Gateway to Hell - Britannica's Tales from Around the World
We all have our stories of what pushed us towards being lifelong horror geeks, shows like Courage the Cowardly Dog, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Goosebumps, and others, as well as books like the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark or the Goosebumps series and many other different ways in which we became interested in horror movies. However, it is never just one specific thing that turns us into horror fans; it’s a combination of things that push us towards the dark side at a particular time in our lives, usually when we are very young and impressionable. Some of our experiences with movies, shows, or books can be traumatizing, yet we didn’t let that stop us and we became lifelong freaks of fear. I’d like to talk about my experience that left a significant impression on my life at a very young age and would ultimately be a huge stepping stone in my love of horror and monsters.
In the early 1990’s, there were a series of videos released called Britannica’s Tales from Around the World; it was hosted by the legendary Pat Morita (of Karate Kid fame) and was basically an educational series that teaches kids about both famous and lesser-known fairy tales from, well, around the world. The animation styles were always different for each story, and the crude style could sometimes unintentionally make a story into a horror story, which I feel happened with the video I’m referring to in this article.
The video in question had three stories on it, Hansel and Gretel, The Woodcutter’s Wealthy Sister, and Pedro and the Monster; the story I’m referring to here is The Woodcutter’s Wealthy Sister; luckily, if you would like to see the story I am talking about, it is available online, and I’ve posted it below. This story, this creature would haunt my dreams as a young child for many years. Most, if not all of my nightmares at the time consisted of this creature who ate people; it terrified me to no end to the point where I did not want to sleep in my room for the longest time after one particular nightmare where the monster leapt out toward me after hiding from beneath my window and chasing me as I ran to my bedroom door that seemed to get longer and longer. Even sitting here almost 30 years later, I still get chills from thinking about this experience.
I feel that the worst part of the story came for me during the big reveal that the woman was really a monster in disguise; as a child who had no prior experience with masks or any knowledge of this trope, the image of the lady pulling her face off to reveal an animal-like creature that stood up like a human really was not something I was expecting. It was difficult for a 2 or 3-year-old child to grasp, and just thinking about my feelings towards this short still makes me feel a deep sense of terror. In fact, just sitting down to write this piece, in general, has kept the chills standing up on my neck; I started writing it late at night and decided to finish it in the morning. As I finished for the night, I felt it was necessary to make sure I saved this file and then closed it before shutting down my computer completely for the night, something I’m not known for doing. I guess I needed to be sure that the whole system was off, just in case she decided to revisit me after all these years and finally eat me along with my new family.
