#mascot horror

[stunning-eclipse]

Don't allow a horror artist like me to draw cute lil scrunklies

[summertrynnacope]

[prokopetz]

The thing that gets me the most about so-called "mascot horror" is that, for all that it depends on predatory marketing toward a child audience, one of the most consistent througn-lines of the genre is that it seems to regard actual children as existentially horrifying. Every last one of these games apparently takes place in a universe where metastasising into some vast eldritch monstrosity is the normal course of childhood development, and it requires carefully maintained special conditions for the process of maturation to yield a regular-ass adult.

[bunniklino]

thank you fnaf for ruining an entire generation of horror

this was gonna be just bendy but i did some "expanding" if u will hehe ;D

[the-friendliest-freak]

It’s SHIPWRECKED64 time, baby

Pretty sure that last one was a vent but honestly it’s more humorous than anything.

[saintbleeding]

[ID: Digital art of Gwen Bouchard and Mr Bonzo from The Magnus Protocol. Gwen is a slender Black woman with chin length textured hair worn half-up, half-down. She wears a collared shirt under a jumper with the sleeves rolled up, a leather messenger bag over her shoulder. She holds out an unmarked envelope to Mr Bonzo with a look of abject terror on her face. Mr Bonzo is a very tall decaying mascot creature, mostly a dirty yellow with large purplish pustules across his body. His nose has rotted away to reveal a dripping nasal cavity underneath, his eyes are bloodshot and lidless with eerie glowing red pupils, and his smile is wet with black, ichorous drool. There is a bright yellow light illuminating him from behind, but hardly any of it reaches Gwen in his shadow. Superimposed over the image and scrawled on the wall behind them are the words “Mr Bonzo’s on his way/He’s here to stay, he wants to play” repeatedly. End ID.]

i was already working on this before this week’s eppy sode but afterwards i found i had contracted the bonzbonic plague and here we are

[xikitech]

my take on my special interest game

[valentinbelleyh505]

We needs more of these things that are lovely but have a dark story mascot horror.

[juliusthecartooncat]

Oh my god, is Julius going to eat Blythe…?

Well, he hasn’t eaten her yet-

—ask box is open— MASTERPOST | @fresacake

[wolf-tail]

Yeah yeah, lazy mascot horror based on a "ooh kids thing scary" concept is really turning indie horror games to sludge, but the original concept can work if done with some care and effort.

To make mascot horror work, you need a couple things, nostalgia and a pre-existing fear.

The nostalgia part scares you by taking something, usually from your childhood, that you associate with saftey and comfort, then making it at least feel dangerous to you. This feeling, of something safe being taken away, upsets certain survival instincts and puts you in aplace of deep fear. Not mascot horror, but Coraline does this with the idea of your own parents, or at least imitations of them, no longer being safe, which is why we were so scared of it.

The second part, pre-exisying fear, especially from childhood, takes something that might be irrational at first, and validates it, at least in the context of the game. Always been scared of clowns? Well now Chuckles McFuck is gonna get you! (IT).

Put these concepts together and you got yourself some decent mascot horror.

FNAF worked, at least initially, because it played on these 2 emotions. Pizzeria arcades are places lots of people find nostalgic and comforting, but those animatronic mascots were always creepy. My mom grew up in the 90s and said that some kids couldn't even walk into a Chuck E Cheese's without crying.

Another example of millennial horror is Tattletail, where you literally play as a child in your family home during Christmastime, but your parents are nowhere to be found and you're being tormented by characters based on Furbies and Teddy Ruxpin, two toys that had 90s kids pissing themselves.

Amanda the Adventurer works because she's an expy of Dora the Explorer (she was a cartoon staple back in the day, but the way she talked directly to you was kinda creepy, huh?)

Garten of Banban had a bit of nostalgia potential (kindergarten and daycare) but squandered it by bad, lazy, money-hungry execution.

Hello Neighbor was just Youtuber bait when it tried to be horror.

Steamboat Willie could work as a horror concept, but someone already sorta did that, and did it better (Bendy and the Ink Machine)

[tanuki-yuki]

little guy, my best friend 3d axolotl

[splatreaper13]

Anyone else see this poster in Poppy Playtime Chapter 3? I think I found a secret!

Unoffical Poppy Playtime poster, all art by me!

[summertrynnacope]

[cyanide-sippy-cup]

Okay, so I'm not a Poppy Playtime fan by any means, I only know what is presented in the games, I don't know any of the hidden lore stuff or whtv. I thought the last two chapters were cool but severely lacking but man, Chapter 3 went legitimately hard. Particularly in the topic of today's discussion:

The Hour of Joy

It was pretty clear in the previous chapters that all the coworkers were dead but this one finally shows it and oh man was I hyped.

Throughout the chapter we get teasers to what happened, and I just tossed it all out cause I thought it was just generic horror stuff. Like the hallucination bit with the screaming in the lobby. I didn't bat an eye and just forgot about it till the end. But after watching another playthrough I was like "oh shit" and actually physically sat up in interest.

And then there's the VHS. Everything about that presentation was so cool to me. Firstly, we have the footage itself, which presents a terrifying tale. These random workers just going about another day at the factory. Standing around, talking with one another, all near what they presume to merely be a statue. And the unimaginable occurs. This statue, the same one they've walked past a thousand times pounces on one of the workers, tearing him apart in an instant before setting its sight on the rest. And he had it lucky.

Everybody begins to flee, screaming, begging, questioning. "What was that?" "What's happening?" And then long pink arms dart from the ceiling and pluck them from the ground. More toys converge on them, on workers deeper in the facility who don't even know what is happening. One particular man is converged upon by dozens of the teachers to meet god-knows-what fate.

And then we have Poppy's story. How she heard it all from the case. Could hear them scream, plead, and die. Her voice shaking, on the verge of tears even describing it. "It went on for so long. So, so horribly long." And the name in it of itself. "The Hour of Joy". A chilling title that really lets you know the toys' thoughts on the event.

TL;DR: Mob Entertainment, you did good on this one.

[tropicallaserbeams]

I’m not really what you’d call a fan of Poppy Playtime, but Chapter 3 has me in a chokehold.

Like, there’s a seven year old child who was either abandoned by his parents or lost them, experiencing trauma at such a young age, only to be experimented on and isolated and traumatized further at the place he was supposed to go to be safe. And his only friend is a metal monster, full or wires and possibly meat. Just horrifying. But it’s the only friend this kid has. And this monster loves him.

This monster loves him enough that, when this child is mortally wounded during their joint escape attempt, he saves his life and brings him to the doctors, instead of taking the opportunity to get away from the torture he, himself had been enduring. The Prototype could have left Theodore behind but decided to save him anyway. Because he did care about him.

And The Prototype has to sit by while his best friend is twisted and turned into a monster, just like him. And has to sit by while Theodore recovers in an underground prison, only allowed out to use his new red smoke to cause the other children terror in their sleep. It must have felt so hopeless for both of them until the hour of joy, where they could, in their pain and rage, finally stop the horror being inflicted on them and on the children and other experiments. Sure, some of the staff were innocent for sure, but to them it mattered more that the suffering finally ended.

Together, for an entire decade, they protect each other after that. Of course Catnap sees The Prototype as a god. He’s the only good he’s ever had in the world.

And then, when the main character injures Catnap and he’s on the verge of death again, the Prototype has to make the choice to save him once again. Only this time there’s no doctor to make him a new body. He has to join the Prototype’s instead. They probably both thought that day would come eventually, but the pain they probably both felt, when that skeletal, metal hand ripped through Catnap’s brain, must have been heart breaking.

I just have so much emotional brainrot about the two of them and I’m inconsolable.