Although kids and family shows are known for being pretty tame, eight kids’ TV shows were terrifying horrors when they were first released. Whether the horrific imagery is intentional or not, these shows have traumatized generations of kids, being the first exposure that many children have to true terror. While these eight shows span a variety of years, genres, and mediums, they all have some pretty frightening scares in common.
While many kids are too young to watch the most popular slasher films, certain TV shows can be just as scary as their horror movie counterparts. Shows like Invader Zim and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy have played on popular scary tropes, while other shows have only featured unintentionally frightening episodes. However, these eight kids shows are the scariest overall, with them being ranked from least scary to most scary.
8 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack
Cartoon Network’s classic animated show The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is known for its surreal humor, wacky storylines, and gross-out character designs. However, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack does have some real nightmare fuel, particularly in the episode “Who Let the Cats Out of the Old Bag’s House?” The episode features a realistic close-up of a cat with empty eye sockets and sharp teeth, with the image being burned into the minds of viewers. In general, the show is full of creepy sea monsters, unsettling characters, grotesque visuals, and disturbing plot points like Dr. Barber’s lifeless Candy Wife.
7 Adventure Time
The vast universe of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time and its various spin-offs have created a pretty lore-heavy world, with the series being populated by some horrifying characters. The franchise’s main villain, The Lich, is a horned demon with skeleton arms and a face covered in rotting flesh, which greatly contrasts with Adventure Time‘s lighthearted candy-themed visuals. Adventure Time also features episodes that revolve around demons, zombies, vampires, and more, all of which are designed to instill fear in the series’ young audience.
However, the characters and monsters aren’t the scariest things in Adventure Time. As the series goes on, it reveals that Adventure Time‘s Land of Ooo is actually a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with the show being set long after a nuclear bomb decimated Earth. This nuclear war plot adds a level of existential horror to the story of Adventure Time, with things like Ice King’s tragic story and the remains of the pre-Mushroom War Earth constantly reminding viewers of the terrifying effects of a nuclear conflict. The post-apocalyptic setting was first hinted at in the eighth episode, meaning that it has been part of Adventure Time since the very beginning.
6 Gravity Falls
Gravity Falls was known for testing the limits of what was allowed on Disney Channel, meaning that the mysterious show got away with some truly terrifying visuals. Gravity Falls features possessions, shape-shifters, zombies, and an extended scene of the mounted heads of dead animals talking as blood pours out of their mouths. Gravity Falls‘ main villain Bill Cipher is literally an inter-dimensional demon who shows his powers by turning a man’s face inside out, which is a horrifying and unexpected scene to sit through. While Gravity Falls only had two seasons, it packed a lot of horror into its 40 episodes.
5 Are You Afraid Of The Dark
Nickelodeon’s live-action anthology series Are You Afraid of the Dark? is the first series on this list that belongs in the genre of horror, and it truly lives up to that. Each episode features a group of kids known as The Midnight Society telling a scary story around a campfire, with some of these episodes being absolute nightmares. The show’s iconic “The Tale of The Ghastly Grimer” is Are You Afraid of the Dark‘s most well-known scary episode, but the series also features a plethora of other horrific episodes like “The Tale of the Midnight Madness,” “The Tale of the Dollmaker,” “The Tale of the Dark Music,” and more.
4 Over The Garden Wall
Over the Garden Wall is an animated Cartoon Network horror miniseries, with the show still being a horror to this day. The surreal show features Elijah Wood, Christopher Lloyd, and other high-profile actors, with the prestigious performers using their vocal performances to haunt the viewers. The show is very atmospheric, but things like the giant scarecrow, Pottsfield, and possessed Lorna still manage to garner some serious frights. Even the normal humans in the show like Auntie Whispers and The Woodsman are undeniably creepy, with it seeming as if they may be more dangerous than the actual beings of the forest.
The scariest part of Over the Garden Wall, though, is its main villain. Known as The Beast, the unsettling monster remains in shadows for most of the series, haunting the two main characters. The Beast’s lantern emits an ominous glow, making the creature even more unsettling. However, The Beast is eventually revealed to be based on a mythological creature known as a Wendigo, and the image of it in full sight is absolutely terrifying. The creature has empty, glowing eyes, antlers, lanky arms, and a gaping black mouth. The creepiest part, though, is that The Beast is covered in stretched and mangled faces, reminiscent of the horrors of Junji Ito.
3 Goosebumps
Much like Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Goosebumps is also a live-action horror anthology series based on the book series by R.L. Stine. Some episodes are scarier than others, but those that are scary are absolutely haunting. “Say Cheese and Die,” “Be Careful What You Wish For,” and “Night of the Living Dummy II,” are all incredibly frightening. However, Goosebump‘s “The Haunted Mask” has become so iconic for its horror that it is even known to viewers who haven’t watched the series. This Goosebumps horror story has become a classic, with it ironically being the first episode of the series.
2 Courage The Cowardly Dog
Courage the Cowardly Dog is easily Cartoon Network’s scariest show due to how creatively it uses its scares. The series sprinkles in a variety of animation styles that really highlights its horror, making the show’s creatures stand out even more. The claymation girl in “Courage In The Big Stinkin’ City,” the floating head in “The House of Discontent,” and the blue nightmare creature from “Perfect” are all fantastic examples of this. However, Courage the Cowardly Dog‘s most well-known scare is its CGI scarecrow from “King Ramses’ Curse,” which is still burned into the minds of children who watched it.
1 The Animals Of Farthing Wood
Although the rest of the shows attempt to scare viewers, The Animals of Farthing Wood tops the list as the scariest kids’ show of all time due to the fact that it isn’t trying to be scary. The 1993 British animated series attempts to be a family-friendly show about a group of animals, but it quickly turns into a gory, violent parade of dead creatures. Animals are run over by trucks, impaled by thorns, and shot at point-blank range by a shotgun. For a kids’ show, this is pretty intense. However, the scariest part is that the TV show is far less horrifying than the book series it’s based on.
