecpaocelotl]

Not to be confused with Black Eyed Peas which were creepy in the 21st century. We miss their 90s selves.

[almightytallestred]

3:19 Gotta love the tabloid paper headline THE PUB CURSED BY BLACK EYED CHILD with a drawing of a child _which clearly does not have black eyes._ It sure looks monstrous but the eyes are plainly normal. Priceless.

[pyralis_loves_you]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that this is free, has limited adverts and is the best frickin quality.

[Nightriser]

I'd also add that kids can be creepy because they haven't fully internalized cultural norms around appropriate behavior, including some level of self-awareness and empathy. Anyone who's woken up to their kid staring quietly at them for who knows how long can attest to this. Innocence, in this sense, is creepy.

[PatKellyTeaches]

The modernity of this story, plus the real-life photos, make this particular Monstrum extra creepy

[CidTheGargoyle]

“Everyone creates the thing they dread… People create... Children. Designed to supplant them. To help them end."
-Ultron

[TheDarkVoxel]

Glad you did an episode on these guys 🖤🖤 The whole part about the BEK having robotic speech, begging to be let into your house and being tied to culturally specific fears really reminded me of the original Men in Black: it would be cool to see you dissect them too, or explain why these fears keep manifesting in our urban legends!

[loroleibusser]

children: take us to see mortal combat
the guy, terrified: t-th-the m-movie already s-started

[darkservantofheaven]

You're staring into black lifeless eyes

Quinn: like a doll's eyes

[ghosttrain]

"They're literally portrayed as the offspring of Satan"
Accurate.

[strangething]

I remember reading the first BEK story back when. It sounds an awful lot like the guy was having a panic attack, one strong enough to cause hallucinations.

[anthonydelfino]

The thing is here... this could actually be based, at least originally, on something that really happened. Just thinking back to my teenage years in the late 90s and this is exactly the kind of prank I could see myself or my friends pulling on unsuspecting adults with just some minimal acting and blackout contact lenses (which weren't hard to get) I wouldn't be surprised if this one turned out to be "real" in that sense, and then evolved into something more as the idea got stuck in people's heads.

[abirdwithinternetaccess]

I’m scared of kids in general, they always throw rocks at me

[fennydantom]

We have a legend similar to this in my country. Roughly translated to "neighbourhood kids", their unnaturally dark skinned and don't talk at all. My great grandma used to tell me that a boy like this used to visit her childhood home. And her mom used to cook meals for him, and he would just eat and leave without saying a word. They are usually harmless and not malevolent at all. But if you try to follow them, you'll never be able to catch them. Next thing you know, the child disappears and your lost. They can't talk to humans so they use sign language. I heard one of them used to live in my childhood home And it honestly freaked me out, but I never encountered it. They are not spirits, ghosts or demons. No one knows what they are but apparently they exist according to legend.

[EveloGrave]

The white part of the eye is known as the Sclera. Just so people know.

[foolslayer]

**sees children with black eyes, puts on hood and takes out lightsaber* Good thing they're making this easy...

[vanillatwilight]

me, to the black eyed child who shows up at my house one day: you can come in IF I can get a picture of yall first

[oluave]

"Mommy, look, they're talking about me on tv" - Some Black eyed kid probably

[keeleyorange]

Reading about these reminds me of an experience I had about 10 years back. No idea if it was a black eyed kid I didn’t look, but the intense fear that people report I had. It was Winter and dark I was walking my dog so wouldn’t have expected any kids to be out on street. It was on a road with houses and cars passing. Not busy but not a dead end. I was walking and noticed some kids running about in front and then all but one ran off. I instantly had a feeling that this was a trap and if I took notice of the one I would be in danger I carried on walking past and the girl calls for help and for me to go back. I can not explain this or how I felt but something was telling me for my own safety I could not go back. As I said this was a public road with houses on so if a kid had needed help there are plenty of people that would have been aware and there was on reports of anything happening that night.