The Scariest Kids’ Cartoon Episodes Ever (Why Were We Allowed to Watch These?!)

Turn on a light. Maybe two.

Some cartoon episodes are silly. Some are sweet. And some were apparently made by people who wanted us to sleep with the hallway light on for a week.

I make cartoons for a living. I know how much work goes into scaring an audience on purpose. So here's a toast to the episodes that did it best, and a warning label for little siblings.

7. The Real Ghostbusters: "The Boogieman Cometh" (1986)

The Ghostbusters face the actual Boogieman, a monster who lives behind every closet door. It made every kid in America check their closet before bed.

Scare level: the closet door creaking open.

6. Hey Arnold!: "Haunted Train"

Grandpa Phil tells Arnold the legend of a ghost train and its doomed conductor. Arnold goes looking for it. It finds him.

Scare level: a campfire story that comes true.

5. Gravity Falls: "Summerween" (2012)

Dipper and Mabel go trick-or-treating, and the Summerween Trickster, a creature made of rejected candy, shows up. Hilarious and creepy at the same time, which is what Gravity Falls does best.

Scare level: you'll never look at a candy wrapper the same way.

4. SpongeBob SquarePants: "Graveyard Shift" (2002)

Squidward tells SpongeBob about the Hash-Slinging Slasher. The lights flicker. The phone rings. Nobody's there. And then the ending makes it even weirder.

Scare level: I'd skip the night shift for a billion dollars and free tacos for life.

3. Courage the Cowardly Dog: "King Ramses' Curse"

Courage's family takes a slab from an ancient tomb, and a ghostly, computer-animated pharaoh appears to demand it back. His flat, echoing voice is the scariest sound in cartoon history.

Scare level: I would return a slab I never took, just in case.

2. Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)

The gang has spent 30 years unmasking fake monsters. This time, the monsters are real. The movie took Scooby-Doo from goofy to genuinely spooky, and kids who watched it never forgot it.

Scare level: no masks to pull off.

1. Batman: The Animated Series: "Perchance to Dream" (1992)

Bruce Wayne wakes up in a perfect world. His parents are alive. Someone else is Batman. Everything he ever wanted. But something is wrong: he can't read. Every book and sign is scrambled. Slowly he realizes it's a dream he's trapped in, and he has to find a way to wake himself up.

Scare level: no monsters. Just the creeping feeling that your perfect world isn't real. That's the scariest kind.

Final thoughts

Were we traumatized? A little. But a good scare in a safe place is part of growing up. These episodes taught a lot of us how stories build suspense, and how good it feels when the lights come back on.

What cartoon episode scared you most as a kid? Tell us in the comments.

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