Children's black folklore. Edward Uspensky - Nightmare Horrors

Introduction.

Folklore is artistic folk art, artistic creative activity of the working people, poetry, music, theater, dance, architecture, fine and decorative applied arts created by the people and prevailing among the masses. In collective artistic creation, the people reflect their labor activity, social and everyday life, knowledge of life and nature, cults and beliefs. The folklore that has developed in the course of social labor practice embodies the views, ideals and aspirations of the people, their poetic fantasy, the richest world of thoughts, feelings, experiences, protest against exploitation and oppression, dreams of justice and happiness. Having absorbed the centuries-old experience of the masses, folklore is distinguished by the depth of the artistic assimilation of reality, the truthfulness of the images, the power of creative generalization. The richest images, themes, motives, forms of folklore arise in a complex dialectical unity of individual (although, as a rule, anonymous) creativity and collective artistic consciousness. For centuries, the folk collective has been selecting, improving and enriching the solutions found by individual craftsmen. Continuity, stability of artistic traditions (within which, in turn, personal creativity is manifested) are combined with variability, diverse implementation of these traditions in individual works. It is typical for all types of folklore that the creators of a work are at the same time its performers, and the performance, in turn, can be the creation of options that enrich the tradition; also important is the closest contact of performers with people who perceive art, who themselves can act as participants in the creative process. The main features of folklore include the long-lasting indivisibility, the highly artistic unity of its types: poetry, music, dance, theater, and decorative arts merged in folk ritual performances; in the people's dwelling, architecture, carving, painting, ceramics, embroidery created an inseparable whole; folk poetry is closely related to music and its rhythm, musicality, and the nature of the performance of most works, while musical genres are usually associated with poetry, labor movements, dances. Folklore works and skills are passed directly from generation to generation.

1. A wealth of genres

In the process of existence, genres of verbal folklore experience “productive” and “unproductive” periods (“ages”) of their history (emergence, spread, entry into the mass repertoire, aging, extinction), and this is ultimately associated with social and cultural changes in society. The stability of the existence of folklore texts in folk life is explained not only by their artistic value, but also by the slowness of changes in the way of life, worldview, tastes of their main creators and keepers - peasants. The texts of folklore works of various genres are changeable (albeit to varying degrees). However, in general, traditionalism has immeasurably greater power in folklore than in professional literary creativity. The richness of genres, themes, images, poetics of verbal folklore is due to the variety of its social and everyday functions, as well as the ways of performance (solo, chorus, chorus and soloist), the combination of text with melody, intonation, movements (singing, singing and dancing, telling, acting , dialogue, etc.). In the course of history, some genres have undergone significant changes, disappeared, new ones appeared. In the most ancient period, most peoples had ancestral legends, labor and ritual songs, conspiracies. Later, there are magic, everyday tales, tales of animals, pre-state (archaic) forms of the epic. During the formation of statehood, a classic heroic epic was formed, then historical songs and ballads arose. Even later, extra-ritual lyric song, romance, ditty and other small lyric genres and, finally, working folklore (revolutionary songs, oral stories, etc.) were formed. Despite the bright national coloring of the works of verbal folklore of different peoples, many motives, images and even plots in them are similar. For example, about two-thirds of the stories of European peoples' fairy tales have parallels in the fairy tales of other peoples, which is caused either by development from one source, or by cultural interaction, or by the emergence of similar phenomena on the basis of general laws of social development.

2. The concept of children's folklore

It is customary to call children's folklore both works that are performed by adults for children, and those composed by the children themselves. Children's folklore includes lullabies, little toys, nursery rhymes, tongue twisters and chants, teasers, rhymes, absurdities, etc. Children's folklore is formed under the influence of many factors. Among them - the influence of various social and age groups, their folklore; mass culture; prevailing ideas and much more. The initial sprouts of creativity can appear in various activities of children, if the necessary conditions are created for this. The successful development of such qualities that in the future will ensure the child's participation in creative work depends on upbringing. Children's creativity is based on imitation, which serves as an important factor in the development of a child, in particular his artistic abilities. The task of the teacher is, relying on the propensity of children to imitate, to instill in them the skills and abilities, without which creative activity is impossible, to educate them in independence, activity in the application of this knowledge and skills, to form critical thinking, purposefulness. In preschool age, the foundations of the child's creative activity are laid, which are manifested in the development of the ability to plan and its implementation, in the ability to combine their knowledge and ideas, in the sincere transmission of their feelings. Possibly, folklore has become a kind of filter for the mythological plots of the entire totality of the Earth's society, letting the universal, humanistically significant, and most viable plots into literature.

3. Contemporary children's folklore

They sat on the golden porch

Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry,

Uncle Scrooge and three ducklings

And Ponca will drive!

Returning to the analysis of the current state of the traditional genres of children's folklore, it should be noted that the existence of such genres of calendar folklore as chants and sentences remains almost unchanged in terms of text. Still the most popular are appeals to the rain ("Rain, rain, stop ..."), to the sun ("Sun, sun, look out the window ..."), to a ladybug and a snail. The semi-faith, traditional for these works, is preserved in combination with the playful beginning. At the same time, the frequency of use of chants and sentences by modern children decreases, practically no new texts appear, which also allows us to speak of a regression of the genre. Riddles and teasers proved to be more viable. Remaining still popular among children, they exist both in traditional forms (“I went underground, I found a red cap”, “Lenka-foam”), and in new versions and varieties (“In winter and summer in the same color” - Negro , dollar, soldier, canteen menu, alcoholic nose, etc.). Such an unusual variety of the genre as riddles with drawings is rapidly developing. Folklore recordings of recent years contain a fairly large block of ditties. Gradually dying off in the adult repertoire, this type of oral folk art is rather readily picked up by children (this is what happened with the works of calendar folklore at one time). Chastushka texts heard from adults are usually not sung, but recited or chanted in communication with peers. Sometimes they "adapt" to the age of the performers, for example:

Girls offend me

They say that they are small

And I'm in the garden Irinku

I kissed him ten times.

Historically established genres such as pestushki, nursery rhymes, jokes, etc., almost completely disappear from oral use. Firmly recorded in textbooks, manuals and anthologies, they have now become a part of book culture and are actively used by teachers, educators, are included in programs as a source of folk wisdom, filtered out for centuries, as a sure means of developing and raising a child. But modern parents and children in oral practice use them very rarely, and if they reproduce, then as works that are familiar from books, and not passed from mouth to mouth, which, as you know, is one of the main distinctive features of folklore.

4. Modern genre of children's horror stories.

Children's folklore is a living, constantly renewing phenomenon, and in it, along with the most ancient genres, there are relatively new forms, the age of which is only a few decades old. As a rule, these are genres of children's urban folklore, for example, horror stories. Horror stories are short stories with a tense plot and a frightening ending, the purpose of which is to scare the listener. According to the researchers of this genre O. Grechina and M. Osorina, "the horror story merges the traditions of a fairy tale with the actual problems of a child's real life." It is noted that among children's horror stories, one can find plots and motifs, traditional in archaic folklore, demonological characters borrowed from bylikas and past times, however, the prevailing group is a group of plots in which objects and things of the surrounding world are demonic creatures. Literary critic S.M. Leuter notes that under the influence of a fairy tale, the children's horror stories acquired a clear and uniform plot structure. The predestination inherent in it (warning or prohibition - violation - retribution) makes it possible to define it as a "didactic structure". Some researchers draw parallels between the modern genrechildren's horror storiesand older literary types of horror stories, for example, the works of Korney Chukovsky. The writer Eduard Uspensky collected these stories in the book "Red Hand, Black Sheet, Green Fingers (Scary Stories for Fearless Children)".

Horror stories in the described form, apparently, became widespread in the 70s of the XX century. Literary critic O. Yu. Trykova believes that “at present, horror stories are gradually passing into the“ stage of conservation ”. Children still tell them, but practically no new plots appear, and the frequency of performance is also decreasing. Obviously, this is due to a change in life's realities: in the Soviet period, when an almost total ban in official culture was imposed on everything catastrophic and frightening, the need for the terrible was satisfied through this genre. Currently, there are many sources, in addition to horror stories, satisfying this craving for the mysteriously frightening (from news releases, various newspaper publications savoring the "scary", to numerous horror films). According to the psychologist M.V. Osorina, a pioneer in the study of this genre, the fears that a child copes with in early childhood either by himself or with the help of his parents, become the material of the collective consciousness of children. This material is worked out by children in group situations of telling scary stories, recorded in the texts of children's folklore and passed on to the next generations of children, becoming a screen for their new personal projections.

The main character of the horror stories is a teenager who encounters a "pest object" (stain, curtains, tights, a rolling coffin, piano, TV, radio, record, bus, tram). In these items, color plays a special role: white, red, yellow, green, blue, blue, black. The hero, as a rule, repeatedly receives a warning about the impending disaster from the object-pest, but does not want (or cannot) get rid of it. His death most often comes from strangulation. The hero's assistant is a policeman.Horror stories are not limited only to the plot, the ritual of storytelling is also essential - as a rule, in the dark, in the children's company in the absence of adults. According to the folklorist M.P. Cherednikova, the child's involvement in the practice of telling horror stories depends on his psychological maturation. At first, at the age of 5-6, a child cannot hear scary stories without horror. Later, from about 8 to 11 years old, children happily tell scary stories, and at the age of 12-13 they no longer take them seriously, and various parody forms are becoming more widespread.

As a rule, horror stories are characterized by stable motives: "black hand", "blood stain", "green eyes", "coffin on wheels", etc. Such a story consists of several sentences, as the action develops, the tension increases, and in the final phrase it reaches its peak.

"Red Spot".One family got a new apartment, but there was a red spot on the wall. They wanted to erase him, but nothing happened. Then the stain was pasted over with wallpaper, but it showed through the wallpaper. And every night someone died. And the stain became even brighter after each death.

"The black hand punishes theft."One girl was a thief. She stole things and one day she stole a jacket. At night, someone knocked on her window, then a hand in a black glove appeared, she grabbed her jacket and disappeared. The next day, the girl stole the bedside table. At night, the hand appeared again. She grabbed the nightstand. The girl looked out the window, wanting to see who was taking things. And then the hand grabbed the girl and, pulling her out the window, strangled her.

Blue Glove.Once upon a time there was a blue glove. Everyone was afraid of her because she stalked and strangled people who returned home late. And then one day a woman was walking down the street - and this street was dark and dark - and suddenly she saw a blue glove peeking out of the bushes. The woman got scared and ran home, and behind her was a blue glove. A woman ran into the entrance, went up to her floor, and the blue glove was behind her. She began to open the door, and the key got stuck, but she opened the door, ran home, and suddenly there was a knock on the door. She opens, and there is a blue glove! (The last phrase was usually accompanied by a sharp movement of the hand towards the listener).

"Black House".In one black, black forest stood a black, black house. In this black, black house there was a black, black room. In this black, black room, there was a black, black table. On this black, black table is a black, black coffin. In this black, black coffin lay a black, black man. (Up to this point, the narrator speaks in a muffled monotonous voice. And then - abruptly, unexpectedly loudly, grabbing the listener's hand.) Give me my heart! Few people know that the first poetic horror story was written by the poet Oleg Grigoriev:

I asked the electrician Petrov:
"Why did you wind a wire around your neck?"
Petrov doesn't answer me,
Hangs and only shakes with bots.

After him, sadistic rhymes appeared in abundance in both nursery and adult folklore.

The old woman did not suffer for long
In high-voltage wires
Her charred carcass
Scared the birds in the sky.

Horror stories are usually told in large companies, preferably in the dark and in a frightening whisper. The emergence of this genre is associated, on the one hand, with the craving of children for everything unknown and frightening, and on the other, with an attempt to overcome this fear. As they grow older, horror stories cease to scare and cause only laughter. This is evidenced by the emergence of a kind of reaction to horror stories - parody anti-scarecrows. These stories start out in an equally terrifying way, but the ending turns out to be funny:

Black-black night. A black-black car was driving along the black-black street. On this black-and-black car it was written in big white letters: "BREAD"!

Grandfather and woman are sitting at home. Suddenly the radio said: “Throw away the cabinet and refrigerator! A coffin on wheels is coming to your house! " They threw it away. And so everything was thrown away. They sit on the floor, and they broadcast on the radio: "We have broadcast Russian folk tales."

All these stories end, as a rule, with no less terrible endings. (These are only "official" horror stories, in books, to please the publisher, they are equipped with happy ends or funny endings.) And nevertheless, modern psychology considers creepy children's folklore to be a positive phenomenon.

“A children's horror story affects different levels - feelings, thoughts, words, images, movements, sounds,” psychologist Marina Lobanova told NG. - She makes the psyche, with fear, not to get up with tetanus, but to move. Therefore, a horror story is an effective way to deal with depression, for example. " According to the psychologist, a person is able to create his own horror film only when he has already completed his own fear. And now Masha Seryakova transfers her valuable psychic experience to others - with the help of her stories. “It is also important that the girl writes using emotions, thoughts, images that are characteristic of a child's subculture,” says Lobanova. "An adult will never see it and will never create it."

Bibliography

"Mythological stories of the Russian population of Eastern Siberia." Compiled by V.P. Zinoviev. Novosibirsk, "Science". 1987.

Dictionary of literary terms. M. 1974.

Permyakov G.L. "From a saying to a fairy tale." M. 1970.

E.A. Kostyukhin "Types and forms of animal epic". M. 1987.

Levina E.M. Russian folklore fiction. Minsk. 1983.

Belousov A.F. "Children's folklore". M. 1989.

V.V. Mochalova "The World Inside Out". M. 1985.

Lurie V.F. “Children's folklore. Younger teens». M. 1983

It is nevertheless pleasant to read the fairy tale "Nightmare Horrors" by Eduard Uspensky even to adults, childhood is immediately remembered, and again, like a little one, you empathize with the heroes and rejoice with them. The main character always wins not by cunning and cunning, but by kindness, gentleness and love - this is the main quality of children's characters. Everyday problems are an incredibly successful way, with the help of simple, ordinary, examples, to convey to the reader the most valuable centuries-old experience. Tens, hundreds of years separate us from the time of the creation of the work, but the problems and customs of people remain the same, practically unchanged. A person's worldview is formed gradually, and such works are extremely important and edifying for our young readers. Inspiration of household items and nature, creates colorful and mesmerizing pictures about the world around them, making them mysterious and mysterious. Diminutive descriptions of nature are often used in works, making the picture that appears even more intense. The fairy tale "Nightmare Horrors" Eduard Uspensky should be read online for free thoughtfully, explaining to young readers or listeners details and words that are incomprehensible to them and new to them.

Unconventional, irrational surreal creepy stories

Red Hand, Green Pistol, Black Curtains ... This is the most numerous and certainly the most creepy branch of scary children's folklore. Terrible because in everyday life people never encounter anything like that. With skeletons and vampires, we also do not often meet. But still, we understand what a skeleton is, where it came from and what it wants. But what the Black Curtains want, whether the Phosphoric Man is alive and who his parents are - no one knows. And since no one knows, this is the worst thing. This is typical urban folklore. And the point here is not so much in the attributes, but in the new thinking of city children who grew up far from cemeteries and brought up in the spirit of atheism. Fenced off by concrete from nature and ideology from the truth of life, they seemed to have to forget about the heavy legacy of the past, about all these terrible and unusual things.

But a holy place is never empty. And the need for the terrible has found new nightmares - inexplicable, seemingly devoid of any logic. As if, because there was still logic and grounds for the emergence of a new cycle of horrors. The dates of these stories can sometimes be calculated to within five years. The year 1934 and others. In almost all folklore stories, family members disappear at night: first - grandfather, then - grandmother, father, mother, elder sister ...

After all, no one could explain to the little boy where in real life the family that lived in the next apartment disappeared. It was then that the Red Hand, Black Curtains, buses with black curtains and dungeons, where people are cut to pieces, appeared in our country. Not only the Stalinist "meat grinder" was reflected in these stories, but also the deficit - there are no curtains, except black ones, there are no gloves, except red ones, in stores. Without exaggeration, these stories can be used to study the recent history of the USSR. We thought for a long time on what principle to arrange these stories: according to color, biological, in size, and in the end we arranged them according to the degree of increasing fear.

Black hole carpet

There was a lonely and poor woman. One day she had a violent quarrel with her mother, and the next day her mother died.

The woman inherited an old carpet, and that one with a large black hole.

Once, when the woman ran out of all the money, she decided to sell it.

I went to the market and sold the carpet to a young family with two children: the boy is nine years old and the girl is the same.

Father hung the carpet over the bed. As soon as the family fell asleep and the clock struck twelve at night, human hands reached out from a hole in the old carpet. They reached out to their father and strangled him.

In the morning, everyone woke up and saw the dead father. Soon he was buried.

On the same night, after the funeral, as soon as the widow and children fell asleep and the cuckoo clock struck twelve, long human arms appeared again from the black hole. They reached for the mother's neck and strangled her. The next day, when the children woke up, they found the strangled mother. Looking closer, they saw ten blood fingerprints on the mother's neck, but did not tell anyone about it.

Three days later, the mother was buried, and the children were left alone in the house. They agreed not to sleep that night.

As soon as the clock struck twelve, old human hands reached out from the black hole. The children screamed and ran after the neighbors. The neighbors called the police. The police cut off the hands hanging over the carpet with an ax, and burned the carpet in the fire.

After all this, it turned out that there was a witch in the black hole. And the woman who sold the carpet to the family disappeared somewhere. Then she was found dead in the forest with a broken heart.

White sheet

A mother and a daughter lived. When my daughter grew up, she began to help her mother around the house: cook, wash the dishes and the floor. One day she was washing the floor and found under the bed, in the corner, a large stain of blood.

She told her mother about it. “Don't erase this stain,” her mother told her, “otherwise you won't see me again.” Mother went to work. And the daughter forgot her order, took a knife and scratched the stain.

In the evening, my mother did not return from work. The daughter was about to run to her, when suddenly the radio announced: “Close the windows and doors. A white sheet is flying around the city! " The girl quickly closed the door and windows. And soon she saw that a white sheet flew several times in front of her windows. The girl told her old neighbor about everything. And the old woman said to her: “Next time, when they announce, you don't close the windows, but crawl under the bed. When the sheet flies into your apartment, prick your finger with a needle and drop a drop of blood on the spot where the stain was. And instead of a sheet, your mother will appear. " The girl did just that: as soon as the sheet flew into the apartment, she took a knife, cut a vein and dripped blood.

And her mother appeared in the place of the sheet.

Green eyes

One old man, dying, decided to leave behind a memory. He took it and gouged out his eyes (and his eyes were green). The old man hung those eyes on the wall and died. A year later, a family with a small child moved into the house. One day my husband came home from work, and his wife said to him: "Our baby is crying something when I turn off the light." The husband replies: "And you turn off the light and look at the walls." The wife did as her husband told her, and saw green eyes on the wall. His eyes flashed and electrocuted his wife.

Small witch

In one ancient castle near the Black Sea, there was a pioneer camp. All the nights the guys slept peacefully. But one day someone tickled the heels of a boy. The boy looked - no one was there, and fell asleep. The next night, the same thing happened, the third night, the same thing. The boy told the counselors about everything.

In the evening, the counselors went to bed with him and warned him to shout when they started tickling. And the other guys were put near the switch. When the heels began to tickle, the boy shouted and turned on the light.

It turned out that it was a small (half a meter) witch. She yanked the boy's leg away. And without opening the door, she went out.

Soon the castle was destroyed.

Statuette

One woman bought a figurine and placed it near the window, covered with a large glass shade. This woman had a husband and a daughter. At night, when everyone fell asleep, the cap lifted by itself and the statuette came out. She went up to her husband, tore off his head, and then ate it. Not a drop of blood remained on the bed. And the figurine fell into place under the hood. In the morning the woman woke up and, not finding her husband, thought that he had been called to work at night. The next night, the figurine was eaten in the same way by the mother. In the morning, the girl got scared and ran for advice from a very wise grandmother. Grandmother told her: “This is all about the figurine that your mother bought. To kill her, take a black rag without a single spot and, when the figurine comes out from under the cap, tie it with this rag. Then she will be powerless. Then take it away (out of the city, throw it off the cliff and see what happens! " The figurine got scared and went to its place. The next night the girl prepared a black, black rag without a single spot. The figurine was paralyzed. In the morning it was taken out of the city and thrown off a cliff. The figurine broke and turned into a jug. The girl went down the cliff and looked that over there, and there were human bones.

Bus with black curtains

One day, my mother sent her daughter to a store that was very far away. At the same time, she said: "Never get on a bus with black curtains." The girl went to the bus stop and waited. A bus with black curtains arrived.

The girl did not sit in it. The same bus arrived the second time. The girl did not sit in it again. But the third time she got on a bus with black curtains. The bus driver said, "Parents, let the kids go ahead!" When all the children entered, the doors suddenly closed and the bus drove off. At the turn, the black curtains closed. Terrible hands protruded from the backs of the chairs and strangled all the children. The bus stopped and the driver threw the bodies into a landfill. The bus with black curtains went to kill the children again.

Green Man

One night a thunderstorm started and the woman got up to close the balcony. I went to the balcony, and there was a green man sitting there. The woman got scared, ran to her husband and told him everything. They came together to the balcony, but the green man is gone. On the same night, the green man was seen by many others.

It turned out that one person was struck by lightning, but he did not die, but turned green.

Red spot

In one class, a teacher fell ill and was replaced by a very strange woman. One day a new girl appeared in the classroom, and the teacher immediately disliked her. When the girl came home, she saw a red spot on the wall. This spot was moving. A rifle hung on the other wall. The girl, frightened, grabbed a gun and fired at the spot.

The next morning the woman came to school with a bandaged hand and said that she had fallen. The next day the same thing happened again: the girl fired, and the next day the teacher came with a bandaged leg. When the girl returned home, there was no stain on the wall. She sat down to study and suddenly noticed that a small white dot was moving towards her. The girl fired. There was a shout, and the next day it was announced that the new teacher had died. It turned out that this was not an ordinary woman.

Red boots

Once the girl began to ask her mother to let her go for a walk. And it was already evening. Mom did not agree for a long time: she had a premonition that something was about to happen. But the girl still begged her. Mom told her to come back no later than ten. At ten o'clock - the girl is not. Eleven ... Twelve ... Still no daughter. The mother was worried. I was going to call the police. Suddenly - at first o'clock in the morning - the doorbell rang. The mother opened the door and sees: on the threshold there are red boots, in which her daughter left. There are hands in them, and in their hands is a note: "MOM, I HAVE COME."

Black piano

In one family, the girl was fond of music. And for her birthday, the parents bought the girl a black piano.

Guests gathered and asked the girl to play. When the girl started to play, she felt terrible pain and discomfort. But her parents decided that she was taking time off and forced her to play all evening.

The next morning the girl could not get out of bed. She was melting right before our eyes. A few days later, blue spots appeared on her fingers. The parents decided to take the piano apart.

They took off the lid, and there was a terrible old woman who drank blood from the one who played this piano.

Green plate

Mom and daughter Svetlana lived in the same city. One day, my mother asked her daughter to go to the store for records. At the same time, my mother warned not to take green records. A girl came to the store, and there they sold out all the records, only green ones remained. Sveta disobeyed her mother and bought a green record. She returned home and showed her mother this disc. Mom did not scold her, but told her not to turn on the record when she was at home alone.

In the morning, mom went to work, and the girl was curious. She disobeyed and turned on the green record. First, funny music played, then a funeral march started, and then the girl heard a voice: "Girl, turn off the record, otherwise something will happen to mom!" But the girl did not obey and did not turn it off. In the evening my mother came home from work without hands. She warned the girl not to play the record again. But the daughter did not obey and the next day she turned on the green record again. In the evening, my mother returned from work without legs. On the third day, one head rolled, and after - no one. The girl waited, waited and went to bed. At twelve at night, Sveta heard the doorbell ringing. She got up and opened ... A black coffin with green upholstery drove into the apartment. The girl's mother lay in it. Sveta got scared and went to bed. But green hands with long nails came out of the plate and strangled the girl.

Red teeth

A new student entered one school. When all the schoolchildren were allowed to go home, he stayed after school. The technician tells him: "Go home, otherwise there are red teeth!" The boy says, "I'll see the school and go." He walked around the school, went into one office and fell asleep. When it struck twelve, red teeth appeared in the office. They rushed at the boy and ate him. In the morning, the guys came to the class and saw human bones. They called the police. They began to check their teeth - no one has such teeth. We decided to check with the director. He had red teeth.

Tourist case

One day a group of tourists went hiking in the mountains. High in the mountains, they found a clearing comfortable for living. Then the whole group went to the mountains for firewood, and one person stayed near the backpacks. The departed comrades did not appear for a long time, and he began to wander around the clearing, examining the surroundings. Suddenly below, on a rock, he saw the shadow of a man. Thinking that it was someone from the group, the tourist rushed down with shouts. But when he came running, there was no one on the rock. He began to scream, hoping that someone would answer, but it was still quiet. Suddenly a mysterious shadow appeared next to him again and disappeared again.

The perplexed tourist decided to return to the clearing. But as soon as he took a few steps, a shadow flashed before him again. The tourist stopped. From behind the rock, a shadow was walking towards him - the Black Man. Coming close to the tourist, the Black Man pushed him off the cliff. The tourist flew down from a height. And when he hit the stones, he did not crash, but turned into the same Black Man.

Black hands from a letter

One family - father, mother and daughter - gathered in the summer to visit their grandmother. Before leaving, the granddaughter wrote a letter to her grandmother, but did not have time to send it. And before putting it in the envelope, on the back of the letter, she traced her brush in black pencil and shaded it. With this, she summoned the Black Hands. When the family boarded the train, the girl completely forgot about the letter. Father's terrible cry was heard in the night. The daughter got scared and fled to the compartment to the neighbors. The father did not shout anymore. In the morning they began to wake him up, but he did not wake up. The father was dead. The girl noticed black prints on his throat. The next night, the girl heard her mother cry. She was even more frightened and ran away to the neighbors again. In the morning, the same prints appeared on the dead mother's throat. And the girl realized that her turn had come. In the evening she hid under the bed with an ax in her hands. At midnight, the Black Hands appeared in the compartment. They were approaching the girl. The girl cut them in half, but they grew together and became as before. The girl chopped and chopped them, and her hands grew together as if nothing had happened. Suddenly the girl felt that the letter in her pocket was trembling. And then she guessed what was the matter. She snatched the letter and tore it into small pieces. The Black Hands are gone. With this, the girl saved her life. Then she came to her grandmother and stayed with her.

Woman with black gloves

One girl was returning home from music school. Next to her on the bus was a woman wearing black gloves. The girl became interested and asked why she was wearing black gloves.

You want to know? the woman asked.

I want, - said the girl.

Come with me then, ”the woman said.

They got off at some stop and walked in the courtyards for a long time until the woman brought her to the basement. She let the girl go ahead and closed the door behind her.

So you wanna know why I wear black gloves? she asked, smiling.

I want, - the girl answered quietly.

The woman took off her gloves, and the girl saw that her nails were 5-7 centimeters long.

The woman took off her gloves and dug her nails into the girl's neck. She didn’t even have time to shout.

That's why the woman wore black gloves.

Tourist case

The tourists went on a hike. They passed an oak tree with a large hollow. One of them reached into the hollow and found a note there: "... three of you will die."

And there were five of them. The tourists laughed. They thought it was someone playing a trick on them. In the evening they stopped for the night. Four went to bed, and one stayed to watch the fire.

In the morning the tourists woke up: a cauldron of meat was boiling over the fire, but there was no comrade. They thought he had escaped. We tried the meat - didn't like it. They threw away the meat and moved on.

On the second night, another person on duty disappeared, and someone hung a sack on the tree next to the tent.

They tried to get the bag, but could not and sent a third to a nearby village for help. But the comrade did not return.

When the forester found the two remaining guys, he was very surprised at their thinness. It turns out that they could not move away from this place. And everyone looked at the hanging bag.

The forester fired, and the sack fell. It had three severed heads. They looked with lively eyes and in turn told how they had been killed. But that's a different story.

Red knee-highs

They announced on the radio that no one should buy knee-highs from an old woman in a black shawl. Mom and daughter did not hear anything and bought red knee-highs from this old woman at the market. On the way home, my daughter complained that her legs hurt. Mom said: “Be patient! Let's come home and see what's there. " When they got home, the girl could no longer walk. When my mother took off her red knee-highs, there were not legs, but bones.

Red hand on the carpet

In a certain city, during the rain, two people met at a bus stop. One of them, young, wore jeans and a white T-shirt. He had a suitcase in his hand. His name was Oleg. The second, elderly, was named Andrei Ivanovich. They met and got to talking. It turned out that Oleg came to a friend, and he suddenly left somewhere for several days. Then Andrei Ivanovich offered to stay with him and wait for his friend. Oleg agreed.

In the evening, after supper, Andrei Ivanovich invited the guest to inspect his apartment. In the master's bedroom, Oleg was interested in the carpet on the wall: a collection of weapons hung on the carpet - sabers, knives ... And suddenly Oleg went cold: on the carpet, chained with three chains, hung a red human hand. Seeing the fright of the guest, Andrei Ivanovich patted him on the shoulder in a friendly way and said:

Do not be afraid. Now you will learn the story about this hand.

They returned to the living room, and Andrei Ivanovich began to tell:

I once had a friend. Once we quarreled with him, and in a fight I chopped off his hand with an ax. After the death of a friend, I received a letter. It was from him. The letter said: "You cut off my hand - you will die of it!"

I laughed at the threat. But in vain! One night I woke up choking. A red hand hung around my neck. After some effort, I managed to pull it off. I was afraid to throw her out and chained her to my carpet. But a year later, the same thing happened again. Then I chained her with two more chains. And now I have been living for ten years. And she's nothing, she doesn't fall, - finished Andrey Ivanovich. - Well, it's late, it's time to sleep!

The next morning, waking up, Oleg looked to the owner ... On the floor lay the corpse of Andrei Ivanovich. There were blue fingerprints on his neck. There were no hands on the carpet.

Yellow ribbon

A girl named Katya lived in one city. One day she went for a walk and lost her yellow pigtail ribbon. Katya's mom got angry, but then she gave her money and sent her to the store for a new tape. Katya walked around all the shops, but there were no ribbons anywhere. Finally, in the last store, Katya saw ribbons. She began to ask the seller to sell her the yellow ribbon, but the seller did not agree. Katya begged him for a long time. Finally the seller agreed, but giving her the tape, he said: “When you go to bed, be sure to tie it to the radiator or to the window. Don't forget to do it! " Katya promised that she would not forget and ran home.

And on this day, guests came to them. They had so much fun that in the evening Katya forgot to tie the ribbon to the window. In the morning she woke up and saw that mom and dad were crying. "What's happened?" Katya asked. “The guests are dead,” Mom and Dad replied. Katya was very upset and that evening she again forgot to tie the ribbon. In the morning I woke up and saw that dad was crying. Mom died at night.

Katya cried all evening and again forgot to tie the ribbon. In the morning she saw that papa had also died. Katya was very frightened and called her neighbors. In the evening, the neighbors hid, and instead of Katya they put a large doll in the bed. Exactly at midnight, the tape turned into an old woman with a glass tube in her hand. She went to the bed and inserted her straw into the doll's hand. She thought it was a living girl and wanted to drink her blood.

In the morning, the neighbors cut the tape and threw it away. Pieces of tape turned into yellow buttons that found themselves on the road. The one who lifts them up will have the same story at home.

Woman with red face

The girl went to the store to buy gloves. Mom told her to buy any, but not red. But when the girl saw the red gloves, she really liked them. The girl bought gloves and went home. When she was approaching her house, she saw that the house was on fire. Firemen arrived, but they could not put it out in any way. Suddenly, a woman with a red face appeared from behind a tree. She approached the girl and told her that she would extinguish the fire if she later fulfilled one of her requests. The girl agreed. The woman chanted some kind of spell, and the fire went out. A woman with a red face told the girl to come to the cemetery at night and put her gloves on the grave in the center of the cemetery.

The girl fulfilled her promise. Suddenly, a woman with a red face climbed out of this grave, grabbed the girl by the hand and dragged her along. The girl began to beg to let her go. “Okay,” the woman said. - But you won't get rid of me so easily. Your grandmother will die today. "

The girl returned home and saw that her grandmother had died. When the grandmother was buried, she saw this woman again in the cemetery. The woman approached her and said that her mother would die. A day later, the girl's mother died. When my mother was buried, this woman appeared again and told the girl that she herself would die that night. The girl came home, went to bed and did not notice how she died. She was buried. And suddenly she sees that she is underground. And next to her are her grandmother and mother. The girl was delighted and ran to them. And then she saw that they, too, had red faces. And she herself had a red face too. Soon they all became red gloves and came to the people who bought them.

Flying eye

An Eye appeared in one pioneer camp. He looked like an eye, but he lived on his own. In addition, it was golden in color and larger than a human head. At night, he flew around the camp and killed children. If someone got out of bed, the Eye burned him. As an adult, he could do nothing. Once he flew between the legs of the camp director, and nothing happened to him. But he did not spare the children. It was possible to escape from him only by pulling the blanket over his head. But one girl made a hole in the blanket and pretended to be asleep. She began to look through the hole and soon saw the Eye appear in the room. The eye did not notice her. When he swam into the corridor, the girl quietly got up and began to sneak behind him. She saw how the Eye flew under the porch of the chamber. In the morning she told the director about it. They began to dig there, but found nothing. A sentry with a submachine gun was placed at the door of the ward. At night, the Eye floated out from under the porch. The sentry fired, but the bullets melted before reaching the target. The sentry wanted to hit Eye with the butt - the butt burned out. The next day, the camp was leveled with a bulldozer, and before that a cannon was fired into the porch.

They say it was near Sverdlovsk. Now there is a forest on the site of the camp.

Doll with blue eyes

One girl went to the market and saw a woman selling large, beautiful dolls. All dolls were different, none looked like the other. And inside each of them were ringing blue balls. The girl really liked the dolls, and she asked how they were made. The woman promised to show and invited the girl to visit. They came to the forest, to the hut, and the girl saw a lot of all kinds of dolls. Each had blue balls inside. The woman sat the girl down at the table and put a plate of strawberries in front of her. But before she said that before eating, you need to comb your hair. She took a comb and began to comb the girl's hair. And the girl turned into a doll: blue balls appeared in it.

Red tablecloth

One boy's parents bought a red tablecloth from the store. The boy saw a small black speck on the tablecloth and told his mother about it. Mom warned him not to touch this spot. But when his parents left on business, he decided to wipe the speck. He started to wash it, but the speck got bigger and bigger. It looked like someone's face. This mug began to open its ugly mouth and eventually swallowed the boy.

Black piano

An ordinary family lived in one very quiet and old town: mom, dad, grandfather and grandmother, two children and a cat. In this family, everyone was fond of music. Therefore, the parents gave their children a black piano. The grand piano was old, but it sounded surprisingly good.

Several days passed, and mysterious disappearances began to occur in the house. First, the cat disappeared. They searched for her for a long time, but they never found her. The next day, my grandmother was gone, then my grandfather, and finally my father disappeared.

The mother and children were very scared and decided to stick together to the end. In the evening, the mother said:

If anything happens to me, go to the police!

And then the night came. Everything was going well, when suddenly a strange sound was heard. The girls' mother went to the piano, opened the lid ... and disappeared. The girls dressed quietly and rushed to the nearest police station. They were so scared that they shied away from every shadow. Five minutes later, a group of militiamen was at the scene. First of all, they took apart the piano and ... found a secret door.

Lieutenant Tarasov (now, most likely, already a major) came out of the task force. Having received instructions, he began to carefully descend into the dungeon. Communication was maintained through a walkie-talkie. In a long corridor, Tarasov found a conveyor belt along which meat was going. It was all covered in blood and in some kind of rags. The lieutenant continued on his way, but after a hundred meters he stopped. An abyss gaped before him. At this time, someone's voices reached him. Voices could be heard from the pipe in a groan Without hesitation, Tarasov climbed into the pipe. Having stripped off his knees and elbows, he nevertheless climbed upstairs and saw a huge, semi-dark room. It was filled with barrels of meat.

In the right corner, next to a pile of rags, the lieutenant saw three men. After observing them, the lieutenant realized what they were doing. The tallest of the men was cleaning rags from meat. The second was putting it into barrels. And the latter closed the barrels and wrote something down in a large notebook.

Tarasov transmitted all this by radio and waited for an answer. At this time, the light fell on the face of one of the strangers, and the hair moved on Tarasov's face: the man's mouth reached almost to his ears. It was a vampire ...

Then someone pulled the lieutenant's leg. The group came to the place. After assessing the situation, the militiamen began to surround the strangers. Out of surprise, they did not offer any resistance. All were taken away and taken to the department.

It turned out that it was a gang of murderers. They killed people, cut them up for meat and sold the so-called canned food. A system of underground passages was built under the entire city. At night, they killed people, and the corpses fell onto the conveyor belt through black pianos.

Since then, not a single black piano has remained in the city, and all people have healed happily!

Phosphorus man

The first detachment of the pioneer camp went on a campaign. We stopped for the night near the cemetery. At night, two boys wanted to use the toilet and climbed over the fence. They did not know that going to the toilet in the cemetery (on the cross) was a bad omen. When they got out back, someone grabbed one boy by the leg. Then his comrade grabbed a stick and struck this place with all his might ... Someone groaned and let go of the boy. When the guys ran to the tents, they looked back and saw a phosphoric man looking at them through the fence.

The next night, someone looked into the tent where the guys were sleeping ... The guys got scared and screamed. The one who looked in immediately disappeared. The next night, the phosphorus man went to the tent, cut a hole in it, reached out and strangled one boy. The second boy saw this and screamed. The phosphorus man disappeared. The next evening the counselor set up a fishing net around the tent. But the phosphorus man cut through it and left.

Then they put three fishing nets and two cast-iron nets. But the phosphorus man cut through them too. On the last night, three cast-iron nets were set up, and the phosphorus man was caught.

But when they began to tighten the nets, it flashed brightly and burned down. And in its place there was only ash.

Oliterated folklore

From the point of view of chronology and poetics, the stories collected in this section are the most motley. They are united by the influence of "adult" culture - literature, science fiction, detective and gothic novels and some other literary layers. It seems that the vitamin of Fear is needed for the spiritual development of the child no less than all other vitamins.

In the West, a whole industry was created on this need, having mastered the black novel and horror film production. Our child extracted the necessary vitamin from everything that came to hand, processing into scary stories what was more or less suitable for this - from science fiction novels to classics. The degree of borrowing and processing in these stories is different, but the influence of adult literature, down to stylistic specifics, is undoubtedly.

Doll in black dress

There were two sisters. When the youngest had her birthday, an unexpected call rang. The girls ran to open it, but there was no one outside the door. And at the threshold stood a beautiful box tied with a black bow, on which was written: "Happy birthday!" The box contained a beautiful doll in a black dress. The girl really liked the doll, and she began to put it with her. After a while, everyone began to notice that the girl was very pale, and once she fainted.

One day, the older sister woke up at night from the fact that she heard strange sounds. The sounds came from the bed where her sister slept.

The girl screamed. The adults came running. The little sister was dead, and a doll in a black dress was sitting and sucking the last blood from her throat.

When the doll was broken, it bled and flowed for three days. This doll was a biorobot, pumping blood from humans to other biorobots.

After a series of acts of sabotage, the sale of such dolls in stores was discontinued. But judging by the existence of stories, individual copies of these dolls are still occasionally sold.

Yellow package

One day, a brother and sister were walking near their house and saw a yellow plastic bag on a tree. The brother's name was Sasha, and the sister's name was Lena. Sasha climbed up a tree and took out a package. There was folded paper in the bag. Lena wanted to throw it away. But Sasha unfolded and saw that it was a map. In the center was a chest of diamonds.

You see, a treasure is buried here, - said Sasha to his sister. - Now we'll go look for him!

And they went. The road led them into a dark forest.

The age-old trees parted in front of them and closed like a wall behind them. Not a single ray of the sun penetrated the black needles. The path took them farther and farther, and it already began to seem to them that they were lost. Suddenly they saw a POINTER. High above their heads, on the tree, hung a huge YELLOW HAND. The index finger showed the direction.

Sasha, maybe we'll come back? - said the girl. - Mom is already looking for us!

But what about the treasure? - asked Sasha. - Mom will be glad if we bring her treasures!

You see, - said Sasha, - here is the treasure!

They picked up the coins and began to descend the spiral staircase. The staircase was dark, but something was glowing below. They descended and found themselves in a large oak room. A fireplace was burning in it. And there was a chair opposite, someone was sitting in it. It was a dead man. He sat with his head thrown back and his eyes closed. His face was pale and thin, with a pointed nose and thin, compressed lips. A dead hand dangled from the chair from under the bloody shroud.

Lena felt scared: it seemed to her that the dead man was looking at them. But my brother said it was all nonsense.

They saw a door next to the fireplace and went to it. When they passed the dead man, one eyelid twitched and a tenacious prickly eye looked out from under him - as if he had photographed it - and instantly closed. The children did not notice anything and entered the next room. There stood a boy holding diamonds in his hands. The boy shuddered, but when he saw them, he was very happy. He said that his name was Gosha, that he also found a yellow bag and came for the treasure, but he had been here for a long time, since he could not get out of this room.

Lena took one diamond from him to look at, but it fell and shattered. The guys realized that it was glass.

Suddenly the door flew open and a dead man entered the room. Rather, the one they thought was a dead man. Everyone shuddered with horror. The dead man smiled at them with a fake amiable smile, showing small, sharp teeth.

He told them not to be afraid

he just wanted to invite them to his place, because he loves children very much. He asked them to wait, as he wanted to treat them, and left the room.

The guys became scared, and they began to look for where to hide. There was another door in the room, they began to tear into it, but the door did not open.

Gosha accidentally pressed some secret, and the door slowly opened. The guys ran into it and the wall closed behind them.

They found themselves in a white-tiled room. Along the walls were shelves containing various jars and test tubes. The children began to look at them and were horrified. There were two living human heads in two large jars. The heads looked at them and began to look at each other. Instead of words, bubbles flew out of their mouths.

A human hand was floating in a jar nearby, Gosha saw it and in horror pressed his forehead against the glass. The hand suddenly folded into a fig and, swimming up to the glass, began to spin in front of Gosha's nose. Gosha shied away from the can and fell to the floor.

At this time, a drawn-out, barely audible groan was heard. They turned and saw a table in the corner, on which lay something covered with a sheet. They pulled off the sheet and froze: on the table lay a human body, all cut with knives to bare bones and oozing blood. The neck was strained so that the veins seemed to burst. The skin on the face was bluish in color, and a wheezing escaped from the throat.

Then the door opened. He entered. And, grabbing them by the shoulders, pushed them into some kind of cage. Only then did Lena see: what seemed to them a shroud was in fact a surgical gown. He left and darkness fell. The children were so shocked that they could not cry or even move.

A dead silence reigned in the room, broken only by the sound of drops falling on the tiled floor. The children began to look closely and made out in the darkness a portrait of a woman hanging over the operating table. The woman in the picture bowed her head and seemed alive: real tears fell from her eyes. Suddenly the portrait came to life. The woman got off him, went up to the dying man, bent down and began to whisper something to him. The children had a hope that she could help them. And they began to beg her to release them. The woman quietly walked over to them and, without a word, unlocked the cage. The children began to thank her, but she looked at them with such sad eyes that they understood that she did not believe in their salvation. They quietly broke through the room with the fireplace and began to climb the stairs. To their delight, the outer door was open and it was early morning beyond.

The children slipped out.

Let's run home to mom! - Sasha said happily.

And then their legs gave way. HE appeared directly in front of them on the path. HE walked slowly and smiled with his predatory smile.

And although he was still far away and it was possible to have time to escape, they did not move and with eyes full of dull indifference looked at HIS approach ...

Skeleton Lord

A doctor came to one city. After a while, terrible things began to happen: in the evening people began to disappear in the city. After nine no one went outside. One man decided to find out what was the matter, and in the evening he left the house. He walks down the street and suddenly feels that someone is following him. He quickened his pace and began to turn into different lanes, but the one following him did not lag behind. Then the man ran into some house (and this was the doctor's house) and hid behind the door. The one who followed him also entered the house and went to the doctor's waiting room. The man saw that it was a skeleton. A few minutes later the doctor came out of the door. The man told him everything. The doctor invited him to his place, closed the door and said:

Now you will find out everything, but after that I will cut off your tongue so that you will not tell anyone about my discovery. I have discovered a powder that animates skeletons. They obey me and carry out all my orders. I ordered them to kill people because I need many, many skeletons.

What if they break out of obedience? the man asked.

I know one spell, ”the doctor said. - If you say it, they will strangle each other!

After that, the doctor cut off the man's tongue and left him to live with him.

Once, when the doctor was not in the office, a man opened his desk and saw a piece of paper on which something incomprehensible was written. The man read this, and had just finished reading, when a terrible cry rang out in the next room. He rushed there and saw among the skeletons of a dead doctor lying on the floor. And he realized that he had read that very spell, and the skeletons strangled each other, and at the same time the doctor who was next to him.

The case on the Soviet-Polish border

This incident took place on the Soviet-Polish border. There, in the very heart of a dark oak forest, there was an ancient castle, which would have been completely forgotten by people if the border did not pass nearby, and therefore the border path. At the outpost they knew well the location of the rooms, but they were not examined every time, but only when something aroused suspicion.

Once Sergeant Berezov and soldiers Gvozdev and Novikov went into the outfit. They passed the castle and suddenly saw a light flash in the upper window (it was the smallest room on the second floor, in the corner) and something sparkled. The sergeant ordered Novikov to stay below, while he and Gvozdev went to inspect the castle.

If you hear anything suspicious, - he said before leaving, - contact the outpost and report everything!

Novikov stayed downstairs and began to listen: here the doors passed, steps on the stairs, in the corridor, the creak of the opening heavy door to the room ... There was a burst of automatic fire, a terrible scream and a dull fall of two bodies - one after the other.

Novikov was taken aback, but after a few moments came to his senses and rushed to the nearest secret telephone to inform the outpost about the incident.

Ten minutes later, the outpost, raised with a gun, was at the castle. Everyone rushed upstairs and saw a terrible picture: at the very door, with a safety gun, was a soldier Gvozdev, and a few steps away from him, face down, Sergeant Berezov. Both were dead. But the sergeant's eyes were wide open. When the doctor looked into them, he screamed wildly and fell with no signs of life. It turned out that on the retina of the sergeant's eyes was imprinted that terrible vision that they saw before death. The picture was about to collapse, and a special composite sketch is needed for shooting.

The photographs were taken and presented to a symposium of doctors around the world. It was said that the film was destroyed, and the pictures were taken using a composite photo. There are two pictures, which is unknown.

Imagine a picture: a huge circular audience, like in a circus. In the center, on the table - a photo. At first, the doctors sat in silence, contemplating what had happened. Then one young American doctor got up and said, going down to the table. “I think that all this is nonsense, nonsense of Russians. This cannot be, because it cannot be! "

He took the photo, turned it towards him. His face contorted, the cigar fell out of his hands, he screamed wildly and went limp to the floor. The hall was numb, it was clear that the American was dead.

A lot of time has passed. Finally another man got up. It was an old Pole. He slowly went downstairs, walked over to the table, leaned his hand on it and said: “I have lived many years, but I felt life only now. I happened to see different deaths - from the so-called light to martyrdom, because I went through a concentration camp. Now in the hands of mankind is a terrible weapon. It costs a penny, but it works irresistibly. Humanity is not yet ripe for solving such mysteries. I do what I think is the only right thing in this situation. " He took the matches and set fire to the photograph without turning the photograph towards him. When it was almost burnt out, he took the second picture from the hands of the deceased American and set it on fire from the first.

And suddenly those who were sitting closer saw how a mischievous light flashed in the eyes of the doctor. "No, this temptation is unbearable!" they heard. In the doctor's hands there was a scrap the size of a fingernail, He turned the scrap, looked, screamed wildly and fell to the ground. The scrap burned out in his hand.

And until now, no one knows what was in this picture.

Mysterious well

One scientific expedition was returning home after a long hike in the desert. People have lost their way and have been wandering in the sands for several days. Food was running out, water ran out, and everyone was tormented by thirst. Finally, they stumbled upon an abandoned well. The well was so deep that the bottom was not visible. They tied one member of the expedition with a rope and began to lower it. The rope had already come to an end, but the comrade still did not give a signal. And suddenly such a cry came from the well that the hearts of his companions sank.

When the travelers pulled out their comrade, it was impossible to recognize. His hair was white, there were horns on his head, and his eyes shone mysteriously. The whole body was covered with thick hair, white fangs protruded from the mouth, and the fingers turned into something vile, ending in long claws ...

After conferring, the companions decided to blindfold one member of the expedition and lower him into the well so that he could photograph what had so disfigured his comrade. He was safely raised, and the satellites continued on their way. Finally the expedition returned home. The film was given to a familiar photographer. The next day they went in for a photo. There was a knock on the door, but no one opened it. And suddenly there was a cry that they had heard in the well. In one second, they broke down the door and burst into the house. When they ran into the study, a disfigured creature resembling a photographer was sitting in an armchair. An upside-down photograph lay on the table.

One of the travelers took the photograph and set it on fire. It ignited with a crack and spark. At this time, everything went dark and thundered on the street, although it was not going to rain. One of the comrades opened the window. And suddenly someone's greenish eyes lit up in the window.

The next day, a search for the travelers and the photographer was announced in the newspaper. But long searches were unsuccessful.

This ending is also curious: the film was developed at the police station. The person who did this died an hour later in the hospital in a deranged state. The photographs have disappeared. Now they roam the world, and whoever sees them falls dead. Some receive them by mail before the holiday ...

Black Death

It was in the Pacific Ocean. The radio operator of one of the American ships received an SOS signal. The captain gave the order to go to the rescue. Soon they came to the ship that was giving the signal.

When the sailors boarded, they did not find anyone there. The mate entered one of the cabins and saw that there was a pile of clothes on the floor. He was about to leave, when suddenly some black amorphous mass crawled out from under his clothes. She pounced on the assistant, wrapped it around and ate it. There is only one form left. It was the Black Death.

Those who came to the rescue did not find anyone. They saw that the assistant was missing, got scared and set off.

After a while, a Western rich man woke up in his apartment and saw that his mistress went to the bathroom. An hour has passed.

He was surprised and went to find out what was the matter. Entering the bathroom, he saw only a robe, slippers and the Black Death. The Black Death rushed at the rich man, but he had a pistol in his robe pocket, and he fired several times. The Black Death shrank but did not die. Because she was immortal. Seeing that she was preparing for a new attack, the rich man rushed out of his apartment and slammed the door. But the door didn't close tightly. The Black Death seeped through and went through the city. From that day on, horrors began to happen in the city. The Black Death killed many people, leaving only clothes. She moved from one place to another through the sewer and water supply system. Therefore, it was impossible to catch her. She usually crawled out of sinks and toilets and attacked people in bathrooms and toilets.

But one day she got out into the street from a sewer hatch and attacked a police officer. The policeman started shooting at her with a machine gun, and she crawled back. However, the lyceum officer called for help over the radio. Several scientists went down the hatch and threw grenades at the Black Death, because the bullets did not take her. The Black Death shattered into many pieces. Scientists collected them all in glass jars and burned them. Only one piece was left - for research.

Research has shown that this Black Death originated from the biomass that originated in the ocean when the Americans were testing a hydrogen bomb. When all this was clarified, the last piece was burned. And she was gone.

Cemetery master

Two Frenchmen came to one English town. The hotels were overcrowded and they could not find a place to live. Finally, they learned that there was an abandoned hotel near the cemetery. They were warned that some terrible monster is found in the cemetery. But the French did not believe in any horrors. Laughing at the fears of the townspeople, they moved into this hotel. On the same night, a Frenchman opened a window before going to bed to breathe fresh air, and saw something strange: in the narrow passages between the graves, here, then there, here two red lights appeared. These were the eyes. The Frenchman called his comrade, and the two of them began to watch. It soon became clear that these "eyes" were tired of rotting meat, as they approached the hotel. The French closed the window, covered it with a sheet and, drawing their revolvers, began to wait. We didn’t have to wait long. There was a flapping of wings, and the roof tiles began to fly off above them. The French riddled the ceiling with gunfire.

Everything was silent. They went to bed, but then a strange sound was heard: someone was scratching the door. The French huddled in, one in the corner, the other out the door, and began to wait. But the creature apparently sensed the ambush and left.

The French were about to sleep. But, turning back the edge of the sheet, they saw that it was already dawn. People began to come running to see if they were alive. They never got a chance to rest.

The first thing they did was go straight to the nearest police station. But the police chief said, "You were warned yesterday!" - and refused to single out people. He talked for a long time about how one day they raised all the police in the area and went to hunt the "Master of the Cemetery" (as the strange creature was called). But he, having set up an ambush in the cave, began to make such sounds that almost all the police officers fled. And those who nevertheless climbed into the cave were killed one by one ...

From the whole story, the French realized that the local police were simply cowardly, and went to London. By nightfall, they returned with the outfit of the metropolitan police. The ambush was set up in the outbuilding. Together with the policemen, two of our heroes remained, as they were armed. Soon there was the familiar flapping of wings and the sound of slate breaking. This sound continued for a long time, everyone was already accustomed to it. But then the unexpected happened.

The squad leader accidentally looked at the ceiling, saw that two red eyes were looking at him through the crack formed, and fainted. The nurse, seeing the commander fall, screamed. The monster was frightened by the scream and flew away. The next day, only the commander and two Frenchmen remained in the wing. The rest hid in the hotel and waited for the signal. When the Master of the cemetery appeared, one of the French fired from the closet window and hit the monster between the eyes. Another put a noose around his neck. Three of the commanders They barely dragged the monster to the wall. The police officers who ran out threw a net on him and spent all the spare "drums" on him. Everyone was so exhausted that they fell asleep. When they woke up, they saw a crowd of boys in the courtyard near the dead monster. The boys (it was obvious that they were already used to it) poked with sticks in the eyes, which were still glowing.

The police chased the boys away and sent the Cemetery Master to investigate. It soon became clear that this monster escaped from geneticists 29 years ago. It was a very dangerous monster: geneticists crossed a human cell with a bat cell and placed them in favorable conditions. They completely forgot about the cages, and when they remembered and opened the box, a monster flew out of it, grabbed the first person who came across in the teeth, broke the window and flew away. And he settled in the cemetery because it smelled of meat. Everything.

Night guest

In one hotel there was a room specially for the working people: tailors, cutters, shoemakers. Everything was equipped for convenient work: the table served as both a table and a bed, and a nat table, a lamp hung down. Once a rather young man settled in this room. The next day they knock on his room, but he does not open.

Then they broke down the door, they looked: he was lying covered with a blanket. When they threw back the blanket, everyone was horrified: either a man or a stuffed animal was lying on the table - bones covered with leather. And there was a small hole in my stomach. The corpse was carried out. This incident began to be forgotten, and soon a seamstress, a woman of medium size, settled in this room. But the next day the same story was repeated with her. Panic broke out among the residents and soon the hotel was empty and boarded up with boards. There were rumors around the city that a ghost had settled in it, which was devouring people from the inside. Rumors excited the whole city, and soon a volunteer was found who dared to find out what it was all the same. They gave him a weapon, and he drove to the hotel. All day he sat at the table and read a book. And in the evening he went to bed, turned off the light and waited. His eyes had already begun to stick together, when suddenly he saw: two shiny balls crawling along the wall. He quickly turned on the light, looks - no one is there.

He put it out again and lay down, deciding to let them come closer. The balls appeared again. They ran along the ceiling and began to go down the cord of the lamp to the bed. He fired, and blood dripped onto him. He turned on the light - no one. But the trail of blood remained on the lamp. He turned off the light again. Already one ball went down the lamp to the table. He fired again, and something warm and soft fell on him. When he turned on the light, he saw a huge spider on him.

It was he who sucked people out with his sting. And this man was given an award.

Enchanted finger

One boarding school did not have a teacher. But one woman went to work there. She looked very ordinary, but it was worth looking at her; in the evening, as she began to seem both beautiful and scary. Soon the children in the boarding school started to get sick. They were growing tumors - cancer. Someone has it on his hand, someone else has it on his cheek. Some on the neck. One boy was already dying in the hospital. The children came to visit him, and he said to his friend: "It seems to me that I have cancer because the teacher touched me with her finger." He began to follow the teacher and noticed that at night she often walks through the bedrooms. He armed himself with an iron bar and began to walk unnoticed after her ... And one day he saw that a needle was sticking out of her finger. He hit his finger with a rod ... Everything rang, fragments fell ... instead of a woman, a creature similar to a microbe was writhing on the floor. They managed to photograph him. It disappeared. Nobody else got sick.

Bronze statue

It happened on the estate of a master. The farm laborers plowed: the ground and stumbled upon some kind of metal object. They ran for shovels, began to dig up and found a bronze statue. It was a naked woman with an outstretched right hand and fingers spread out on it. The statue was brought to the master and placed in the garden in front of the house. And on that day, the master's son had a wedding. After the meal, someone suggested playing croquet in the garden. The groom also began to play, but the ring prevented him from habit, and he took it off and put it on the statue's hand. The ring was just right on the ring finger. It soon got dark. The guests departed, and the young people began to get ready for bed. Then the married man remembered that he had left the ring in the garden. He went into the garden and what he sees: the hand at the statue turned blue and his fingers clenched into a fist. The groom thought that he had imagined it, and returned to his young wife. They went to bed. But suddenly, at twelve o'clock, the window by the bed, where the young people slept, shattered to smithereens ... and a blue hand appeared in the window opening. She hit the groom and, stunning him, began to strangle his wife. At the cry, the servants came running with candles, and the hand was gone. The groom who woke up told how it was.

A blue hand has appeared since then in different places and strangles those who sleep near the window.

The artist's revenge

There was a wooden house at one of the outposts. In this house, officers' wives often died. The cause of death could not be clarified. Once a new family settled in this house: a young officer and his wife. A week later, the wife was found dead in her room. A grimace of horror froze on her face. No traces were found in the whole house, no one entered the room. The next day, the soldiers set up an ambush. The night was moonlit and quiet. The soldiers had already begun to doze off, when suddenly the wall clock chimed twelve, the attic door on the ceiling slowly opened and the dead man began to descend on a rope, all blue, with a malevolent crooked grin. The soldiers started shooting at him, but the deceased did not disappear. Then someone turned on the light, and, to everyone's surprise, there was no one in the room, and the attic was locked. An investigation began, and in the end everything became clear. A long time ago, a poor artist lived with his wife in this house. His wife kicked him out, but he was a very smart man. In retaliation, he painted with invisible paints on the glass the deceased, which became visible in the bright moonlight. And a terrible image rose before the eyes of the one who was in the room. Then this house was burned down.

Carpet

One family bought a rug and hung it in the bedroom above the bed. From that day on, family members began to die. Everyone who went to bed in this bedroom was found dead in the morning. This case was taken up by the police. One night, she burst into the room and saw that a coffin was painted on the carpet hanging over the bed. From it, rising on one hand and holding on to the lid with the other, as if a dead man crawled out. His gaze was so chilling that those who remained in the room had a broken heart. The coffin and the dead were painted with phosphorus and glowed in the dark.

Red Death

Once upon a time there was a prince. One day rumors reached him that the Red Death had appeared in other kingdoms. They said that if she looks at a person, he immediately dies. The prince did not believe in the rumors, but for safety he decided to hide in the mountains. He built himself a new castle and settled in it with his courtiers. On all sides, the castle was surrounded by a high stone wall, and in addition, it was surrounded by a moat filled with water. The prince was safe now.

In honor of this event, he hosted a ball and invited many guests. Three rooms were specially equipped for the ball. The first was blue and everything in it was blue, the second room was pink from floor to ceiling. And the third room was black: its walls and ceiling were painted with black paint, armchairs and sofas were upholstered in black velvet, and in the wall there was a small window of red glass, above which hung a clock.

The ball was very fun. At first, everyone danced in the blue room, then in the pink one, then switched to the black one ...

Suddenly the clock began to strike twelve. The music died down. Red light illuminated the black room, and the guests became so creepy that they all stopped. When the clock stopped striking, everyone suddenly noticed a man whom no one had noticed before. He was wearing a black velvet suit and was wearing a red mask. The prince was very surprised. "Who are you? - he asked. And how dare you come here without an invitation? Get out of the castle this minute! " But the masked man did not even think to leave. The prince did not like it when his orders were not carried out. He pulled out his sword and brought it over his head, but then the man took off his mask, and everyone saw - it was the Red Death.

Her eyes were bloodshot, she looked into the prince's face - and the prince fell dead ... In horror, people rushed in different directions, but it was too late: lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, and the castle collapsed.

Requiem

Once upon a time there was one person. He was a composer. And then an unknown man came to him, tall, all in black. He asked him to write a requiem for him. And left.

And when the composer was finishing this requiem, it seemed to him that he was writing not for anyone, but for himself.

Soon this composer died and the requiem was played for him. This man in black was his death.

Snake love

A snake fell in love with a soldier. She always looked at him. One night, while a soldier was on duty, she crawled out and wrapped her arms around him. The soldier screamed and died of a broken heart. The soldier was buried. And the next day, a dead snake was found on his grave.

Wild monkey

Once upon a time there was a woman with a daughter. One evening they sit at home and hear - on the radio announce: “Attention, attention! Please close all vents, windows and doors. A wild monkey has escaped from the zoo! " This announcement was repeated several times.

The wild monkey drank blood. She climbed onto roofs, caught cats and pigeons, tore off their heads and sucked blood. But this was not enough for her. And she began to hunt people.

The woman closed the windows and doors every day, at night. But one day she forgot to close the window. The monkey saw the open window and climbed through it into the apartment. The girl who was sleeping in the bed suddenly woke up, saw someone's green eyes, got scared and screamed. The monkey noticed the girl, jumped on her and began to twist her arms, legs, pull her hair ... The girl screamed loudly in her bed. The mother heard her daughter's scream and rushed to her room, but it was too late. The girl was dead. The monkey saw another person and rushed at him. The neighbors heard screams, but were afraid to approach the door. They called the police. A few minutes later the police were already at the door. When they entered the apartment, the monkey was not there. On the floor, they saw large pools of blood. "The monkey will be back!" - said one of the policemen. They hid and waited. Indeed: after a while the monkey climbed back into the apartment and eagerly began to drink blood. One of the policemen, who was standing behind the wardrobe, broke down and fired a pistol, but missed. The monkey jumped out the window and ran away. She jumped on ten-story buildings, in one place she began to go down the drainpipe, but suddenly fell from the third floor onto the asphalt ... The monkey was found and quickly taken to the hospital. While she was being treated, she was fed vegetables and fruits. And when she recovered, she no longer drank blood.

Blue nail

One day, three friends went hunting. They drove out of town and stayed overnight at a hunting lodge. Such houses are similar to huts, only with a door that can be locked with a hook. It was getting dark. The hunters had supper and went to bed so that they could get up early in the morning. There was not so much space in the house, so two beds stood at the far wall, and one next to the door.

The hunters quickly fell asleep. In the morning, when they woke up, they did not pay much attention to the fact that the sleeper at the door suddenly disappeared. “Probably left before us,” they thought. - Well, okay!" But as soon as they left the house, they immediately realized that the matter was amiss. A path of blood ran straight from the door, and in the bushes lay the torn hat of their friend. They looked, looked for him - they did not find him. They called the police. The police ambushed the house. They waited for a long time, and already in the morning, when sleep closed their eyes, everyone woke up from a cry ... One soldier disappeared, and in the place where he was lying, there was a crumpled machine gun and shreds of an overcoat. And the same unchanging blood path ...

The ambush was carried out for three days - and no results. Only on the fourth day did everyone see how in the predawn fog some hulk appeared - a bear is not a bear, a man is not a man ... She was moving towards the house. Everyone knew that the door was closed, but the monster just held out his hand and the door opened. In the morning silence, a low scream was heard, and a burst of automatic weapons immediately sounded ...

The monster made several leaps and fell. It turned out to be a man, all overgrown with wool and covered with a thick layer of mud. He had a long blue fingernail on his hand. He pushed this nail into the gap and threw back the hook, the door opened, and ...

White people

It was in Paris. A white fog descended on the city, and white people came out of it. They started killing ordinary people. The police tracked them down for a long time and finally found the house in which they were. The police surrounded the house, and when one of the white men came out into the street, bullets were fired at him. But the bullets did not harm him in the slightest, and the police fled. Several days passed. There were fewer and fewer people in the city. One day one of the police officers saw a white man walk into the entrance of a house. He ran after him and faced him face to face. The daredevil without hesitation pulled off the mask from the enemy. The white man staggered and fell behind dead. It was a victory. An hour later, all the survivors learned how to deal with the murderers. White people fled and hid, but still continued to kill the unwary.

Once, when the police were tracking down a group of fugitives, they saw an old woman with them. The old woman went one way, and the fugitives went the other. The policemen were divided: one followed the old woman. Noticing that she was being followed, the old woman quickened her pace. Suddenly the ground parted, and the old woman fell through. The policeman jumped in after him. The old woman disappeared without a trace, but a monstrous spectacle opened up before him: all around were the corpses of people stuffed with gold. The policeman took one gold coin for examination. And it turned out that if you flip a coin, a lot of white people emerge from it. When the police arrived back, there was no crack in the place. They began to dig earth in this place, but found nothing. Where the gold went, nobody knows.

Scary curtains

There was one family: mother, father, elder sister and brother. They once bought black curtains. The curtains were hung in the room and went to bed. At night, black curtains tell my father:

The father stood up.

Get dressed!

The father got dressed.

Come to the table!

The father came over.

Get on the table!

The father stood up. And the black curtains strangled him. Then they say to the mother:

The mother stood up.

Get dressed!

Mother got dressed ...

When the mother stood on the table, the curtains strangled her as well.

The same thing happened with my sister. Only a small son remained in the room, who did everything very slowly. Black curtains tell him:

The boy woke up with difficulty.

Get dressed!

He got up.

Come to the table!

He got dressed.

Get on the table!

He went to the table ...

And the curtains smothered an empty space.

Unlike black curtains, red curtains sometimes require a glass of blood.

The yellow curtains only strangle children.

When the police began to investigate them (how?), They turned into an old woman.

The old woman was immortal. But she had death. She was in the Kremlin star.

Eduard Uspensky "Kolobok is following the trail" "

Despite the well-known names on the cover, the real authors of the collection "Awful Folklore of Soviet Children" are pioneers from all over the USSR. Andrei Usachev and Eduard Uspensky only processed folk art and provided it with caustic comments in order to "soften the clash of the ordinary reader with the harsh sweat and this world."
Red Hand, Yellow Curtains and Green Eyes are all typical urban folklore. Growing up in the spirit of atheism, fenced off by concrete from nature and ideology from the truth of life, the young inhabitants of the USSR composed these irrational nightmares - terrible, inexplicable and seemingly devoid of any logic.
"Scary stories" were told at night in a pioneer camp, on a campfire hike, or just in the yard or during recess at school. It is wonderful that someone had the idea to collect and publish them - to observe how strangely the surrounding reality refracted the child's consciousness, interesting and instructive. Here are a few stories from a collection that has already become a second-hand book rarity.

Green eyes
One old man, dying, decided to leave behind a memory. He took it and gouged out his eyes (and his eyes were green).
The old man hung those eyes on the wall and died. A year later, a family with a small child moved into the house. Once the husband came home from work, and the wife said to him: "Our baby is crying something when I turn off the light." The husband replies: "And you turn off the light and look at the walls." The wife did as her husband told her and saw green eyes on the wall. His eyes flashed and electrocuted his wife.

Red teeth
A new student entered one school. When all the schoolchildren were allowed to go home, he stayed after school. The technician tells him: "Go home, there are red teeth here!" The boy says, "I'll see the school and go."
He walked around the school, went into one office and fell asleep. When it struck twelve o'clock, red teeth appeared in the office. Omi rushed at the boy and ate him. In the morning, when the guys came to class, they saw human bones. They called the police. Everyone's teeth were checked. Finally, we decided to check with the director.
He had red teeth.

Bus with black curtains
One day, my mother sent her daughter to a store that was very far away. At the same time, she said: "Never take a bus with black curtains." The girl went to the bus stop and waited. A bus with black curtains arrived. The girl did not sit in it. The same bus arrived the second time. The girl did not sit in it again. But the third time she got on a bus with black curtains.
The bus driver said, "Parents, let the kids go ahead!" When all the children entered, the doors suddenly closed and the bus drove off. At the turn, the black curtains closed. Terrible hands protruded from the backs of the chairs and strangled all the children. The bus stopped and the driver threw the bodies into a landfill. The bus with black curtains went to kill the children again.

Red boots
Once the girl began to ask her mother to let her go for a walk. And it was already evening. Mom did not agree for a long time: she had a premonition that something was about to happen. But the girl still begged her. Mom told her to come back no later than ten. At ten o'clock - there is no daughter. Eleven ... twelve ... still no daughter. The mother was worried. I was going to call the police. Suddenly - at first o'clock in the morning - the doorbell rang. Mother went to open it. She opened it and saw: there were red boots on the threshold, in which her daughter had gone out into the street. In them - hands, and in hands - a note: "MAMA, I HAVE COME."

Green Man
One night a thunderstorm started and the woman got up to close the balcony. I went to the balcony, and there was a green man sitting there. The woman got scared, ran to her husband and told him everything. They came together to the balcony, but the green man is gone. Many others saw the green man that very night. It turned out that one person was struck by lightning, but he did not die, but turned green.
Note of the compilers of the collection: “It is possible that the person survived. But it is unlikely that it turned green from this. A case from another story seems more plausible to us: One girl saw that her father had hooves instead of legs. The girl's father turned green with anger. And turned into a flying green skull. "

The case of the police captain
A police captain walked at night through an abandoned old cemetery. Suddenly he saw a white spot quickly approaching him. The captain drew his pistol and began to shoot at him. But the stain continued to fly at him ...
Ha the next laziness the captain did not show up for service. They rushed to search. And in the old cemetery they found his corpse. The captain had a pistol in his hand. A shot-through newspaper lay nearby.

Morgue Woman (Dead Man's Hand)
One woman worked in a morgue. She had a strange habit: when she went to bed, she put her hand under the pillow. Her comrades found out about this and decided to play a trick on her. One day they came to her house and imperceptibly put a dead man's hand under her pillow. The next day the woman did not show up from work. The pranksters came to her house, and she sits on the floor, disheveled, and gnaws at this hand.
The woman went crazy.

Red cookies
One woman was often visited by guests. They were men. They had supper all evening, and then they stayed. And what happened then, no one knew. This woman had children - a boy and a girl. The woman always fed them red cookies. And they also had a red piano. Once upon a time, guests came to the children - children. They were playing a red piano and accidentally pressed a button. Suddenly the piano drove off. And there the passage opened. Children went down it and saw barrels, and there were dead people in barrels. A woman made red cookies from their brains and gave them to children. They ate it and forgot everything. The woman was sent to prison, and the children were sent to an orphanage.

Striped legs
There lived a family: dad with mom and daughter. One day the girl came home from school and saw that the whole apartment was covered in bloody footprints. Parents at that time were at work. the girl got scared and ran away. In the evening, the parents returned, saw the tracks and decided to call the police. The militiamen hid in the closet, and the girl sat down to study her lessons.
And suddenly striped legs appeared. They approached the girl and began to strangle her with invisible hands. The militiamen jumped out of the closet. The legs started to run. The militiamen rushed after them. The legs ran to the cemetery and jumped into one of the graves. The militiamen followed. The grave contained not a coffin, but an underground chamber with many rooms and corridors. In one of the rooms were the eyes, hair and ears of children. The militiamen ran on. At the end of the corridor, in a cramped room, an old man was sitting.
Seeing them, he jumped up, pressed the button and disappeared. The militiamen also began to press the button, and one by one they found themselves in a vacant lot. In the distance, they saw legs and ran after them.
Caught.It turned out to be the legs of that old man. It turned out that he killed children and made medicines for incurable diseases. And then he sold for a lot of money. He was shot.

Red knee-highs
They announced on the radio that no one should buy knee-highs from an old woman in a black shawl. Mom and daughter did not hear anything and bought red knee-highs from this old woman at the market. On the way home, my daughter complained that her legs hurt. Mom said: “Be patient! Let's come home and see what's there. " They got home, the girl could no longer walk. When my mother took off her red knee-highs, there were not legs, but bones.

"Scary jokes "

1. I know the story about the Queen of Spades. Once upon a time there was a girl with her mother. And then one day they left for the camp, and then the girl went for a walk, and there was a cemetery next to the camp. And so the girl Natasha went to the cemetery at night and came. Walked, walked, and suddenly saw blood. She wanted to touch it, but it jump-jump, she touched it, and suddenly eyes appeared. She ran, and the blood, along with her eyes, ran after her. And so she ran to the camp, and ran into the group and shouted into her room: "Save me!" And so the girls woke up and began to catch this blood with their eyes. And suddenly the Queen of Spades appeared and shouted: "Why are you catching my gnome!"

2. The girl woke up at night, she looks - there is a yellow spot on the ceiling. I went the next day - the stain is even bigger. She got scared and called the police. The policeman is in the attic, and there the kitten sits and pees.

3. There is a terrible house in one city, the most terrible aliens live in this house. One man entered there once and wanted to inspect the house. He went up the stairs, very quietly, looking into all the apartments, all the doors in them were broken down. When he went downstairs, too, very quietly, he noticed how the door opened in the closet of one apartment. He saw a woman who was skinless, her flesh was sticking out, her teeth were rotten, her bones were sticking out. She took the man's throat with her hands and said: “You woke me up, so your death came” and she squeezed his throat. Then for a long time no one went to this house, then one took and sent a detachment of guys and entered this house, entered the most terrible room, there with his group stopped and overgrown.

4. Red hooves and canines. Once upon a time there was a girl, dad, mom and grandmother. Mom wore a long skirt, and dad never laughed. The daughter asks her grandmother: "Grandma, why does mom wear a long skirt?" "And you, when you sit down at the table, lift her skirt and see." Grandma, why daddy never laughs? "" And you, when he reads the newspaper, tickle his heels and see. " She crawled under the table and lifted her skirt up to her mother, and saw red hooves. She tickled my father's heel, he laughed and she saw red fangs. At night she looked out into the street and saw that her mother was trampling her grandmother with her hooves, and her father was eating her. In the morning, mother asks: "You saw what we were doing at night? "" The daughter said: "Yes." Then at night they did the same with their daughter as they did with their grandmother.

5. The mother sent her daughter to buy some sausage. The daughter went, an old woman met her, and said: "You have a sausage." And the girl had a red marigold. The old woman made a sausage out of the girl. Mother went, an old woman met her, and said: "You have a sausage." They went, gave her a sausage. Mother said thank you. She began to eat - and saw - a red marigold in the sausage, and realized that the old woman had made a sausage out of her daughter.

6. In one village there was a black stone. Once scientists began to examine it. They lifted him up, and under him lay a black coffin. They opened this coffin, and a black ghoul emerged from it. He killed everyone and began to walk around the village and kill everyone. When he killed everyone, he again lay in the coffin. Then Baba Yaga flies out, kicking him over the head!

7. Mother sent her daughter for shoes and ordered not to buy black shoes. The girl went to the market and bought black ones because blacks were prettier than others. She went home in new shoes. Suddenly her leg hurt, she sat down to rest and walked on. Her leg hurt badly. She reached the house barely alive, her mother took off her tights and shoes, and the girl had a rotten leg, one bone.

8. A girl came to the library to hand over a book. She wanted to take the book The Queen of Spades. But she was told not to read page 12. I came home and read to page 12. She opened it. And suddenly the Queen of Spades flies out of the book and shouts: "Give me your heart!"

9. One mother had two girls / twins /, and she could not distinguish between them - who is Shura, and who is Zhenya, and therefore she wrote their name on the tablets and hung them around their neck. Once she sent them to the store to buy a chair, but not a red one. They went, but they only sold red chairs, they bought one chair. Mom began to scold them that why they bought red, and not another, but they said that there were no more other chairs. When night fell, red hands stuck out of the chair, and ate the father, the next night the mother, and the next night the girl, then the grandmother, and then the last girl. When the police found out, they came in the afternoon and cut the chair, there were bones and blood, and then they forbade the sale of red chairs.

10. One boy's mother brought red biscuits, and he wanted to know how she makes them, and went for her. So he goes and sees mom goes to the store and buys a simple cookie. Then she enters an empty house, this house was guarded by people, because if they found out something, they would go to the empty houses. And so she came in, the boy's mother, but the boy was not allowed there, but he broke free and ran after his mother. And he sees - she kills people and dips cookies there, and he asked: "Mom, why are you doing this?" "Why were you following me?" “I wanted to see how you make cookies,” the boy defended himself. "But then get it!" And she killed her own son. But then they found her and handed her over to the police.

11. One day my mother asked the girl to buy red curtains. And the girl bought navy blue. At night, the curtains say to the girl's mother: "Get up." She stood up. "Get dressed." She got dressed. "Go here". She went, and the curtains say, "Go to the kitchen." She came. "Get on the chair." Mom got up. "Get on the table." She got up on the table. "Open the window." She opened the window, then the curtains grabbed her and threw her out the window. Then the girl's dad woke up and saw that his wife was not there, he went to the kitchen, and the curtains to him: "Get on a chair, stand on the table, open the window." Dad, out of fear, did both. The curtains grabbed him and threw him out the window. Then the curtains say to the girl: "Girl, girl, get up," and the girl just wakes up. "Girl, girl, get dressed", and the girl just gets up. "Girl, girl, go to the kitchen," and the girl is just dressing. "Girl, girl, stand on a chair," and the girl came to the kitchen, stood and saw that her curtains came to life. "Girl, girl, stand on the table," and the girl thinks, "Now I will outwit them." The girl stood on a chair, and the curtains strangled themselves, and mom and dad returned.

12. We bought the girl a black piano. The parents are gone. The girl sat down to play the piano. Suddenly on the radio they say: "Girl, girl, don't play the piano, the coffin on wheels is looking for your city." Then again: "Girl, girl, don't play, the coffin has found your city." And she plays. Then again: "Girl, don't play, the coffin has found your city." She plays. Then: "Girl, don't play, the coffin on wheels has found your home." She plays. Then: "Girl, don't play, the coffin has already found your floor." She plays. Suddenly the coffin enters the apartment. The girl fucked / on him / with a poker. And a devil crawls out of the coffin and says: "Well, she broke my last little bibishka!"

4. Modern genre of children's horror stories.

Children's folklore is a living, constantly renewing phenomenon, and in it, along with the most ancient genres, there are relatively new forms, the age of which is only a few decades old. As a rule, these are genres of children's urban folklore, for example, horror stories. Horror stories are short stories with a tense plot and a frightening ending, the purpose of which is to scare the listener. According to the researchers of this genre O. Grechina and M. Osorina, "the horror story merges the traditions of a fairy tale with the actual problems of a child's real life." It is noted that among children's horror stories, one can find plots and motifs, traditional in archaic folklore, demonological characters borrowed from bylikas and past times, however, the prevailing group is a group of plots in which objects and things of the surrounding world are demonic creatures. Literary critic S.M. Leuter notes that under the influence of a fairy tale, the children's horror stories acquired a clear and uniform plot structure. The predestination inherent in it (warning or prohibition - violation - retribution) makes it possible to define it as a "didactic structure". Some researchers draw parallels between the modern genre of children's horror stories and older literary types of scary stories, for example, the works of Korney Chukovsky. The writer Eduard Uspensky collected these stories in the book "Red Hand, Black Sheet, Green Fingers (Scary Stories for Fearless Children)".

Horror stories in the described form, apparently, became widespread in the 70s of the XX century. Literary critic O. Yu. Trykova believes that “at present, horror stories are gradually passing into the“ stage of conservation ”. Children still tell them, but practically no new plots appear, and the frequency of performance is also decreasing. Obviously, this is due to a change in life's realities: in the Soviet period, when an almost total ban in official culture was imposed on everything catastrophic and frightening, the need for the terrible was satisfied through this genre. Currently, there are many sources, in addition to horror stories, satisfying this craving for the mysteriously frightening (from news releases, various newspaper publications savoring the "scary", to numerous horror films). According to the psychologist M.V. Osorina, a pioneer in the study of this genre, the fears that a child copes with in early childhood either by himself or with the help of his parents, become the material of the collective consciousness of children. This material is worked out by children in group situations of telling scary stories, recorded in the texts of children's folklore and passed on to the next generations of children, becoming a screen for their new personal projections.

The main character of the horror stories is a teenager who encounters a "pest object" (stain, curtains, tights, a rolling coffin, piano, TV, radio, record, bus, tram). In these items, color plays a special role: white, red, yellow, green, blue, blue, black. The hero, as a rule, repeatedly receives a warning about the impending disaster from the object-pest, but does not want (or cannot) get rid of it. His death most often comes from strangulation. The hero's assistant is a policeman. Horror stories are not limited only to the plot, the ritual of storytelling is also essential - as a rule, in the dark, in the children's company in the absence of adults. According to the folklorist M.P. Cherednikova, the child's involvement in the practice of telling horror stories depends on his psychological maturation. At first, at the age of 5-6, a child cannot hear scary stories without horror. Later, from about 8 to 11 years old, children happily tell scary stories, and at the age of 12-13 they no longer take them seriously, and various parody forms are becoming more widespread.

As a rule, horror stories are characterized by stable motives: "black hand", "blood stain", "green eyes", "coffin on wheels", etc. Such a story consists of several sentences, as the action develops, the tension increases, and in the final phrase it reaches its peak.

"Red Spot". One family got a new apartment, but there was a red spot on the wall. They wanted to erase him, but nothing happened. Then the stain was pasted over with wallpaper, but it showed through the wallpaper. And every night someone died. And the stain became even brighter after each death.

"The black hand punishes theft." One girl was a thief. She stole things and one day she stole a jacket. At night, someone knocked on her window, then a hand in a black glove appeared, she grabbed her jacket and disappeared. The next day, the girl stole the bedside table. At night, the hand appeared again. She grabbed the nightstand. The girl looked out the window, wanting to see who was taking things. And then the hand grabbed the girl and, pulling her out the window, strangled her.

Blue Glove. Once upon a time there was a blue glove. Everyone was afraid of her because she stalked and strangled people who returned home late. And then one day a woman was walking down the street - and this street was dark and dark - and suddenly she saw a blue glove peeking out of the bushes. The woman got scared and ran home, and behind her was a blue glove. A woman ran into the entrance, went up to her floor, and the blue glove was behind her. She began to open the door, and the key got stuck, but she opened the door, ran home, and suddenly there was a knock on the door. She opens, and there is a blue glove! (The last phrase was usually accompanied by a sharp movement of the hand towards the listener).

"Black House". In one black, black forest stood a black, black house. In this black, black house there was a black, black room. In this black, black room, there was a black, black table. On this black, black table is a black, black coffin. In this black, black coffin lay a black, black man. (Up to this point, the narrator speaks in a muffled monotonous voice. And then - abruptly, unexpectedly loudly, grabbing the listener's hand.) Give me my heart! Few people know that the first poetic horror story was written by the poet Oleg Grigoriev:

I asked the electrician Petrov:
"Why did you wind a wire around your neck?"
Petrov doesn't answer me,
Hangs and only shakes with bots.

After him, sadistic rhymes appeared in abundance in both nursery and adult folklore.

The old woman did not suffer for long
In high-voltage wires
Her charred carcass
Scared the birds in the sky.

Horror stories are usually told in large companies, preferably in the dark and in a frightening whisper. The emergence of this genre is associated, on the one hand, with the craving of children for everything unknown and frightening, and on the other, with an attempt to overcome this fear. As they grow older, horror stories cease to scare and cause only laughter. This is evidenced by the emergence of a kind of reaction to horror stories - parody anti-scarecrows. These stories start out in an equally terrifying way, but the ending turns out to be funny:

Black-black night. A black-black car was driving along the black-black street. On this black-and-black car it was written in big white letters: "BREAD"!

Grandfather and woman are sitting at home. Suddenly the radio said: “Throw away the cabinet and refrigerator! A coffin on wheels is coming to your house! " They threw it away. And so everything was thrown away. They sit on the floor, and they broadcast on the radio: "We have broadcast Russian folk tales."

All these stories end, as a rule, with no less terrible endings. (These are only "official" horror stories, in books, to please the publisher, they are equipped with happy ends or funny endings.) And nevertheless, modern psychology considers creepy children's folklore to be a positive phenomenon.

“A children's horror story affects different levels - feelings, thoughts, words, images, movements, sounds,” psychologist Marina Lobanova told NG. - She makes the psyche, with fear, not to get up with tetanus, but to move. Therefore, a horror story is an effective way to deal with depression, for example. " According to the psychologist, a person is able to create his own horror film only when he has already completed his own fear. And now Masha Seryakova transfers her valuable psychic experience to others - with the help of her stories. “It is also important that the girl writes using emotions, thoughts, images that are characteristic of a child's subculture,” says Lobanova. "An adult will never see it and will never create it."

Bibliography

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