Just like people are different from one another, not every bear behaves or reacts the same way. There are black bears, grizzly/brown bears, polar bears, etc. Some rules for dealing with bears are universal, but then some aren't. Like playing dead may work for brown bears. Fighting back, however, could be your best option with black bears. Polar bears are tougher to beat unfortunately.

Bears, especially brown bears, don't like to be surprised. So if you know there are bears in the area, let them know you're there. Make a little noise or talk. Don't disturb a bear if it doesn't even see you, though. Another obvious tip is to just be aware of bears being present wherever you're going. That way you can be prepared. Another helpful tip: don't leave food out as you camp or after you leave! You are only inviting bears to eat it, or causing them to bother other people in search of food.

Do some research and find out if you're going somewhere populated by bears. The easiest thing you can do (other than simply not go) is to bring some bear spray. The discharge range for these sprays is about 40-50 feet. The idea is to create a wall of spray to stop a charging bear.

So the bear's gotten past your wall of repellent? If you're being charged, you need to get on the ground, cover your neck with your hands (fingers laced), and assume the fetal position with your knees tucked in under your chin. Don't run because a bear can catch you easily.

Our gut instinct when being attacked by something big and dangerous is to run. Yet that's possibly the worst thing you can do with a bear. Why? Bears are faster than you think and they tend to chase anything that runs from them. And you'll regret it once they catch you. Instead, play dead or fight back if need be.

With brown bears, playing dead may actually work. Be aware that bears such as grizzlies will stick around for a good twenty minutes before giving up. So stay still until then. However, this does not work well with polar bears. Playing dead isn't gonna cut it with them.

So with black bears, fighting back might be a better choice than playing dead. Do whatever it takes. Punch, kick, harm the bear's sensitive areas like the nose. You want the bear to run away from you, not vice versa. Polar bears, on the other hand, don't respond to playing dead or fighting back as they're much larger than other bears. So standing your ground and trying to intimidate them with your presence and loud voice is about all you can do if bear spray doesn't work.

Most bear attacks are a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. So don't think you'll always be attacked even if you go into an area known for having bears present. You just need to be prepared and ready in case an attack happens.

A group of teenagers learns that they are all witches, and only together can they defeat those out to destroy them.

This short-lived series based on LJ Smith's series of novels was basically greenlit as a result of the success of The Vampire Diaries adaptation. Unfortunately for The Secret Circle, it just couldn't bring in the same audience draw as the aforementioned series. By the time the show found some footing, the damage had been done and it was effectively cancelled.

After a young boy moves to a small town called Eerie, he and his friend investigate mysteries and bizarre occurrences around the area.

Omri Katz of Hocus Pocus fame starred in this little show that could be best described as David Lynch for kids. It was a strange series that didn't stay on the air for more than one season. It did receive renewed interest after Fox Kids began to show reruns. There was even a brief spin-off called Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension that both premiered and ended in 1998.

After he's bitten by a werewolf, a teenager becomes a werewolf himself. He and his friends then battle supernatural creatures in their hometown.

The critical success of Buffy influenced the creation of this Canadian lycan horror comedy. It's far less serious, but Big Wolf on Campus has nostalgic appeal at the very least. The MTV adaptation of Teen Wolf definitely took some cues from this one.

Set in the 1980s, a group of camp counselors experiences terror one summer.

Freeform followed Fox and MTV, both of which had created their own slasher series around the same time. Dead of Summer failed to impress many viewers early on, but those who stuck by it were rewarded as the one-season show delivered one of the more shocking twists that year. Had the series been renewed, Summer would have become a seasonal anthology like American Horror Story.

A teenager must prevent the spirits of the dead, known as Fades, from returning to the plane of the living and destroying all of mankind.

Although this BBC supernatural drama didn't last long (many British shows don't exceed more than one season anyway), it set up an intriguing story. It's on Prime Video in the U.S. as of now.

Those stuck in Saturday detention are spared from succumbing to an unleashed chemical that turns the majority of the town into zombies.

Hulu devised a zombie show geared toward younger audiences. The casting of some YouTube "celebrities" as characters was a deterrent for some, but the first season improved as it furthered along. In July 2018, Freakish was cancelled.

After his twin brother dies by suicide, Derek takes over his website that investigates paranormal cases.

The producers of The Blair Witch Project created this Fox show, which is like The X-Files for the Internet crowd. The overarching mystery about the protagonist's brother is sprinkled throughout the only season, but most episodes were standalone and of the monster-of-the-week variety. Unfortunately, Fox put this in its Friday deathslot. Not to mention Freakylinks, a show about the Internet, was possibly too ahead of its time.

When a novelist moves back to his hometown, he comes across mysteries that only he can seem to solve.

Kevin Williamson conceived this show as a standard drama, but the WB asked for him to revise it as a mystery oriented series. Only nine episodes were made/aired so it wasn't a major loss for the network. Though it was a mildly comforting show that starred Tad from Friends and Emily Van Camp before she was cast in Everwood following Glory Days' cancellation..

When a group of high school friends play a game of Light as a Feather with a new student, they each begin to die. It's revealed that this rendition of the game curses every participant.

Hulu quickly put this show together just in time for Halloween. Sadly, it won't be getting too much attention with the release of other anticipated horror TV series that debuted in or will be debuting this October. Light as a Feather is a breezy and engaging supernatural mystery with some inspiration from the Final Destination franchise. It's not profound by any means, but it also doesn't try to pretend to be either.

A family's babysitter turns out to be the son's high school crush. She's also a vampire that fights whatever goes bump in the night.

This Canadian supernatural comedy started off as a Teletoon TV-movie before it was imported to the U.S. There, it aired on Disney Channel. Due to some questionable content (like showing the protagonist feeding on rats as a substitution for human blood), it probably turned off some parents looking for something "safe" for their kids to watch. Babysitter is very much a Buffy wannabe, but that can be forgiven as the series has a nice sense of humor and some fun characters.

A teenager and her friends become victims to a masked killer in a small town.

It should be noted that during the movie franchise's prime, a television spin-off was rumored to be on the horizon. Nothing ever came to fruition until over a decade later. The MTV adaptation was disappointing to plenty of viewers. And for good reason. The show miraculously received a second season, which many agreed was a slight improvement over the first. A third (and maybe final?) season with a brand new cast and staff is in the works.

In his new town, Keean befriends two local kids who are each aware of the area's supernatural matters. They all team up to solve mysteries while also learning the truth about Keean's mother's death.

The Hub Network created a show based on Christopher Pike's Spooksville series of books, which were released between 1995 and 1998. The books were much lighter in tone in comparison to Pike's books for older readers. The TV series focused on Keean and his friends solving paranormal phenomena every week

A sorority's members are targeted by a masked killer.

Ryan Murphy was behind this horror comedy geared toward pop culture buffs as well as horror fans. The humor was often too mean-spirited and offensive for some, and the horror elements of each season felt like the measly filling in a cookie (read: just not enough). Audiences would have to bide their time before an episode of Scream Queens truly dove into what the premise promised. In its only two seasons, the series managed to gain a cult following. For everything Queens did "wrong," it managed to make some interesting commentary on the slasher sub-genre without being too derisive.

In this horror/sci-fi anthology geared toward kids and teenagers, the young protagonists of each self-contained story deal with the supernatural.

Stories from R.L. Stine's The Chilling Hour and The Haunting Hour books provided some material for part of this anthology. Most of the other episodes were based on original scripts. Like Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Goosebumps, The Haunting Hour used a lot of metaphors to convey messages and situations that younger audiences wouldn't either understand, or to bypass the censors. Hour felt a bit uneven as there were often times in this series where a story was possibly too mature or even abstract.

As a computer whiz searches for her missing sister, a serial killer targets those who date online.

Eye Candy is also based on an R.L. Stine work, but the MTV production presumably takes liberties with the story. Anyone thinking this will be a high caliber crime drama will be disappointed. Though it's considerably subpar, Eye Candy may grab a patient slasher fan's attention.

A group of summer camp counselors did a terrible thing to a peer. Now they must pay for their crime. Once they revist the site where the camp used to be, someone among them starts to murder everyone one by one.

Though many may not agree, the second season of this Canadian whodunnit series is better than the first. Mainly because it actually feels and behaves like a slasher, not just a crime procedural/serial killer drama masking as a slasher. Also, Guilty Party is less predictable mystery wise and it also has some startling moments and deaths.

After a family takes in a young amnesiac woman who washes ashore on the beach, strange phenomena starts to happen to them and the town.

This supernatural soap opera never stood a chance on TV. It's basically fanfic for those who want to know what happened to Rosemary's baby had the child been a girl. If you don't mind some religious overtones in what is basically an OC-esque horror drama, Point Pleasant is worth seeking out.

A college dropout learns that he's the Devil's son, who must now capture souls that have escaped from Hell.

The CW scored a success with this hidden gem. It combines elements of Buffy, Dead Like Me, and whatever slacker movie comedy you prefer. Fans are thankful for the second season, but they were left with little resolution.

When a teenager learns he's a descedant of Van Helsing, he is tasked the mission of ridding modern London of dark forces.

The company behind Merlin and Hex came up with this rather unoriginal supernatural teen outing. Though in its defense, it doesn't partake in adolescent drama as much as one would think based on the plot.

In this reality show, a group of unlucky contestants is put inside a supposedly haunted place. Their exploits as they try to survive the night are documented and shared.

This series may not have aged well, but it is what it is. Especially for anyone who wants a laugh.

A coming-of-age drama about a young filmmaker and his friends in a small town.

The screenwriter for Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer got his foot in the teen soap door with the classic WB drama Dawson's Creek. Although it wasn't purely horror by any means, there were at least three episodes that touched upon Williamson's love of the genre. In season one's "The Scare," the group is put in a slasher scenario. Dawson and friends later find themselves in the middle of a Blair Witch-like situation in season three's "Escape from Witch Island." Finally, several of the characters share creepy anecdotes in the anthology style season five episode "Four Scary Stories."

When a dangerous chemical is unleashed from a medical supply warehouse, the local dead begin to rise as hungry zombies.

A group of students are invited to a mysterious wax museum in town, not realizing what's in store for them once they enter.

A famous horror host inherits not only a mansion in a conservative, small town but also the trouble that comes with a magical tome passed down through her family.

When renowned director Werner Herzog and his crew film an on-site documentary about the Loch Ness Monster, they learn there's truth to the myth.

A wretched clown comes back from the dead to haunt those that caused his death years ago.

High school students are being picked off by an inept serial killer known as The Breather.

A man accepts a random invite to a Halloween party not realizing the hosts are looking to kill anyone who attends.

An incompetent detective and an unemployed man both try to catch a serial killer that commits his crimes in a specific area every rainy Thursday.

EDEN LAKE
2008
Directed by James Watkins

A couple's retreat at a lake is interrupted by the presence of some local youths, whose immature behavior and antics quickly escalate into acts of terror and violence.

A group of campers are warned about a homicidal maniac in the area as they set up camp in the woods. Soon, they will have wished they had listened to the warnings.

A couple's beachside camping trip is plagued by strange incidents, all stemming from their mistreatment of nature.

When a new camp counselor has to go camping for two nights by herself on an island as part of her initiation, she soon learns she's not so alone after all.

To escape their worries at home temporarily, a man, his wife, and his brother all go on a secluded hunting trip. But once their belongings are stolen and their foreheads are each marked with an "X," the three realize that someone is watching them.

Three youths take things too far when they harass a solitary camper with Autism.

Juvenile delinquents fight for survival on a small British island as someone hunts them down.

As a city couple gets lost in the woods, they encounter a territorial black bear.

When college students go to Lake Bodom, where campers were murdered in 1960, history starts to repeat itself.

UNFRIENDED
2014
Directed by Leo Gabriadze

UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB
2018
Directed by Stephen Susco

Unfriended: A group of high school students chatting online together are menaced by a malevolent presence.

Unfriended: Dark Web: After a man takes a laptop from a lost-and-found, he and his friends become entangled in a dangerous predicament.

Michael Myers returns to his childhood to find it filled with a reality show's crew and cast, all of whom are now his potential victims.

Two best friends meet a boy they thought was their age online. When one of them goes to meet him, she is never heard from again.

Several people believe that spirits are trying to invade the human realm through the Internet.

Five people, who are offered to live together in an isolated mansion for the chance to win one million dollars while being watched online, become paranoid in the six months they live together.

A detective hunts down a sadistic serial killer who uses the Internet to lure in victims.

Two macabre teenagers obsessed with both death and their online presence get wrapped up in a local murderer's killing spree.

A student does not realize that someone has hacked her electronic devices, and he is now watching her every move.

After meeting a woman on a dating app, an Internet playboy's life spins out of control.

After a sociology grad student studying webcam users witnesses a murder online, she becomes the killers' next target.

When a college student rejects a peer that wants to be her friend, she and her friends are preyed upon by a demonic force.

A pandemic strikes on New Year's Eve, stirring up paranoia among a small group of friends. Through social media and the Internet, they come to learn that there's a disease going around that causes individuals to behave violently. One by one, the group experiences symptoms...

The Clown Statue

The legend: A babysitter staying at a strange house is approached by her young charge. She says she can't sleep in her room because of the clown statue that keeps talking to her. The babysitter sends her back to her room without paying much attention to what the child has said. The kid returns with the same complaint. Finally, the babysitter calls the parents and asks if it'd be okay if she moved the clown statue out of the daughter's room. The parent on the other end of the call tells the babysitter to leave the house with their daughter; they don't own a clown statute.

Background: This fairly recent horror legend originated in the early 2000s. The myth is inspired by the classic "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs" story, which is said to be commentary on women who hire others to care for their kids rather than taking care of the children themselves. That origin legend is loosely based on a real case from 1950 where a Columbia, Missouri babysitter was actually murdered after calling the police for help. The killer was neve caught.

In other variations of the clown tale, the babysitter is the one who is being creeped out by the statue. The story takes a more violent turn as the clown reveals itself to be a knife-wielding maniac.

In the media: The legend inspired one of the segments in the 2008 movie Amusement. Though there the clown is a life-sized doll, not a statue.

Killer in the Backseat

The legend: A woman driving home is being followed by a truck, whose driver continues to flash his bright lights every so often. He finally forces the woman to pull over on the side of the road. But instead of attacking the woman, the other driver opens the backdoor and removes a man. The truck driver was flashing his lights every time the armed man in the backseat was reaching up to attack the woman. A variation of the story has the woman stopping at a gas station, and the attendant pumping her gas asks her to come inside the station because her credit card doesn't work. There, he tells her that there's a man with a knife in her backseat and the police have been called.

Background: This cautionary tale about women driving emerged arond the late '60s. It shows how naturally distrustful we can be when someone really wants to help. Back in those days, though, that moral may have been understandable.

In the media: Quite possibly the most well-known visual depiction of this story is in the 1998 teen slasher aptly titled Urban Legend. The only gripe critics have with that stellar opening is the fact that you physically cannot swing an ax like that in a car.

Another horror movie that tackled the myth was in 1983's Nightmares, an omnibus made up of four segments originally conceived for an NBC television series that never came to be (and was not the short-lived Darkroom, as many have long believed until the Blu-ray's commentary revealed the truth). In the first story "Terror in Topanga," a woman is so desperate for cigarettes, she goes out to buy some despite there being reports of a killer lurking around town. This tale uses the gas station attendant version of the legend.

In the TV show Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, one of the stories, "Bright Lights," is based on the telling of the legend where the driver is being chased by the truck driver. The gimmick of Beyond Belief is to guess which of the shared stories are based on fact or fiction. They of course listed "Bright Lights" as "fiction."

Chris Carter of The X-Files fame created another series, Millennium, that aired on FOX in the late '90s. In a season two episode called "The Pest House," a serial killer commits crimes inspired by urban legends. This includes the "Killer in the Backseat" myth. Again, the "high beams" variation is used.

The Boyfriend's Death/The Hook

The legend: In "The Boyfriend's Death," a couple parked out in the middle of nowhere has some car trouble. So the boyfriend goes to get help. Thus leaving the girlfriend all by herself. As she waits his return throughout the night, she eventually hears a scraping sound against the roof. The repetitve noise becomes unbearable, and she cries herself to sleep. The next morning, the boyfriend has not returned, and the scraping sound is still present. A cop approaches the car and asks the girlfriend to step out and walk with him. He specifically tells her not to look back at the car, but she does so anyway. And that's when she sees it - suspended from the tree branch above the car is her boyfriend's dead body with his hands scraping the car roof.

In "The Hook," a similar scenario begins with a couple parked somewhere, fooling around. They hear on the radio about a killer prowling the area. He is identifiable by the hook in place of one hand. The girlfriend begs her boyfriend to drive off, which he finally does. As he drives away, a distinct noise on the girlfriend's side of the car is heard. Back at the girlfriend's house, the boyfriend walks around the car to let her out. He stops in his tracks because of what he sees hanging from the passenger door handle - a bloody hook.

Background: "The Hook" has been around since the 1950s, and it likely inspired "The Boyfriend's Death." There had been reports of youths dying somehow during makeout sessions, and most likely, people spun those stories into these specific urban legends. It goes without saying that both myths were often told to teenagers and college students as a way to keep them chaste.

In the media: "The Boyfriend's Death" was one of the myths depicted in 1998's slasher Urban Legend. Although the screenplay spins it to where the heroine is the one who unknowingly seals the young man's fate.

Supernatural took both legends and warped them as well as other popular scary stories for the episode "Hook Man."

The eponymous vilain in Candyman had a hook for a hand, and the Fisherman killer in the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise brandished a similar weapon, too.

It being so popular, "The Hook" has been touched upon in movies and TV so much that it would take a lot of space and time to talk about.

The Licked Hand

The legend: A young girl left home alone with her dog finds comfort when the pet licks her hand from underneath her bed. Through the night, the girl drops her hand to the floor, allowing her dog to lick it. When she hears a noise in the house, she goes to make sure the home is secure. One door was unlocked. She locks it and returns to bed, seeking comfort from her dog underneath. She's soothed by her unseen companion's licking. The next morning, she wakes up and sees written in blood on her mirror: "Humans can lick, too." The dog is then found dead in the bathroom.

Background: Elements of this urban legend go back as far as 1871, but the modern version didn't make rounds until the 1980s apparently. Most consider it and the "Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn On the Lights?" myth to be one and the same. There is a variation where the victim wakes up to find her dead pet hanging in the bathroom/her roommate murdered and the famous message scrawled on her mirror, but the "licked hand" motif is missing altogether. The iteration with the roommate also ties into "The Roommate's Death," where either the protagonist's roommate is killed in the very same room as her, or the roommate is attacked outside their dorm room/apartment, and she claws at the front door in hopes of her peer opening up to save her.

In the media: The 1997 anthology Campire Tales has a whole story devoted to the "licked hand" variation. In it, an Internet predator tracks down the home of a child he's been stalking online.

The Canadian children's show Freaky Stories had a more innocent take where the licker is just a relatively harmless weirdo who directly tells the girl "I can lick, too" as he leaves her property.

In the second sequel to 1998's Urban Legend subtitled Bloody Mary, a teenage boy is made the victim. The first sequel, Final Cut, also referenced the legend.

Supernatural covered the myth in the episode "Family Remains."

Scream Session

The legend: On the eve of final exams at a college campus, students stop studying at midnight and gather. Collectively, they all scream, unleashing their anguish over exams. During this time, someone takes advantage of the noise and assaults or murders another student.

Background: It's not surprising that many universities have unusual traditions for boosting morale. In fact, some colleges did or still do participate in campus wide scream sessions during finals. There have been a number of cases where a victim's pleas or screams were ignored by bystanders, but nothing exactly like in the legend has been officially reported.

In the media: The film students in Urban Legends: Final Cut film a scene about this legend. And by no coincidence, a member of the film crew is murdered during the recording session.

In the 1981 thriller Blow Out, a slasher film sound editor ultimately uses his girlfriend's death scream as part of the soundtrack for a movie he's editing. His colleagues are none the wiser as they don't realize the scream isn't performed. Not exactly the same as the urban legend, but it may have been an inspiration for the movie's denouement.

Set in 1988, an American teenager's life changes after escaping death. He starts to experience episodes where he can't tell if he's awake or dreaming, or if he's possibly living in another reality.

An ordinary man ends up falling into a time machine that sends him back an hour in the past. He races to find himself before tragedy strikes.

A college student named Tree finds herself repeating the same day again and again. And each time, a masked killer is stalking her. Until she solves her own murder, Tree will be stuck in the time loop.

A college student with the ability to travel back in time to specific points in his life causes a ripple effect when he changes the past.

After traveling back to prehistoric times, a scientist sets off a chain of events that dramatically changes the future.

A group of students stuck in detention try to survive as well as stop a killer dressed as a villain from a horror movie.

Trouble unfolds for three people after they discover a camera which takes pictures that show what will happen in twenty-four hours.

A group of friends discover something incomprehensible inside an abandoned mine.

Set in 1965, strange things happen at an all-girls' school after a new student arrives.

Some students at a women's finishing school decide to stay behind over Christmas break. They invite some men over, which is against the rules. Eventually, people start to go missing. The cops are brought in the protect the house, but it's of no use - a killer dressed as Santa Claus is out for blood.

The students at an exclusive boarding school in the summer are killed off one by one by an unseen killer.

When pushed past her limit, a scholarship student at an elite school uses her supernatural ability to control snakes to punish her bullies.

Two students left behind at a boarding school are faced with an evil entity.

A teenager uses her ability to communicate with insects to solve a murder mystery at her Swiss boarding school.

A boarding school student beomes suspicious that her new classmate isn't who she appears to be.

When a teenage boy fascinated with dressing up as his late grandmother is sent to a mysterious boarding school, he and his classmates discover they are in imminent danger.