Casper Kelly’s slasher comedy Buddy hits theaters this week, taking viewers into a realm ruled by a sinister children’s show host who happens to look like an adorable orange unicorn. Kiddie entertainment is ripe fodder for horror, so much so that it’s created its own subgenre. Peek behind the bright lights and colorful costumes, and you just might find a malevolent force waiting to strike.
Here are 10 other projects that turn dreamy nostalgia into fuzzy nightmares.
Channel Zero: Candle Cove
The first season of this late, great Syfy series adapted a creepypasta story about a long-forgotten TV show that ran on puppets, pirates, and murderous impulses. A famous child psychologist returns to his hometown after many years, haunted by his brother’s mysterious death and the memory of the kiddie program they used to watch together. But did Candle Cove really exist? And what message was it beaming out to the kids who became its devoted fans?
Pooka!
Hulu’s holiday horror anthology series Into the Dark featured this entry from Colossal director Nacho Vigalondo co-starring Widow’s Bay fan-favorite Dale Dickey. A struggling actor takes a lame but well-paying gig that has him donning a costume to portray the hottest toy for Christmas shoppers: Pooka, a Furby-like creature with an interactive component that utilizes “nice” and “naughty” modes. Things turn extremely violent when it becomes clear the suit is having very negative effects on the guy wearing it.
The Into the Dark segment proved so popular it spawned a sequel, Pooka Lives!, which builds on Pooka’s viral fame and “naughty” influence.
Nope
The main narrative of Jordan Peele’s sci-fi horror tale, about a cloud-shaped alien that descends to Earth to slurp up its human meals, would be alarming enough. But then there’s that subplot about Gordy’s Home, a popular sitcom that went off the air after its beloved chimpanzee star went rogue and started ripping up its human co-stars.
Five Nights at Freddy’s
What if the animatronics at Chuck E. Cheese suddenly became sentient—and psychotic? If you ever attended a birthday party at the pizza joint, it’s something you probably wondered about, and it’s that exact fear that the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise has gleefully exploited with great success. The popular video game series has spawned two hit feature films as well as books, graphic novels, and merch galore, all the while slyly hinting that maybe your concerns about those dead-eyed bears and their furry pals might just be warranted.
The Happytime Murders
Melissa McCarthy stars in this puppet-human hybrid as an LAPD detective who teams up with her former partner, Phil (legendary Muppet performer Bill Barretta), to solve a murder mystery swirling around the puppet-human cast of The Happytime Gang sitcom. The reception given this oddball release from director Brian Henson and the Jim Henson Company suggested audiences were not ready to embrace R-puppet movies exploring crass humor and decidedly adult themes. But still, you have to admire the guts it took to assume they might.
The Banana Splits Movie
Hanna-Barbera goes horror in this actually pretty inspired reimagining of the 1960s variety show with the incessantly catchy theme song featuring performers in animal costumes. In this 2019 feature, the characters are animatronics that turn vicious after a software glitch. It predated the first Five Nights at Freddy’s movie as well as the adjacent trend of turning kiddie characters who have entered the public domain (Winnie the Pooh, Bambi, Steamboat Willie, etc.) into homicidal movie stars.
Willy’s Wonderland
Another tale of a restaurant arcade with animatronic characters that become self-aware/demonically possessed and start attacking people—only this one has Nicolas Freaking Cage playing the janitor who fights back.
Death to Smoochy
Technically, Death to Smoochy isn’t a horror movie—but this 2002 black comedy about a disgraced kid’s show host (Robin Williams) who sets out to get revenge on his replacement (Edward Norton) still deserves a mention. After all, Norton’s character dresses as a purple rhinoceros, an iconic image from the film, and the movie is very invested in excavating the pitch-black underbelly of children’s TV programming.
Mr. Crocket
This 2024 feature adapted from director Brandon Espy’s short of the same name—which was included in Hulu short-film series Bite Size Halloween—has a premise not unlike Buddy; it’s also about the host of a retro children’s TV series who emerges from his fictional world to kidnap kids. There’s no creature costume in this one, but there is a spirit of freaky vengeance that propels its plot.
V/H/S/99, “Ozzy’s Dungeon”
What if the proudly sloppy game show Double Dare, once a Nickelodeon mainstay, were concealing a gruesome secret behind the scenes? This Flying Lotus-directed V/H/S entry introduces a family who seeks revenge against the host of Ozzy’s Dungeon after their daughter is injured during one of the show’s physical challenges. That would be grim enough, but then we learn the identity of “Ozzy”—and what the true purpose of the game show has been all this time. Suffice to say it’s a face-meltingly great surprise.
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