While it might not be known for delivering unrelenting terror, the Scooby-Doo franchise has a long history of embracing all things spooky and silly. Dating back to its first incarnation back in the ’60s with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, the Mystery, Inc. gang has regularly gone up against all manner of ghosts, goblins, and ghouls, only to realize the very real human threats behind such figures.
The franchise continues to reinvent itself year after year, as new takes on the concept continue to debut as TV series, specials, and movies. Proving that the brand continues to keep its finger on the pulse of contemporary horrors, the official Scooby-Doo Instagram account shared a batch of parody posters that pay respects to more recent hits in the genre. You can see all the posters below.
In the posters, you can see Scooby-Doo starring in “Snackrooms” (a parody of Backrooms), Velma starring in “Obsessed” (a parody of Obsession), The Hex Girls starring in “The Hex” (a parody of The Craft), the Ghost Clown starring in “TWIT” (a parody of IT), Scooby-Doo and Shaggy in “Wimps” (a parody of Weapons), a poster for “The Van in the Woods” (a parody of The Cabin in the Woods), and Shaggy starring in “The Whining” (a parody of The Shining).
As pointed out by some commenters, while the images themselves are quite delightful in how perfectly they match the character and movie title to the film they are lampooning, it does feel like there are some missed opportunities.
Looking at the live-action cast of 2002’s Scooby-Doo and 2004’s Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed, a number of those actors have iconic roles in the horror realm. Both Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar starred in I Know What You Did Last Summer, with Gellar also starring in The Grudge. Matthew Lillard starred in the original Scream and also recently appeared in both Five Nights at Freddy’s and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. Linda Cardellini might not have too many horror efforts to her credit thus far, though she’s about to be seen in the Friday the 13th prequel Crystal Lake on Peacock.
While it would have been hilarious to see Scooby-Doo pay tribute to any of those films, by avoiding those more obvious connections, it serves as a reminder of just how timeless the franchise is and how iterations of the characters don’t have to be linked to one actor indefinitely.
Which of these posters if your favorite? Let us know in the comments below!
