The Hook
Encyclopedia
The Hook is a classic example of an urban legend
. The basic premise involves a young couple parked at a dark lovers' lane. The radio
plays music as the couple make out
. The music is interrupted by an announcer who reports that a serial killer
has just escaped an institution which is nearby. The killer has a hook in place of one of his hands. For varying reasons they decide to leave quickly. The legend ends with the discovery of the killer's hook attached to the outside handle of one of the doors. Many variations include the sound of scraping on the car door. Some legends have the same beginning, but end up with them seeing him first, warning some others, then having him come to their car. They try to escape, but end up with him holding on to the top of the car. It ends with both dying.
In an alternative version of the story, the couple are driving through an unknown part of the country at night, and decide to stop the car in the middle of the woods, either because the man has to relieve himself, or the car has broken down and the man leaves to go for help. While waiting for him to return, the woman turns on the radio and hears about the escaped mental patient. While waiting for her husband to return, she is disturbed many times by a loud thumping on the roof of the car. She eventually exits her car and sees the escaped patient on the roof of the car, holding her husband's decapitated head in his hand and hitting the roof with it. Other variations tell of her seeing her husband's butchered body suspended upside down from a tree above the car with his fingers dangling just above the roof.
A happier ending sees the couple driving off when it sounds as if the hookman is approaching the car. Along the way, they assure themselves it was just their imagination. However, upon getting home and exiting the car, they find the hook stuck in the door.
References to this legend have been found from at least the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s.
Freudian interpretation explains the hook as a phallic symbol and its amputation as a symbolic castration. Others take a more literal approach by interpreting the story as a warning against parking, a dramatic example of the reason for parental concern for their children, an expression of fear of the handicapped, or a depiction of the danger possible from a rampaging antisocial person.
Swedish folklorist Bengt af Klintberg
describes the story as an example of "a conflict between representatives of normal people who follow the rules of society and those who are not normal, who deviate and threaten the normal group."
American Folklorist Bill Ellis
interpreted the maniac in the The Hook as a moral custodian who interrupts the sexual experimentation of the young couple. He sees the hookman's handicap as "his own lack of sexuality" and "the threat of the hookman is not the normal sex drive of teenagers, but the abnormal drive of some adults to keep them apart."
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
. The basic premise involves a young couple parked at a dark lovers' lane. The radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
plays music as the couple make out
Making out
In human sexuality, making out is a sexual euphemism of American origin dating back to at least 1949, and is used synonymously with the terms necking, heavy petting, and hooking up to refer to non-penetrative sex, though "hooking up" is also used in some cultures to imply casual sex.-History:The...
. The music is interrupted by an announcer who reports that a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
has just escaped an institution which is nearby. The killer has a hook in place of one of his hands. For varying reasons they decide to leave quickly. The legend ends with the discovery of the killer's hook attached to the outside handle of one of the doors. Many variations include the sound of scraping on the car door. Some legends have the same beginning, but end up with them seeing him first, warning some others, then having him come to their car. They try to escape, but end up with him holding on to the top of the car. It ends with both dying.
In an alternative version of the story, the couple are driving through an unknown part of the country at night, and decide to stop the car in the middle of the woods, either because the man has to relieve himself, or the car has broken down and the man leaves to go for help. While waiting for him to return, the woman turns on the radio and hears about the escaped mental patient. While waiting for her husband to return, she is disturbed many times by a loud thumping on the roof of the car. She eventually exits her car and sees the escaped patient on the roof of the car, holding her husband's decapitated head in his hand and hitting the roof with it. Other variations tell of her seeing her husband's butchered body suspended upside down from a tree above the car with his fingers dangling just above the roof.
A happier ending sees the couple driving off when it sounds as if the hookman is approaching the car. Along the way, they assure themselves it was just their imagination. However, upon getting home and exiting the car, they find the hook stuck in the door.
References to this legend have been found from at least the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s.
Interpretations
Folklorists have interpreted the long history of this legend in many ways. Alan Dundes'sAlan Dundes
Alan Dundes, was a folklorist at the University of California, Berkeley. His work was said to have been central to establishing the study of folklore as an academic discipline. He wrote 12 books, both academic and popular, and edited or co-wrote two dozen more...
Freudian interpretation explains the hook as a phallic symbol and its amputation as a symbolic castration. Others take a more literal approach by interpreting the story as a warning against parking, a dramatic example of the reason for parental concern for their children, an expression of fear of the handicapped, or a depiction of the danger possible from a rampaging antisocial person.
Swedish folklorist Bengt af Klintberg
Bengt af Klintberg
Bengt Knut Erik af Klintberg is a Swedish ethnologist who has become known for his work on modern urban legends and reached a large audience with his books Råttan i pizzan and Den stulna njuren .Klintberg was also co-host Bengt Knut Erik af Klintberg (b. 25 December 1938 in Stockholm) is a...
describes the story as an example of "a conflict between representatives of normal people who follow the rules of society and those who are not normal, who deviate and threaten the normal group."
American Folklorist Bill Ellis
Bill Ellis
Bill Ellis is a professor, author and researcher who contributes to the Journal of American Folklore .-Biography:William Ellis was born January 3, 1950 in Roanoke, VA and spent his childhood in Roanoke, as well as in Portsmouth, Ohio when his father was transferred to a section branch with the...
interpreted the maniac in the The Hook as a moral custodian who interrupts the sexual experimentation of the young couple. He sees the hookman's handicap as "his own lack of sexuality" and "the threat of the hookman is not the normal sex drive of teenagers, but the abnormal drive of some adults to keep them apart."