Editorials
5 Retro Horror-themed Cartoons that Got into the Christmas Spirit
Because the holidays are a time for family, gathering around the TV tends to be one of the least stressful ways of spending time together. But most holiday horror offerings aren’t very family friendly. There’s always kid-appropriate cartoons, though. And what better way to get kids into horror than with cartoons? These horror themed cartoons not only hail from an era where Saturday morning cartoon binges hailed supreme, meant to be accompanied by the consumption of the sugariest of cereals, but they’re great for both adults and kids alike. For grown-ups, these cartoons are a trip to fuzzy nostalgic past, but for kids they’re an entertaining new discovery. The best part? These five horror-themed cartoons get into the holiday spirit, and offer perfect holiday horror viewing the whole family can appreciate.
Count Duckula – “A Christmas Quacker”
A British cartoon that ran from 1988-1993, Count Duckula followed the adventures of a vegetarian vampire duck and his servants in his sprawling gothic castle. This season 3 holiday episode sees poor Santa Claus getting lost in the castle’s intricate chimney system. It also wouldn’t be the holidays without an appearance by Count Duckula’s vampire-hunting adversary Von Goosewing. There’s Santa cosplay, gift giving, and lucid dreaming by way of Christmas pudding to round out this festive holiday episode. Even vampires can learn than it’s better to give than receive.
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters – “Gone Shopp’n”
Before Monsters, Inc., there was Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, a ‘90s cartoon on Nickelodeon that followed three monsters attending a school for monsters that taught how to frighten humans. Though the episode aired in December, the plot sees the core trio of monsters terrorizing shoppers in a mall that’s celebrating Christmas in July. For Oblina, Ickis, and Krumm, they soon become the terrorized themselves when they’re accidentally locked in the mall. Malls are horrifying no matter the time of year, but Christmas season is the worst.
Bump in the Night – “T’was the Night Before Bumpy”
This stop-motion animation series from the ‘90s revolved around Mr. Bumpy, a monster that lived under a little boy’s bed and feasted upon socks and dust bunnies. He was best friends with toilet monster Squishington and a Frankenstein’s monster-like rag doll named Molly Coddle, and each episode almost always ended in a music video breakdown of the ep. While the episodes were the usual cartoon length, Bump in the Night received its own hour-long Christmas special that had Mr. Bumpy enlist Squishington in his quest to steal Santa from the North Pole, while Molly Coddle served as director of the annual holiday pageant. The episode included numerous musical numbers and nods to other holiday specials.
The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries – “The Nutcracker Scoob”
Despite the “new” in the title, this holiday-themed episode aired in December of 1984, and saw Scooby, Scrappy, and the gang helping Tiny Tina and other kids in a children’s home put on a Christmas pageant. But they’re interrupted by an apparition with nefarious intent. The gang, sans Velma, must sleuth out whether it’s evil businessman Nickleby behind it or something much spookier. The halls are decked with Christmas cheer; there’s snow, Christmas trees, nutcrackers, and Scooby and Shaggy in ballerina costumes. While Scooby-Doo has had many Christmas specials throughout the decades, this one ranks among the absolute best.
The Real Ghostbusters – “Xmas Marks the Spot”
Two years after the theatrical release of Ghostbusters, the cartoon spinoff debuted on ABC. The inaugural season concluded with the holiday episode, which saw the Ghostbusters unknowingly pass through a portal that whisks them back in time to 1837 England. They run into Ebenezer Scrooge and save him from the three Ghosts of Christmas, but when they return to the present, they realize they’ve inadvertently destroyed Christmas by not allowing Scrooge to learn his vital lesson. They have to return to the past, and the creepy containment unit, to right their Christmas wrongs.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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