Where did the game of hide and seek originate? Hide and seek is a Russian folk outdoor game. “Kulyuchki” is a Russian folk outdoor game of hide and seek.

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Many people probably know what supernatural horrors await a person in this world. However, it is not only the formidable infernal evil that can make any of us tremble. Sometimes something mystical and frightening happens right in the middle of everyday life, in everyday life, where you least expect it. And reading about such cases is no less interesting and scary. For example, this creepy story is about a "normal" children's game of hide and seek that started many years ago and may not have ended yet. It was told to users of the World Wide Web by a certain Russian. Let's call him Pavel. (website)

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Pavel says that in early childhood one of his favorite pastimes was hide and seek with his father. When it began to get dark, the man picked up his son from kindergarten and, upon returning home, played with him for a while until the boy’s mother also came home from work. This family lived in a two-room apartment in a Khrushchev-era building. Despite such a limited space, the father sometimes hid very inventively, and the child could not find him without a hint. In such cases, the man began to cough quietly to give his son a tip. Our hero carefully walked toward the sound, and each time his father jumped out of his hiding place with a scream, scaring the little one for a second or two. The boy laughed with the delight of instant fear, invariably asking his parent to repeat the game.

The mystical disappearance of a Russian

On one of these evenings, dusk had just begun to deepen, and the lights had not yet been turned on. The man told his son that this time he would hide as well as he had never hidden before, and therefore it would be very difficult to find him. Pavel went out into the hallway, stood facing the front door, counted to ten and began to search. After some time, the boy realized that something was wrong. The father was still not there, although the little driver had already searched the entire apartment. The usual coughing was also not heard: neither from the rooms, nor from the kitchen, nor from the bathroom, nor from the pantry. The child got scared and began to call his father, but he never appeared.

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When his mother returned, a tearful Pavel told her about what had happened. At first she didn’t believe it and looked around the apartment herself, then she spent a long time asking her son where his father had gone. Late in the evening it became clear to the woman that her husband had disappeared. She, naturally, went to the police. Law enforcement officers conducted an investigation, but did not find any traces of the abduction. As a result, law enforcement officers concluded that the man had run away from his family and stopped searching for him. However, here’s what’s strange: Pavel’s father did not take any clothes, money, or documents with him. He didn't even take the keys, although when the boy's mother came home, the door was closed. The missing man clearly could not jump out of the fourth floor window and calmly leave undressed. It seemed as if he had simply disappeared into the apartment.

Hide and seek with your father isn't over yet?

This happened more than fifteen years ago. Pavel inherited those very apartments in Khrushchev and now lives alone. He, his mother, all his relatives and those around him long ago decided that our hero’s dishonest father left his family, very cleverly faking his mystical disappearance (apparently, he was seriously preparing to escape). It would seem that the story is over, right? However, lately Pavel has begun to lean towards the opinion that his father... is still here in the apartment. The fact is that when it begins to get dark and it’s too early to turn on the lights, a quiet pretend cough is heard in it, very similar to what the boy heard here in childhood. Pavel is afraid that one day his father, who has not aged a minute, will suddenly jump out of the closet or from under the bed screaming. Or something that in this case will pretend to be his father...

Some RuNet regulars treated this story with irony. They say that our hero’s dad finally decided to show up when his son had already reached the age of majority, and now there was no need to pay child support. However, most commentators were quite intrigued by this mysterious story, which sent a chill down the spine. Someone says that the Russian's father knew how to move to and inadvertently used this ability during hide and seek with his son until he got stuck in another dimension. Others believe that some otherworldly entity then dragged the man to itself and is now trying to get to his son. According to others, Pavel is simply experiencing auditory hallucinations, being in the place that brought him so many unpleasant memories.

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Finally, here is one more, very interesting addition to this story by a certain Alexei:

My father and I also played hide and seek, in exactly the same way, at dusk, waiting for our mother from work, only this happened in a private house in the Vladimir region. My father also scared me by jumping out of his hiding place, and when I hid, I didn’t find him for a long time, starting to tell all sorts of horror stories in a creepy voice, which is why I eventually crawled out from under the bed or from the wardrobe, because it was already creepy to sit there . And then one day I hid in the wardrobe between the clothes and began to impatiently wait for my father to start scaring me (this was both scary and somehow sweet at the same time), but for some reason this time he walked quietly and didn’t even say anything , and then went into another room and became quiet. And I quietly fell asleep in that linen closet. My mother woke me up, scolding me for hiding and scaring her to death: she supposedly had already searched the whole house and was about to run to the neighbors. And when I told her about hide-and-seek with my father, she looked at me strangely for a long time, and then sighed heavily: “What father, he died when you were still wrapped in diapers.”

So I never saw my father again, except for his photographs and his grave in the local churchyard. It looks like the wardrobe was in for a surprise. Then I deliberately hid in it a thousand times (if not more) in the hope that my father would return (or rather, that I would return to the world where he was alive), but I never managed to change anything...

In general, I don’t have particularly negative emotions towards director John Paulson. In general, to be honest, I’m not particularly familiar with his work, because almost all of his films pass me by, but when I saw the trailer for “Hide and Seek” on TV a long time ago, this product intrigued me with its dynamism and sharp moments, which are in the trailer there was an excessive amount. So I thought it would be nice to watch a movie.

What did I really see? A boring, weak plot that made you sleepy, a complete lack of spectacular deaths, which only added to the drowsiness, and a stupid ending with schizophrenia, which killed the film even more. But first things first:

Plot. The film got off to a good start. A typical setting, moving to a new house, etc. Although such elements are very hackneyed, I always liked them, as they are imbued with emotions, a certain carelessness of the main characters, and the anticipation of the terrible events that should follow such introductions. And in general, this is essentially how a good horror film or psychological thriller should begin. There is no need for anything else here. But there is one very important “BUT”. This beginning of the film should last no more than half an hour, otherwise interest in watching it disappears, drowsiness appears and the desire to finish watching the film quickly appears. All these signs appeared to me soon, since all subsequent events of the film are so disposable and uninteresting that the question arises: where is the director’s imagination? Why are we shown the same thing ten times in a row? Either the wife is in the bathroom, then there are scary inscriptions that are supposed to scare, then AGAIN there is a dead cat in the bathroom. Where is stakh? Horror? One scene is enough, which would look much more effective and frightening than several of the same type. It would be better if the director spent the money on some original murder or something like that, but there is no need to shove similar episodes several times. This will never make the film look better.

Next, I would like to say that the dialogues between father and daughter are too drawn out. Most of the film consists of them. The girl constantly talks about her imaginary friend Charlie and I have to say that I liked these kinds of scenes. They are creepy in essence and you don’t know who this Charlie is? What he looks like, etc. However, I’m talking about something a little different. In particular, about other boring dialogues between father and daughter. Dakota plays well, and De Niro is not bad in the role of a desperate dad, but all these sittings at the table and fishing trips are very boring. Why are they needed in such abundant quantities?

Lack of spectacular deaths and special effects in general. The film is of high quality, with professional actors, a decent budget and fees, but where did the director spend his $30,000,000? Apart from famous actors, the film does not sparkle with anything: there are zero special effects, the murders are made in the style of horror films of the 80s, there are no visual effects. What to look at anyway? The beautiful eyes of Dakota Fanning? The genre is “horror”, but I don’t see anything characteristic of horror here. The film may still work as a thriller, but not as a horror. There are practically no scary scenes, no bloody scenes, no special effects, and scares with a dead cat can only be scary for small children, and even then not for everyone.

So it's up to you to watch or not watch. I think fans of thrillers will like the film, but as a horror film it is not good. In general, I take into account the quality, professionalism, budget of the film, and such a movie will look much better than some stupid trash film with a penny budget, so if you choose between Art House or such mediocre thrillers, then of course I will choose the second, but there are films much better, more interesting and scarier than this genre. As for “Hide and Seek”, this is an average film that is suitable for a one-time viewing but nothing more. Since I expected more from the film, I was disappointed. Therefore, I will rate it accordingly.

History of the game of hide and seek.

S. Gribkov. Hide and seek. 1893

Nowadays, hide and seek is played for fun. But hide and seek appeared a long time ago, when this game had a completely different meaning for the people who played it. Adults usually played hide and seek. In some places in England there was a custom according to which, with the onset of spring, people went out into the forests and fields to find flowers and birds that appeared with the onset of this season. Then what was found was brought to the village so that everyone could see that spring had really come. The search for these signs of spring, which were hidden in the forests, became the beginning of the game of hide and seek. And despite the fact that a lot of time has passed since the appearance of the game, in some countries, even today, the one who is hiding sometimes imitates the cry of a bird. The history of hide and seek and the legends associated with it would take many pages. In Asia, hide and seek is played in the same way as in Australia, as in South America and Alaska. In France the game is called "Cache-Cache". In the Balkans and Turkey “Do you love your neighbor?” In the United States and English-speaking countries, the game is called “Hide and Seek.” In Holland they believe that this game comes from ancient folk customs, when boys and girls in the first days of spring went into the forest, into the fields to look for birds, beetles, and pick flowers to make sure that the night of rebirth had arrived. Therefore, in Holland, players imitate birds, running from the hunter, flapping their wings. And if the driver does not find the players for a long time, they whistle, imitating bird voices, to let them know where they are. Hide and seek has spread in many variants and become an integral part of many other games, but they originate from ancient folk customs, from cult rituals of former times.

Game description

At the beginning of the game, everyone gathers together, then the driver, standing facing the wall, loudly counts to 100 (or another number). Sometimes in dozens, up to 100 or 200. Others are hiding at this time. Having counted to the required number, the driver goes to look for the hidden ones. Sometimes before this you have to say “one-two-three-four-five, I’m going to look for [all of you]”, “it’s time, it’s not time, I’m leaving the yard” or “whoever didn’t hide, it’s not my fault.” Having seen the hidden one, he must be the first to run to the place from where he began the search and touch the wall with his hand, uttering the agreed words that differ in different regions (“cheka”, “magic wand”, “paly-vyry”, “tra-ta- ta", "kuly-kuly", "knock-knock", "knock-knock for yourself", "ban-drum for yourself", "knock-knock for yourself", "knock-ta", "pali-knock" , “knock-pali”, “knock-baki”, “tuli-ya”, “knock of a stick”). Each person hiding tries to be the first to do the same. The next driver is the one from the hidden ones who was salted (“checked”) first, and if no one was salted, the same as the last time. You cannot hide behind or next to the driver. Sometimes, as an option, the last player can help out everyone “caught” and the driver drives again. To add dynamism to the game, according to the conditions, the last “caught” becomes the driver.

Free players can help those not yet found by shouting out tips like:

• “Axe-axe, sit like a thief and don’t look into the yard” means that the moment for appearing is very unfavorable;
• “Saw-saw, fly like an arrow” has the opposite meaning: there is an opportunity to overtake the driver, which means it’s time to jump out of cover.

In the West, a variant of the game called “sardines” is also common. In this version, one is hiding, and everyone else is looking for him. The one who finds him first hides with him. Then the next one who finds them joins them, then everyone else in turn. The game ends when the last player joins the others. He is declared the loser and is usually the next to hide. Sardines are often played in the dark.

Also known in the West is a version of the game of hide and seek using the first and last name of the famous Venetian traveler. In this game, the hider must answer "Polo" when the seeker says "Marco." Often used in TV series.

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D1%80%D1%8F%D1%82%D0%BA%D0%B8

More than once I have come across, on various movie resources, people’s questions regarding the five endings of the psychological thriller “Hide and Seek” with Robert De Niro and Dakota Fanning (who received the “Best Performance in a Horror/Thriller” award for this role). ) starring.
This film actually had five endings, and the film was released in the US with one ending, and released worldwide with a completely different one.

This is the ending of the film released in America:
Living a new life with Katherine and preparing for school, Emily pictures herself and Katherine, assuming that everything is fine in her life. But when the camera zooms in on Emily's drawing, we see that Emily has two heads.

Four more endings were included in the DVD release in the United States.
Ending #1:
The same as in the American version of the film, except that in Emily's drawing she has one head, implying that she is fine and does not suffer from the same disease that caused the death of both her parents.

Ending No. 2 (this is how the film that was released worldwide ends):
At first glance, Emily is in a new apartment, and Catherine repeats the actions of the girl's mother from the beginning of the picture. She shows her love for Emily, bids her good night and prepares to leave the room. Emily asks Catherine to leave the door to the room ajar, as her mother used to do, but Catherine insists that she cannot do this. When the door closes, a window protected by a mesh is visible. The next moment, Katherine locks the door from the outside, revealing that the supposed room in an ordinary apartment is actually a ward in a children's psychiatric hospital.

Ending #4:
The ending is similar to that in the previous version, with the only difference being that Emily is not in a psychiatric hospital, but in her new home, still playing hide and seek with her reflection in the mirror.

According to comments from the directors and producers, they made the first (zero) ending the default ending on DVD and domestic releases because it provides at least some relief to the audience at the end of the film.
They suggested that the hospital ward ending would have been too dark and chose not to punish Emily further after everything she had been through. After Emily's character was in constant terror for the last 45 minutes of the film, they felt it was time to give her an emotional break, so they went with a happier ending, although not a completely happy ending, as Emily painted herself with double-headed, implying that she does suffer from a split personality disorder.