Aesthetic development is happening faster than ever in the current age, and it has led to some uniquely memorable creations in media. I’ve found that among these blazing-fast changing trends, the ones that interest me the most are the new takes on horror media. As a lover of all things horror, I really appreciate the effort that goes into stylizing and creating a niche piece of media within the genre. Since the advent of “mascot horror” began, there have been abundant attempts to push the genre further and further to mixed results. Many horror fans seem to be tired of the mascot horror format, however I have seen recent projects that show the many avenues still waiting within the subgenre for an artist creative enough to take them.

Mascot horror is a unique breed of media, using childhood nostalgia and traditionally happy and whimsical imagery to bring out a new sense of fear. This is a subgenre of horror that stems from other subversive horror works, especially those that hide their true genre under the guise of a safer genre like kids’ shows. This idea is hardly new, but it saw an extreme boom in the gaming industry in the 2010s with the release of games like Five Nights at Freddy’s and Poppy Playtime. These pieces of media take recognizable childhood activities and characters and use them to scare the audience. Many of these games are unsettling from the jump however, and the single focus on the mascots can cause the audience to easily get tired of the formula these pieces tend to follow. I find that the pieces of media that skirt the edge of mascot horror are much more compelling as they often trace back to the sources of the genre that created mascot horror in the first place.

Two of my favorite recent pieces of horror media come close to the mascot horror genre, while incorporating meta horror elements and the trope of “Subversive Kids’ Show.” One is the game Amanda the Adventurer, while the other is a TikTok series by creator beeveekee called “Not your Normal Kids’ Show.” These two have somewhat similar premises, centering around a bubbly main character of a kids’ show that becomes increasingly weird and alarming. I think these two particular works nailed the balance of unsettling and nostalgic, mixing cartoon style with hyperrealistic grotesque aspects. The aspect I find most compelling in these two works as opposed to other mascot horror pieces is the idea that by watching the kids’ show, the audience is interacting with and directly threatened by the images on screen. They both make excellent use of children’s shows’ calls for interaction, and increase the fear factor by having on-screen characters react to specific elements of the outside world. Beeveekee’s main character “Dottie” often chastises viewers for arriving early to watch the show or even for leaving comments about other characters besides her. This particular series is so fascinating due to the platform’s format, and the creator’s ability to manufacture uncomfortable closeness between her characters and the viewer. I highly recommend checking out these works at your own discretion, and I look forward to seeing how the horror genre develops from here.