Can Fairytales Be Scary? Here's Why They Sometimes Should Be

The Purposeful Darkness in Fairytales

Modern retellings and adaptations often sanitize fairytales, removing their darker elements in favor of more palatable, child-friendly narratives. But the original versions of many beloved tales were intentionally frightening—and for good reason. These darker elements weren't gratuitous, but rather served important psychological, social, and developmental purposes.

The Original Darkness: How Scary Were Traditional Fairytales?

While Disney adaptations may end with "happily ever after," the original versions of classic fairytales often contained truly disturbing elements:

• In early versions of "Cinderella," the stepsisters cut off parts of their feet to fit the glass slipper, and birds later peck out their eyes
• The original "Little Red Riding Hood" ends with both the grandmother and child being eaten, with no woodcutter to save them
• In "The Juniper Tree," a stepmother decapitates her stepson, cooks him into a stew, and serves him to his father
• Hansel and Gretel involves themes of child abandonment, cannibalism, and children killing an adult
• The "Snow White" of the Brothers Grimm ends with the evil queen dancing to death in red-hot iron shoes

These elements weren't included for shock value—they reflected the harsh realities of life in pre-industrial Europe and served specific cultural and pedagogical functions.

Psychological Benefits: Why Fear Can Be Healthy

Psychologists and folklorists argue that the frightening aspects of fairytales actually provide important psychological benefits, especially for children:

• They provide a safe space to process and master fears
• They validate children's anxieties about the real dangers in the world
• They externalize internal conflicts, making them easier to understand
• They demonstrate that courage means facing fears, not being fearless
• They offer catharsis through the eventual triumph over frightening adversaries

As child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim noted, "The fairy tale is therapeutic because the patient finds his own solutions, through contemplating what the story seems to imply about him and his inner conflicts at this moment in his life."

Practical Lessons: The Pedagogical Function of Fear

The scary elements in fairytales also served as powerful teaching tools, conveying crucial survival lessons:

• They warned children about real dangers in a memorable way
• They illustrated the serious consequences of disobedience
• They prepared children for a world that could be cruel and dangerous
• They taught caution toward strangers in communities where child safety was a genuine concern
• They encoded practical wisdom about survival in difficult conditions

In agrarian societies without formal education systems, these cautionary tales were essential for conveying important safety information to children.

Moral Complexity: The Ethical Dimension of Darkness

The scary elements in fairytales also created space for moral nuance and ethical complexity:

• They showed that good and evil exist in the world in tangible forms
• They demonstrated that actions have serious consequences
• They illustrated that justice sometimes requires struggle and courage
• They portrayed evil as ultimately self-defeating
• They presented virtue as the most reliable path through danger

By including frightening consequences for wrongdoing, these stories created powerful moral frameworks that children could understand intuitively.

Finding Balance: Darkness in Modern Adaptations

The challenge for contemporary storytellers is finding the right balance between acknowledging the purposeful darkness of traditional tales and adapting them for modern sensibilities:

• Preserving the psychological benefits while avoiding unnecessary trauma
• Maintaining moral consequences without excessive violence
• Acknowledging real dangers without creating paralyzing fear
• Respecting children's capacity to process darkness while considering developmental stages
• Recognizing cultural differences in approaches to frightening content

Filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro and authors like Neil Gaiman have successfully created modern fairytales that maintain this delicate balance—acknowledging darkness while providing the emotional tools to master it.

Conclusion: The Necessary Shadow

Far from being inappropriate or harmful, the frightening elements in traditional fairytales served vital functions. They helped prepare children for life's difficulties, provided emotional tools for processing fear, and created meaningful moral frameworks.

Modern attempts to completely sanitize these tales often strip them of their psychological power and practical wisdom. The darkness in fairytales isn't a flaw—it's an essential feature that has helped these stories endure for centuries, speaking to each generation's deepest fears and hopes.

So yes, fairytales can and sometimes should be scary. Not to traumatize, but to illuminate—showing that even in a world with real dangers and difficulties, courage, virtue, and wisdom can help us find our way through the dark forest to the light beyond.