This is something that I’ve thinking about lately, it’s that there were only a few Soviet horror movies. On this list of over 1000 Russian films there are 6 horror films, but one is post-1991 and one is pre-1917, so really only four USSR horror films.
I’ve only seen Viy and Mister Designer and both are so much different than American horror. I’ve always believed that horror movies are an extension of societal fears, so does a lack of horror films mean a lack of fear in audiences?
Master Designer was made after glasnost was established and Viy is based on classic Russian literature.
I’d argue that lack of horror movies had more to do with the genre being disfavoured by the ministry of culture with actually paid for the movies to be made. From my experience there were obvious things that Soviet people feared. People feared nuclear war. Some people feared becoming a target of political repression.
