Vasilisa the Beautiful, illuminating the road with a skull, Thunderbolt and monsters, more terrible than the alien alien.
The younger brother of my childhood friend almost became a stutterer after watching the movie Aliens. Leschka was then five years old – frankly, not the age at which one should get acquainted with such horror films. However, the psyche of Soviet children was tested worse than Hollywood blockbusters.
Only one cartoon “The Scarlet Flower”, filmed at the Soyuzmultfilm studio in 1952, which is worth it. No, the story itself is as innocent as a baby’s tear. But the monster dying with a groan frightened many. Particularly impressionable young ladies closed their eyes and clung to their mother when the enchanted prince spied on Nastenka, hiding in the bushes.
By the way, the image of the Beast was copied from the actor Mikhail Astangov (remember Negoro from The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain?) – he was dressed in a dressing gown with a “hump” under it from a pillow played by live actors were transferred to paper).
And the “Mystery of the Third Planet” ?! It is impossible to look at the archaeologist Gromozeka, although he claims to be a positive hero, without flinching. Well, after the pirate Gloth from the planet Katruk, clinking with sharp teeth, no “Jaws” are scary.
Okay cartoons! Children’s stories that grandmothers and mothers read to us for the night may well claim to be a ready-made script for a horror film. Here, for example, is an excerpt from the Russian folk tale “Vasilisa the Beautiful” from a collection compiled by Afanasyev. We are talking about the dwelling of Baba Yaga, into which the main character fell. “The fence around the hut is made of human bones, human skulls with eyes stick out on the fence; instead of faith at the gate – human feet, instead of locks – hands, instead of a lock – a mouth with sharp teeth. ” If everything is fine with a child with imagination, write it up: nightmares are guaranteed.
Well, so that the kid is guaranteed to get scared, here are illustrations for a fairy tale from the famous Russian artist Ivan Bilibin.
The road to Vasilisa the Beautiful was illuminated by a skull with burning eyes
Illustrations created for the collection “Gift of the Wind. Latvian folk tales ”, the famous artist from Latvia Inara Garklav, horrified even the seasoned Spanish macho. On one of the forums, a guy with delight, bordering on horror, shared his impressions of what he had watched.
And he has not yet seen the book that all children in Estonia read. The legend of Big Tõlla (a giant farmer who lived on the island of Saaremaa and fought against the enemies of his people) was first filmed by Estonian animators. And only then, based on the cartoon, the same artist Juri Arrak released a book. Severed heads, crushed enemies, blood like a river – even a colleague’s nerves, whose restraint is envied by the entire editorial staff, could not stand the nerves.
Well, my childhood was spent in the Far East, and therefore in the city library I got acquainted not with the Estonian, but with the Yakut and Chukchi epics. There were also plenty of monsters and monsters. As, for example, in “Nyurguun bootur swift” with pictures by Elley Sivtsev, Vladimir Karamzin and Innokenty Koryakin.
Wow