Abstract
The article analyzes the peculiarities of the embodiment of the theme of fear in the screenwriting of A. Starobinets, as well as in the feature films “The Land of Good Children” (2013) and “The Creature” (2019) based on her works. The relevance of the research lies in the study of the specifics of the aesthetics of the terrible in the works of the writer, who is considered one of the founders of Russian horror. The article suggests an approach that allows us to consider the films that are very different from each other in genre terms, made according to the scripts of A. Starobinets in the light of a very urgent problem of the crisis of family relations in modern society. A fabulous video sequence, a bright, colorful visual solution to the New Year's tale-parable “The Land of Good Children”, on the one hand, and the monochrome, cold, hostile world of suspense in “The Creature”, on the other hand, does not exclude the possibility of comparing the films in terms of the commonality of cross-cutting motifs of substitution, deception, transformation. The game nature of A. Starobinets’ scenarios allows you to see the closeness of the chronotopes in the film productions, immersing the viewer in the atmosphere of the looking glass, emphasizing the fragility and uncertainty of the existence of the characters. Also, the motifs and images of the films “The Land of Good Children” and “The Creature” correlate with Western cinematic prototypes. The authors of the article points to the originality of the domestic reception, expressed in hyperbolization and bringing everyday situations to the point of absurdity, in maintaining the connection of the plots of the films with the Russian reality, in which it is impossible to outplay the “ordinary monster”, to remake the morality by which the characters and the society live, to resolve the psychological conflict that turns children into monsters.
Keywords
A. Starobinets, horror, fairy tale, video sequence, cinematography.