It was in 1985 that the Care Bears had their first big-screen adventure. Those colorful, fuzzy do-gooders had already made the move to television, after previously going from greeting cards to plushies, but now their unwavering message of love had reached a wider audience. That original Care Bears film encapsulated the fundamentals of this lucrative franchise; syrupy songs fill in for plot, the general tone is sweet enough to form cavities, and essentially everything amounts to one long toy commercial. However, beneath the treacle sits the antithesis of the empathetic heroes. The villain of this story is still hard to shake off, on account of how she hissed her way into the nightmares of children everywhere. For that reason and others, The Care Bears Movie makes for a surprising source of gateway horror.

The term “gateway horror” is commonly used to describe a lot of adult horror that was first experienced as a young age. That usage works fine for most, and it definitely allows for more options in answers, but it would make better sense to say gateway horrors are those pieces of media that don’t quite fit into the genre so neatly, or at all in some cases. They have aspects to them that stick out as eerie and unsettling. Also, it’s those precise parts that can lead to a greater interest in overt horrors. Speaking for myself, The Care Bears Movie, when viewed on repeat at a tender and curious age, was a substantial push in the right direction.

Looking back, the Care Bears were like an overcompensation for everything sad and tragic in the world. Cold War, economic turmoil, and the AIDS epidemic weren’t things that anyone could simply fix, and there was no shielding that reality from children. Even still, the Care Bears were there to help carry the burden. These benevolent bears’ mission statement included rescuing and consoling children, especially when the adults weren’t around to do so. And more often than not, grown-ups were absent in the Care Bears universe, either physically or emotionally. That fact is evident in the first film; the namesakes’ latest charges feel abandoned, not only by their parents but the whole world. Kim (Cree Summer) and Jason (Sunny Besen Thrasher), a pair of orphaned siblings waiting to be adopted, would rather not make any friends again. “They always let you down,” they tell the Care Bears.

Image: Nicholas meets The Spirit.

While Kim and Jason dealt with a very real and enduring problem, the other child character in The Care Bears Movie, a magician’s helper named Nicholas (Hadley Kay, Mickey Rooney), is handed a far-fetched dilemma that smells of the decade’s most glaring and prolonged instance of fear-mongering. There at a local carnival, and hidden among a trunk of unsorted antiques, was a forebodingly swathed book. And upon hearing Nicholas’ dejected wish — “I’d give anything to find a way to get people to like me” — the object stirs awake. Less scrutinizing eyes, particularly those of children, would fail to see the reference to the occult in this scene, but seeing as how the book’s own unsealing resembles a blood ritual, it’s safe to say the film’s antagonist is a thinly veiled nod to the Satanic Panic.

By the time The Care Bears Movie was first released, the Satanic Panic was still in effect. Those sensationalized reports of ritualistic abuse were inescapable, so it’s no shock to see the headlines make their way into a story about neglected and vulnerable children. Of course, that same moral panic had yet to be widely dismissed; it would be years before everyone came to their senses. Giving that well publicized scare campaign even more air would seem reckless, but to the target demographic for this film, they weren’t questioning the creators’ ethical duties. All they saw — and were maybe enticed by — was the sheer creepiness of Nicholas’ deceiver.

A beguiling voice to go with the bodiless visage of a woman trapped inside a grimoire. The Spirit wasn’t a lot to look at, but her every appearance on screen was nothing short of unnerving. That estimation is due in large part to her voice actor, Jackie Burroughs, whose performance goes beyond the expectations of something like Care Bears. Alluring, sinister and depraved, The Spirit evoked uneasiness as much as she did twisted glee. Those more callow of young viewers didn’t look at a book the same way after setting eyes on this leatherbound demon.

Image: Kim and Jason fight to save Nicholas’ soul in The Care Bears Movie.

Before long, this story enters but doesn’t completely stay in possession film territory. Unlike The Exorcist and so many of its imitators, the target here is an adolescent boy, not a girl. Evil’s metaphorical “penetration” of virginal female victims is absent here, and instead The Spirit goes a different route in her control over Nicholas. That temptation of power and influence, in exchange for one’s soul, reads Faustian, although the second Care Bears film shows a less blurred take on the pact with the devil.

It wouldn’t be a possession story without a specific character to repel and vanquish the evil. And here the enemy has a whole army of “exorcists” to contend with; in addition to the core Care Bears are their long-lost Cousins, those mammalian relatives found living in a vivid and mystical forest somewhere below Care-a-Lot. So it would appear that The Spirit wouldn’t stand a chance, not with Nicholas’ many allies en route to stop her. However, what Care Bears does, and smartly so, is install limits on the heroes’ magic; Care Bear Stares and the Cousin Call only go so far in the film’s climactic standoff. In a bit of a reality check, these children actually save themselves — and each other — in the end.

To a degree, The Care Bears Movie fed into the moral terror of the times, whether or not that was the intention, but it also came out during a distinct and now-bygone era for children’s entertainment. Films back then, animated or otherwise, balanced their tones on a razor’s edge, and the results were often memorable, if not outstanding. This one film didn’t talk down to its primary audience; on the contrary, it gladly got down to their level and made the darker material digestible. And above all, its pressing theme of love and caring still holds up, maybe now more than ever. It never hurts to be reminded.

Image: The Spirit has taken control of Nicholas in The Care Bears Movie.