Is it simply because they trigger memories of The Exorcist, The Shining, The Ring, etc.?* Or do those films themselves draw at some more ancient well of horror? Either way, if that had been a six-year-old boy I don't believe people would have been quite as freaked.
* None of which I've seen, by the way: just reading the Wiki entry for The Ring spooked me for days.
I think the idea of creepy girl ghosts is an extension of the image of a small, quiet, demure girl. Her "ideal" state as seen but not heard is taken to its logical and disturbing extreme. She's so quiet and demure that she just...appears. And stares at you. And utters a banshee-like scream, just when you're trying to get your wits back, sending you in a feedback loop of terror.
No one would believe a materializing six year old boy. You'd hear him clattering in from a mile away.
Before I saw the clip, I wondered if the prank were related to the Brazilian urban legend of the Blonde in the Bathroom. I don't think it is directly, but I wonder if there's a subconscious connection in the Brazilian psyche with the mysterious, beautiful blonde with the bloody nose who appears in the bathroom mirror with no warning. With or without a banshee scream.
Edited at 2013-03-22 08:10 am (UTC)