To be fair the idea of terrifying children through literature and entertainment has been going on for a very long time. One of the downsides of have a grandmother from the German speaking countries, I was given the Struwwelpeter as a kid, now this comes from the middle of the 19th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter
Here are the stories in it:
- Struwwelpeter describes a boy who does not groom himself properly and is consequently unpopular.
- In Die Geschichte vom bösen Friederich ("the story of wicked Frederick"), a violent boy terrorizes animals and people. Eventually he is bitten by a dog, who goes on to eat the boy's sausage while he is bedridden.
- In Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug ("the very sad story of the matches"), a girl plays with matches and burns to death.
- In Die Geschichte von den schwarzen Buben ("the story of the black boys"), Nikolas (or "Agrippa" in some translations)[6] catches three boys teasing a dark-skinned boy. To teach them a lesson, he dips them in black ink.
- Die Geschichte von dem wilden Jäger ("the story of the wild huntsman") is the only story not primarily focused on children. In it, a hare steals a hunter's musket and eyeglasses and begins to hunt the hunter. In the ensuing chaos, the hare's child is burned by hot coffee and the hunter falls into a well.
- In Die Geschichte vom Daumenlutscher ("the story of the thumb-sucker"), a mother warns her son not to suck his thumbs. However, when she goes out of the house he resumes his thumb sucking, until a roving tailor appears and cuts off his thumbs with giant scissors.
- Die Geschichte vom Suppen-Kaspar ("the story of Soup-Kaspar") begins as Kaspar (or "Augustus" in some translations), a healthy, strong boy, proclaims that he will no longer eat his soup. Over the next five days he wastes away and dies.
- In Die Geschichte vom Zappel-Philipp ("the story of fidgety Philip"), a boy who won't sit still at dinner accidentally knocks all of the food onto the floor, to his parents' great displeasure.
- Die Geschichte von Hans Guck-in-die-Luft ("the story of Johnny Look-at-Air") concerns a boy who habitually fails to watch where he's walking. One day he walks into a river; he is soon rescued, but his writing-book drifts away.
- In Die Geschichte vom fliegenden Robert ("the story of flying Robert"), a boy goes outside during a storm. The wind catches his umbrella and lifts him high into the air. The story ends with the boy sailing into the distance.
I found number 6 to be particularly graphic and disturbing. But number 7 and number 3 were also insane.
