Everyone has their favorite Saturday morning cartoons, their favorite Disney Channel Original Movies, and their favorite Nickelodeon game shows. Childhood was filled with wondrous television. But some of the most beloved shows have stuck with fans because they were surprisingly scary.
For better or for worse, some kid's shows didn't really know the line between exciting adventure and terrifyingly traumatic. And some shows were even designed to purposefully scare kid's pants off. These are the scariest kid's shows of all time, ranked.
Updated on April 8th, 2021 by Kristen Palamara: Although children's shows are typically meant for a young audience, they can be surprisingly creepy and even terrifying at times making them more appropriate for an older audience. Scary kids' shows were usually created in the 90s or early 2000s and the animation style for several of the series, like in Courage the Cowardly Dog, contributed to its creepy factor. The live-action shows starred younger actors in the leading roles, which made the shows even more terrifying for kids as they saw themselves in the starring roles as kids often fought for their lives against villainous foes, like in Goosebumps.
Beetlejuice (1989-1991) - Creepy
Beetlejuice the animated series is based on the movie of the same name from Tim Burton. The series follows the ghostly and charismatic Beetlejuice in his misadventures and re-imagines Lydia as his partner in crime.
The show keeps the same morbid humor from the movie but tones it down a bit for the animated children's show versus the live-version movie. Although it's less scary than the movie, the series still has a fair amount of creepiness, especially for young viewers.
Creepy Crawlers (1994-1996) - Creepy
Creepy Crawlers centered on a kid who was interested in magic and had a job at a local magic shop. The show beings when he accidentally creates man-sized bug-like mutant creatures who are capable of magic abilities when using a device called The Magic Maker.
Although the creatures, called Goop-Mandos, are actually friendly and agree to protect The Magic Maker from any evil foes, their design that mixes bug and man are incredibly creepy especially for children viewers.
The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy (2000-2007) - Creepy
The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy follows two oddball kids who befriend the Grim Reaper and go on various adventures with him. Billy and Mandy go through normal problems that kids go through from issues with family or school, but some of the episodes focus on more paranormal adventures.
The show has a morbid looming theme of death, as one of the main characters is literally the Grim Reaper, and their adventures into the spirit world would definitely be defined as creepy.
The Secret Life Of Alex Mack (1994-1998) - Creepy
The Nickelodeon show The Secret Life of Alex Mack begins when Alex is almost hit by a truck leaving the nearby chemical plant, she's doused with radioactive sludge that spills from the truck. After her incident, she develops special powers, such as being able to melt herself into a metallic puddle.
The show gets creepy though when Alex realizes she needs to hide her powers (even from her own parents), otherwise, the government and the chemical company would kidnap her and use her for experimentation. Alex's constant paranoia of being hunted always made the show come off as utterly creepy.
Deadtime Stories (2012-2014) - Creepy
Deadtime Stories is like a horror anthology series for kids. The only problem with the show was how late it came out. Having premiered in 2012, it had to follow a new set of "kid-friendliness" that older shows didn't have to.
The result was a series that told scary stories...but largely without the scares. Despite the somewhat lackluster horror, the show served as a powerful homage to some of Nickelodeon's older horror classics.
Courage The Cowardly Dog (1999-2002) - Creepy
Courage is (as the title implies) a cowardly dog. Even worse, he lives in an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Even worse, this old farmhouse is constantly frequented by terrifying visitors. From ghosts to con men to mummies and more.
Despite the show being extremely fun and Courage being a lovable character, the dark colors and lonely farmhouse always came off as pretty creepy. Interest in the show has been reignited in recent years due to retro network Boomerang's announcement that they're in talks of reviving the series.
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (1994-1997) - Creepier
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters follows three young monsters, Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm, who attend a school for monsters that teaches them specifically how to scare humans. The terrifying design of each animated character is creepy enough but that their sole purpose is to scare humans would, of course, be scary for any child.
The three have a difficult time learning at Monster Academy and typically get into trouble and go on adventures outside of school. The series was eventually canceled for being too dark and scary for children.
Eerie, Indiana (1991-1993) - Creepier
Eerie, Indiana was a short-lived series about a young kid, Marshall, who moves to the small town of Eerie, Indiana where strange occurrences are commonplace. Marshall and his new friend Simon try to capture evidence of the weird and paranormal things that happen in their town.
This show had odd occurrences from trading places with a mummy to murderous garbage collectors to Elvis Presley appearing in the town, which made it an at times funny but always pretty creepy show.
Legends Of The Hidden Temple (1993-1995) - Creepier
In Nick's game show, Legends of the Hidden Temple, kids had to run through an obstacle course made to look like the ruins of an ancient temple. The highlight of the entire show was when the Temple Guards would literally pop out of the walls and grab the players.
If the player didn't have a pendant, the Temple Guard would pull them into the wall, ending the round. The moment was thrilling and terrifying for viewers, and according to retrospective interviews by former players, it was downright traumatic for them. The game had to be routinely paused because of players crying, having panic attacks, and even throwing up.
Tales From The Cryptkeeper (1993-1994, 1999) - Creepier
Created to be a kid-friendly version of the popular HBO show, Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Cryptkeeper was a popular cartoon that was a sort-of anthology series. However, unlike its adult HBO counterpart, the Cryptkeeper character was much more a part of the plot in the cartoon.
Despite the lack of blood and guts, the cartoon reworked many of the dark plotlines from the adult show, creating an eerie and well-made children's program with deeper storylines than most other cartoons of its day.
So Weird (1999-2001) - Creepier
Considered as "X-Files for kids", Disney's So Weird followed musician Molly Phillips and her family as they toured the country in her band's trailer.
Every town they visit seems to have some kind of unexplained phenomenon - ghosts, bigfoot, witches - and it's up to daughter Fi to keep her family safe. The third season swapped out Fi for Annie, who was played by Alexz Johnson before she landed her hit show Instant Star.
Animorphs (1998-1999) - Scary
In what was supposed to be a sci-fi adventure show, Animorphs follows a group of teenagers who stumble upon a dying alien that grants them the power to transform into animals. Their mission is to save Earth from a parasitic insect that crawls into people's ears and infests their brains.
In the pilot episode, the injured alien is brutally eaten alive in front of the teens. The show was scary, but also gripping and unique. It was the kind of kid's programming that could never exist these days.
Scariest Places On Earth (2000-2006) - Scary
Fox Family (which turned into ABC Family, which turned into Freeform) was a network dedicated to family-friendly viewing; shows that an entire family could sit down and watch together. Somehow, developing a paranormal show hosted by The Exorcist's Linda Blair seemed "family-friendly".
In the series, audiences would learn about the macabre history of certain destinations around the world, and then a family would be forced to visit the sites, in the middle of the night, with only flashlights.
Goosebumps (1995-1998) - Downright Terrifying
It doesn't matter if you're a child or an adult, "The Haunted Mask" episode of Goosebumps is hands down horrifying. From the creepy man who owns the mask shop to the dark and lonely streets that Carly Beth has to walk down as she becomes a monster, to that demonic goblin mask itself.
Other episodes that were notoriously scary are "Werewolf of Fever Swamp" and "Night of the Living Dummy". The memories of that episode still haunt viewers to this day.
Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990-1996/1999-2000/2019-Present) - Downright Terrifying
The gold standard of kid's horror is Are You Afraid of the Dark? Some of the episodes focused on some pretty dark material, like children who froze to death in the woods, while others featured terrifying monsters like demonic clowns and rotting corpses.
Due to years of fans demanding for the show to return, in 2019, Nickelodeon finally brought back the Midnight Society in what was supposed to be a limited miniseries. But due to the critical and rating success of the show, in early 2020, Nick revealed the show would be coming back for season 2.