Horror That Isn't Horror
The weird phenomenon of unintentional fear
Okay, so I’ve been gone for a little bit.
In my defense, I’ve been busy (that’s code for “on vacation”). I went to Spookala 2023 for one, where I saw a hoard of Ghostface costumes flood the stage for the biggest gathering of Ghostfaces in one place. Oh, yeah, Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard were there by the way.
Here’s me with Spencer from Ice Nine Kills though. This is my undeniable proof that I was, in fact, busy. Duh.
But, on a real note, I’m off vacation. I’ve been revived, rejuvenated, and refreshed. I’m thriving — well, by “thriving” I mean busy again. Like, actually busy. But that’s okay.
The Actual Essay Starts Here!
Media is scary.
Usually, it’s intentional. Other times, it’s an awful mistake.
Think back for a minute: was there ever a show you watched as a kid that completely and utterly freaked you out?
For my generation, I usually hear answers like
The Teletubbies
Boohbah
The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
Robot Chicken
Mr. Meaty
But I think one of the best examples of this is SpongeBob SquarePants. Now, that probably doesn’t make much sense—and I get it. SpongeBob was the show I was obsessed with as a kid, and just like most people my age, still have a deep appreciation for.
The cartoon itself is legendary. It’s about a silly yellow sponge who lives in a pineapple. I mean, what is there to be scared of?
One could cite the random, hyperrealistic gross out images of the show. A funny, goofy joke could possibly be followed by an image of nightmares.
For me? Those never did anything. My weakness was the “I Had an Accident” episode. There’s nothing necessarily scary about this episode, at least not until a man in gorilla costume starts wrecking the place.
It was absurd, surreal, and for some reason, made me really uncomfortable as a kid. And, apparently, I wasn’t alone in that. A lot of people say this episode freaked the hell out of them as children.
Obviously, I don’t think the SpongeBob SquarePants team’s goal was to scare people. I mean, seriously, I doubt any adult would think a gorilla suit would unsettle kids. But kids are weird, they get spooked by random stuff.
So sometimes companies screw up. They accidentally put in imagery that, for some reason, creeps people out. An innocent piece of horror… that isn’t horror.
Children’s Media
Man, is this category actually insanely huge.
I guess because, as kids, we’re more prone to be afraid of things. I was terrified of Michael Myers when I was younger, but now I actively cosplay him. Sure, that movie is meant to be scary… but I was also scared of some of the shows that were supposed to be for me!
Mr. Meaty
I’m getting this out the way now but I hate this show passionately.
Every time I was on a Nickelodeon binge and this came on, I would immediately scramble to find the TV remote so I could change it. Usually, the remote would be tangled in my bed sheets and I would have to endure the psychological torture of watching some of the episode.
What’s crazy is that this show still unsettles me.
Between the uncanny puppets, disgusting plotlines, or just the straight up surrealness this show offers, it makes me feel like I’m going through a bad acid trip.
For those of you who are fortunate enough to not know what the hell I’m talking about, let me introduce you to… Mr. Meaty.
It’s about two kids who work at a burger joint in the mall. That’s the main premise, but the plotlines that the show has go crazy (and not in a good way).
What do I mean by that? Well, there was an episode about a tapeworm. Yes, a tapeworm. Was it disgusting? Yes. Do I wish that I never saw a puppet pull a tapeworm out of his own mouth? Yes.
Oh, also a girl fries her own hand. And then the other puppet does too. And then he eats his hand. So… there’s that.
Seriously, why did they think this was good for kids? The show could have possibly done better with an older demographic, but my age? Yeah, no… it just traumatized a generation.
I can see how the humor would be funny for teens, but as a kid, I truly was terrified of this show.
And yes, I am dramatic enough to give it its own section.
Animatronics (Chuck E. Cheese, Showbiz Pizza, etc)
Animatronics will always be a hot topic when it comes to “unintentionally scary” things.
Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza especially have been the main suspects when it comes to this. While the companies were successful, they weren’t Disney-level, meaning their animatronics weren’t nearly as clean as their theme park counterparts.
Instead, guests were greeted with cheaper animatronics. Ones that were charming in their own right, but also terrifying.
I get it. Low lighting, uncanny movements, surreal sculpts—there’s a reason why Five Nights at Freddy’s is a thing.
I remember going to Chuck E. Cheese as a kid. I was one of those weirdos who actually liked the band, and thought they were super fun to watch. They were silly and colorful, and that’s all I needed as a kid.
As an adult, I can understand why people are turned off by the mere sight of such animatronics.
It’s the same reason I hated Mr. Meaty, and the same reason why people disliked The Teletubbies.
The curtains draw and the infamous rat is on stage. He’s the main character here, and the band members behind him are just colorful filler so that the children can be distracted long enough so that the workers can clean up the mess left behind by the party.
The rat smiles. He’s always smiling. His mouth is almost too big for his face, his lips stretched thin. And, although he smiles, there’s nothing behind his eyes. He offers us nothing, but he offers the kids mountains of fun.
But his eyes—the eyes of a lifeless, corporate animatronic—tell us everything that we need to know.
That’s right. The uncanny valley.
Humans That Aren’t Human
The uncanny valley is the feeling someone gets in response to someone or something that isn’t quite human.
It’s the reason why so much media can be unintentionally frightening to audiences. An example most people point to when speaking on the subject is Sophia.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
This robot is meant to look human, and often has disturbing conversations with people regarding humanity. But, of course, we all know the truth.
There’s this uncomfortable sensation when watching these types of things play out. To watch something try to act like a human, to try and imitate something so complex. It’s why stories of shapeshifters and demons have scared us for so many generations, and why shapeshifters have recently had a spike in popularity in horror.
The Mandela Catalog is the biggest analog horror series out there right now, and it’s main focus is on “alternates”—demons trying to act like humans.
So, then, the strange media that scared us as children can boil down to the uncanny valley.
An animatronic rat is trying to imitate a human. An ugly, grotesque puppet is trying to act like a human. These things are trying to be what they aren’t, and humans are naturally inclined to pick up on this. Hence why children can be so terrified of such.
I think that goes back to the SpongeBob gorilla scene I was talking about earlier. There was a man in a gorilla suit trying to act like… well, a gorilla. He clearly isn’t, and by the end of the scene, he’s acting much more human than before.
What of Us Adults?
The uncanny valley scares all ages, but is there any media that unintentionally scares adults?
It seems as if it would be somewhat more difficult considering adults can be tougher to scare, but it’s actually easier than you would think.
We just have to look at one website: YouTube.
Sitting and Smiling
Benjamin Bennett is the creator of Sitting and Smiling on YouTube. These videos show Bennett doing exactly as the title says, and while these aren’t meant to be creepy in any way, these videos have gained a reputation for scaring the hell out of people.
So much, in fact, that Bennett was saved from a robbery simply by how creeped out the intruder was from the smiles.
I Feel Fantastic
This classic video shows a man indulging in his hobbies. Again, this video wasn’t meant to be scary, and instead was meant to show a man’s work on a mannequin robot he created. The mannequin sings “I Feel Fantastic” throughout the video, and many people found this to be… odd.
That, of course, led to the creation of creepypasta videos stemming from it.
But the reality is that this was created by a man named John Bergeron. He was just sharing his cool robot hobby, and I honestly feel terrible that people made something so innocent into something sinister. I hope he’s doing better these days.
Nanny Lynn
The last one I want to mention is a very interesting case of “unintentional horror.” In 2020, there was a slew of odd cartoons discovered on a bootleg tape. The cartoons featured strange storylines and artwork that people deemed “creepy.”
Because of this, there was an internet-wide hunt on who created them, and why they were created for that matter. These cartoons popped up on almost every lost media YouTube channel, with speculations and theories running wild.
Now, in 2023, we know that these cartoons were for Nanny Lynn’s grandchildren back when they were first created. Not exactly the scary explanation that people wanted, but rather a more wholesome one.
The mystery is what makes these scary to people.
Why was a guy just staring at his camera smiling? Why did a mannequin have to sing? Why did these weird cartoons exist?
The imagination runs wild, and our minds can create scenarios that are oftentimes scarier than reality ever could be. Our anxiety overtakes us, locks us up in heavy shackles, and leaves us to drown in the fear that we created. The horror may be unintentional, but our minds surely make it seem intentional.
Final Thoughts
Whether it be a show that terrorized you as a child or a lost media case that had you up late now as an adult, media will always find a way to scare us, whether that was the intention or not.
There’s something almost special about it. Perhaps it’s because you know it’s genuine fear, not something manufactured by another entertainment company to make you jump. It’s very raw horror, even if it may not seem like “real” horror to other people.
Petition to add courage the cowardly dog to the list of children's shows that freaked me the f out
Definitely the idea of shapeshifters is terrifying, with those having always been something that creeps me out.