Nobody puts baillee in the corner

I think I’m really fortunate to have grown up when I did. We had some PRIME horror cartoons and specials. Zeke the Plumber, The Scooby-Doo Project (The Blair Witch Project parody), Hocus Pocus, Goosebumps, The Halloween Tree, all of the spooky DCOMs, incredible sitcom Halloween specials, the list goes on and on. I was also really lucky that my mom was super into all things horror and Halloween, so we never missed an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel, and my family heirloom is the 1985 CBS Halloween lineup recorded on VHS, complete with all of the greatest Halloween commercials you can imagine. Rewatching Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island just proves my point. 

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is the first “real” encounter the gang has with actual ghouls, and it’s honestly a just a good horror movie. Sure, you have the rudimentary Scooby-Doo elements, full of sandwich-devouring, Velma-ignoring, and awkward sexual tension between Fred and Daphne, but at its core, this is 1000% a horror flick, and I’d love to see a live action version.

It’s one of the perfect introductory horror films, and this paired with the likes of Archie’s Weird Mysteries and Tales from the Cryptkeeper are just *chef’s kiss.* The horror we grew up on encouraged us to think outside the box and to not be afraid to get weird, and I genuinely think it influences a lot of the badass horror we’ve been seeing out of the past few years. I’m not saying Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is the most prolific piece of horror cinema out there, but I will say they just don’t make ‘em like they used to…and that’s the really scary part.