Some were frightened by Babaika and a gray Top. Others have heard stories about the Queen of Spades and Green Fingers. Baba Yaga, aliens, Freddy Krueger, clowns and many others – we have collected readers’ confessions about those who became their main childhood nightmare.
All our lives we are afraid of something, even if we do not admit it to ourselves. But in childhood, our fears seem to us something real, tangible. The evil spirits seen in the movies, sinister book characters, something that lives under the bed … Let’s remember together what scared us in childhood.
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“I was fiercely afraid of Santa Clauses on New Year trees. They were talking loudly and grabbing me all the time. They smelled of alcohol, and chaos reigned around.
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“As a child, I was afraid of a babayka: my grandmother said that if I behave badly, then the babayka will take me away. And damn it!”
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“Barmaley scared me – the one that is an evil pirate in a vest. My imagination drew him partly from the image in the cartoon, but mostly from the sound of the audio fairy tale that I listened to from the record. This Barmaley was “hiding” under my bed.
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“As a child, I was afraid of the Plague from the Tale of Wanderings: she seemed scary and absolutely crazy. I then painted the plague and the people dying because of it for a long time – in the image of a woman with a magnificent hairdo and freckles, like in the film.
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“Via was most afraid. And the headless horseman also made life very difficult for me.”
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“I was afraid of a real person – a caretaker of a cornfield. Our gang of preschool scumbags was a thunderstorm of collective farm gardens and fields. Corn, peas, apples, berries are all ours. And the watchman ran after us with a gun! He didn’t shoot, of course, but he ran!”
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“I was scared by the old sorceress from the movie Little Muck.
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“The scariest thing for me was the clown from Stephen King’s It. For some reason, I read it at preschool age – if there is a clown on the cover, then it is a children’s book, right? Well, after the story “The Moving Finger” Kinga, until the age of 15, could not sleep normally and go to the bathroom at night. Suddenly there will be a living human finger sticking out of the shell.
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“The fear of my childhood is Medusa Gorgon…”
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“In early childhood, I was very afraid of Ugomon from Marshak’s poem: “Where there is hubbub, there he is – a quiet, strict Ugomon. Everyone who makes noise at night, Ugomon will calm down.
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“Most of all I was frightened by the devil from the snuffbox in Andersen’s fairy tale “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”. We had such a filmstrip, how terrible it was to watch. And also Baba Yaga, who came, “scratched” outside the window when I was seriously ill with pneumonia. After that, I always saw her in dreams before the death of loved ones … “
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“I was afraid of the wolf, who was supposed to come and bite the barrel. He even gave me nightmares.
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“After watching the Soviet film “Viy”, I was terribly afraid of a witch. And after visiting the Tretyakov Gallery, my daughter was afraid of Ivan the Terrible from the picture where he kills his son. She even had nightmares.”
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“As a child, the Hound of the Baskervilles scared me. Now everything that is not spitz, I’m scared. Although no. Spitz is scary too!”
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“I was afraid of clowns. And also fairy tales “Dwarf Nose”. Not one particular character – the whole story was a nightmare for me. And still remains.
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“Most of all I was afraid, probably, of aliens. Not to say that I expected them to pop out from under the bed. It was more like a potential invasion of the inhabitants of other planets as a nightmare – however, even now I do not like this idea.
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“In the camp, they told horror stories about the Red Hand and Green Eyes, who for some reason “run along the wall” and plan to strangle the victim. I couldn’t sleep normally for a long time, I thought that I wouldn’t wake up in the morning … “
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“My biggest childhood fear is Freddy Krueger.”
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“I was terribly afraid of an electric hare from some series“ Well, you wait. He really terrified me with his appearance and actions. And the owl from The Hedgehog in the Fog.
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“I was very afraid of a hand that could get out of the drain in the bathroom. It came from the fairy tale film “Varvara Krasa – a long braid”, it seems, about a soldier. There was a water well in the well.”
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“As a child, the movie Solaris scared me a lot. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it was very scary there.”
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“I was afraid of the witches from the 1990 movie The Witches. I watched it while visiting a friend, and then for some time I could not sleep without light. It all seemed that one of them was flying somewhere outside the window. I didn’t imagine her clearly: a crochet nose, warts, long hair. By the way, I still don’t particularly like women with long hair. ”
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“The Black Hen scared me. I don’t remember anything from the plot, but the name alone still makes me sick.”
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“I was afraid of a man without a nose from the Soviet film “The Nose” based on Gogol.”
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“I was scared by the sight of any clowns. And now they are not at ease … Polunin scared with his “Asisyai”.
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“I was afraid of Indian Joe! When he promised to cut off the widow’s ear… Brrr.”
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“I was scared by the Queen of Spades from children’s horror stories, which you can call at night in front of a mirror:“ She will come and strangle you. I imagined her as a tall, large woman in black gloves and a black hat.
Today, some remember what scared them with a smile, while others still have a chill running through their skin. They were so impressed as children.
If this is about you, use the recipe for “cure against fear” from the world of “Harry Potter”. Remember, the boggart ghost took the form of the object, creature or phenomenon that the person standing in front of him was afraid of? But as soon as you imagine the boggart, that is, your nightmare, in a funny way, wave your magic wand and say “Ridiculus”, it dissipates. Is this not an example of the fact that the best weapon against fear is laughter?