The Mandela Effect in Horror!
(This was originally written by me in September of 2017 for free for another site. I’m slowly moving all my articles over to Horror Bound so they’re in one place)
If you’ve spent any time on the internet you have encountered the Mandela Effect. A bizarre phenomenon discovered in 2010 by Fiona Broome who was shocked to find that Nelson Mandela was still alive. She swore he had passed away while in prison and had memories of watching his funeral on TV. When she posted about this strange memory lapse on the internet, tones of people shared their same experience – shocked that Nelson Mandela was in fact alive and well and that they had not watched the funeral live. Since Broome launched her website a lot more instances have come to life. One of the most famous ones – and the one that blew my mind and got me to look up the Mandela Effect – is the Berenstein Bears. Turns out it’s actually spelled Berenstain and always has been. Yet I have vivid memories of reading these books when I was younger and pronouncing it and spelling it STEIN. Seriously, it BLEW MY MIND.
Or what about the peanut butter brand Jiffy? No, that’s not a thing. It’s Jiff. WHAT. IS. HAPPENING.
There’s two theories that people have come up with to deal with these memory lapses – the first is that we are experiencing glitches in the Matrix. Look up glitches in the Matrix on reddit and get ready to become completely paranoid. I had my very first one a few months back and it threw me off for days. The second theory is that the memories we have are real, but there’s a rift between parallel universes that has altered the “current timeline”. So while we have these memories, and they did in fact happen, the universe changed on us and now we’re in a different timeline where it never happened.
Or….you know…misremembering things is a totally normal part of human nature. BUT the other theories are way more fun.
So why am I rambling on about this you ask?
Well, horror movies have some Mandela effects of their own and I thought we’d take a look at some of the well known ones and see if we catch any of you out.
The Silence of the Lambs:
Hannibal Lector quotes are a staple of pop culture, but one of the most famous from 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs is, “Hello Clarice…”. It’s been parodied many times, and a lot of people will quote it at me whenever I say this is one of my favorite movies. Well….it’s never said. The first time Starling and Lector meet all he says is, “Morning.” And at the end of the film on the phone he says, “Well, Clarice…”. So are we all just misremembering a famous quote which is very likely in the world of pop culture, or did it really exist the first time we saw it, and was simply erased when the Universe shifted?
Interview with the Vampire:
A great novel by Anne Rice and a great movie starring a very young Kirsten Dunst, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Most of us will refer to it as Interview with A Vampire. But it’s not. It’s THE. Google it….
Gremlins:
What was the name of the leader of the Gremlins in the iconic 1994 Christmas horror comedy? Spike right? Nah, it’s Stripe. Named purely for the white fur on the top of his head. WHAT?! Stripe is such a dumb name. Maybe we should stick with Spike? Force the Universe to reverse the glitch?
Dracula:
I VANT TO SUCK YOUR BLOOOOODDDDD…..iconic right? WRONG. It was never uttered in the original 1931 film Dracula starring Bela Lugosi and directed by Tod Browning. It certainly wasn’t ever in the book. Yet, every parody of Dracula ever has this line, usually uttered with some silly accent. THE GLITCH STRIKES AGAIN!
Scooby-Doo:
Remember Shaggy? Skinny hippie guy with a confusing chin beard and an unending appetite for sandwiches? Remember him having that giant adam’s apple that always moved around when he was scared? IT DOESN’T EXIST. IT NEVER EXISTED. Only in later iterations was it added but when we think of Scooby-Doo we think of those old cartoons from the 70’s, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and he never had one. And the fact that they added it into the modern cartoons means they also remember it happening. AHHHHH!!!
Also Scrappy-Doo? The precocious little shit we all hated? NEVER EXISTED.
Just kidding.
I wish that were true. Fuck you Scrappy.
So that’s it – got any other fun horror themed Mandela effects? Did any of these blow your mind? Let me know in the comments!
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