“It Still Gives Me The Chills”: 17 Scary Moments In Kids' TV Shows That Were So Freakin' Terrifying, I Still Haven't Recovered Years Later

I must confess: I’m a bit of a scaredy-cat. Growing up, I actively avoided anything horror-related like the plague. and had to sleep with a Pikachu nightlight because I was afraid of the dark. So, given my very, very rational fears, I believed TV shows made for kids would be a safe space. Boy, was I wrong.

Prepare to hide under the covers, because here are some of the scariest, nightmare-inducing moments from kids’ TV shows…

Warning: This post features disturbing images and references post-traumatic stress disorder.

1. OK, let’s start with a pretty obvious one: the ghost of King Ramses getting closer and closer in the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode “King Ramses’ Curse.” I mean, the episode even starts with characters getting completely consumed by locusts! The image of King Ramses’ ghost swaying in the distance and screaming, “Return the slab or suffer my curse,” still gives me the chills.

EPISODE SUMMARY: After Courage discovers a valuable slab in the front yard, King Ramses’s ghost torments the family until it is returned to him.

2. I honestly don’t know how Courage the Cowardly Dog is considered a kids’ show, because here’s another moment that made me scream out loud: the Violin Girl scene from the episode “Courage in the Big Stinkin’ City.” I’m pretty sure this was my first time experiencing a true “jump scare” in my childhood. The pleasant sounds of the violin, and then the twist of a demonic clay face screaming at you through the screen... It's no wonder this scene is ingrained in my brain.

EPISODE SUMMARY: When the family travels to New York City, they encounter a human-sized cockroach who offers them a place to stay and forces Courage to complete a dangerous task.

3. OK, the episode “Filet of Soul” from Dexter’s Laboratory scared the crap out of me when I was little. I owned several goldfish and genuinely believed that if any of them died, they would come back to haunt me. On top of all of that, the episode ends with Dexter and DeeDee’s dad being possessed by a menacing ghost. How could they end it on such a cliffhanger?!

EPISODE SUMMARY: Dexter’s goldfish dies, and when he fails to properly flush it down the toilet, the fish’s soul begins to haunt him.

4. The Powerpuff Girls was one of my favorite cartoons growing up. So color me surprised that there was an episode featuring a zombie. In the episode “Abracadaver,” a magician named Al Lusion dies after falling into a spiked iron maiden. Excuse me??? I was NOT expecting such a brutal death in a cartoon series with big-eyed little girls. And then said magician comes back as a disheveled, blue-skinned zombie — so much for a sweet cartoon about girl power.

EPISODE SUMMARY: Al Lusion, a stage magician who died earlier in an iron maiden, comes back to life as a zombie and begins terrorizing Townsville.

5. The Powerpuff Girls had a lot of dark material. Another to add to the list is the episode “Speed Demon.” From the blood-red, dark sky to the completely haggard Ms. Keane eerily waving goodbye to nothingness, the entire episode is super disturbing from start to finish. I still rewatch the show now and then — even the “Abracadaver” episode — whenever I’m feeling nostalgic, but I ALWAYS skip this one.

EPISODE SUMMARY: While racing each other, Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles find themselves in a dystopian future of Townsville where the girls no longer exist.

6. We need to talk about Raven and Chelsea turning into actual cows during the episode “Don’t Have a Cow” in That’s So Raven. The slow progress of their transformation seriously made my skin crawl. I didn’t even finish the episode because I was that uncomfortable! Eventually I did watch the entire thing, and I was left thinking, “How could a show on Disney Channel traumatize kids like that?”

EPISODE SUMMARY: Raven and Chelsea use an old spellbook to get invited to Alana’s Halloween party, but a cow button accidentally falls into the cauldron, causing them to turn into cows.

7. Avatar: The Last Airbender has darker themes than most kids’ shows, and Koh the Face Stealer from the episode "The Siege of the North, Part 2" is a prime example. Koh is the scariest freakin’ being I’ve ever seen in an animated TV series. Seriously, this spirit looks like a large centipede with a creepy, masked face. They also literally STEAL faces. Koh was seriously on par with Jason Voorhees, if you ask me.

EPISODE SUMMARY: After connecting to the spirit world, Aang needs help finding the Moon and Ocean Spirits to save the Northern Water Tribe from a Fire Nation attack.

8. For a cartoon about a cute little green alien trying to take over Earth, I wasn’t expecting Zim to harvest his classmates’ organs as part of the storyline. The whole episode “Dark Harvest” from Invader Zim could serve as a premise for an entire horror movie. The fact that Nickelodeon thought this would be OKAY to air is something to be studied, because WTF were they thinking?!

EPISODE SUMMARY: When Zim learns he needs human organs to pass a school physical, he begins harvesting organs from his classmates.

9. Robin’s visions of Slade in “Haunted” from Teen Titans are extremely haunting. I was around 10 years old when this episode came out, and I didn’t quite understand why it made me freak out so much. Now, as an adult, I realize that what I was feeling was clearly deep distress over watching someone go through PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), which is incredibly heavy for a show about fictional teenage crime fighters.

EPISODE SUMMARY: Robin, convinced that Slade is still alive, keeps having visions of him and spirals into a physical, self-destructive decline.

10. Adventure Time is a wonderfully wacky show that delivers plenty of laughs. However, the Lich’s fall monologue in “Escape from the Citadel” proves just how unhinged the show can get. From the moment Billy’s skin falls off the Lich’s face to the moment Finn and Jake lie hopelessly in complete darkness, everything feels utterly bleak. And then there’s the Lich’s transformation into a baby — such a horrifying image I couldn’t believe happened in a show featuring a Korean-speaking Rainicorn.

EPISODE SUMMARY: Finn and Jake follow The Lich to the cosmic prison known as the Citadel, where Finn meets his long lost father, Martin Mertens.

11. I haven’t been the biggest fan of SpongeBob SquarePants lately, but the OG seasons were PEAK. Still, the earlier seasons featured a pretty grotesque moment that lives rent-free in my brain — when SpongeBob slowly starts transforming into a snail in “I Was a Teenage Gary.” Watching SpongeBob’s eyes elongate and pop out made me feel ill, and I’ve never gotten over it.

EPISODE SUMMARY: Gary gets sick under Squidward’s care, so Squidward tries to treat him with snail plasma but accidentally injects it into SpongeBob instead.

12. Just thinking about the episode “Operation: P.I.N.K.-E.Y.E.” from Codename: Kids Next Door makes my gag reflex act up. It’s not even the kids getting infected with crusty eyes that disturbed me — it’s what they are using it for that is so gross and uncalled for. What sick minds came up with the idea of using crust from kids’ pink eyes for a pastry? I never ate an apple crumble after watching this episode.

EPISODE SUMMARY: Numbuh 2 learns that students are suddenly being infected with pink eye, so he begins investigating the cause.

13. One would think that a show titled The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack would be nothing but a good time. WRONG. This show is very weird and stressful. Especially the episode “Who Let the Cats Out of the Old Bag’s House,” which introduces a gray “disturbing cat.” The close-up shot with the soulless, black-filled eyes and Dune worm-like teeth is the kind of thing you see in nightmares.

EPISODE SUMMARY: Flapjack accidentally releases a swarm of unlucky cats from a local crazy cat lady’s home.

14. Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends was mostly a show about a selfish blue imaginary friend with very forgiving housemates, but it did have some scary moments. One specific moment is when the imaginary friends and humans in the house become zombies in the episode “Nightmare on Wilson Way.” It turns out it’s all a trick in the end, but the undead versions still looked horrid AF. Also, Mac’s insane sugar rush reminded me of the Gremlins.

EPISODE SUMMARY: After Bloo gives Mr. Herriman peanut brittle as a prank, Mr. Herriman apparently dies and turns into a zombie, setting off a zombie apocalypse.

15. I mean, from the title alone, I knew there would be spooky moments in The Wizards of Waverly Place. But nothing terrified me more than Mantooth the ghost’s distorted, demonic-face jump-scare scene in the episode “Halloween.” I was looking for a fun, sweet, Halloween-themed episode from one of my favorite shows, and instead I was cursed with a pale, ghoulish head that made me want to turn off my TV.

EPISODE SUMMARY: When the local merchants' association tells the Russo family their haunted house isn’t scary, Alex (Selena Gomez) goes to the wizarding world to recruit real ghosts and monsters.

16. Does anyone remember the show CatDog? Well, if you never watched it, you’ve been blessed to have grown up not knowing about the “Teeth for Two” episode. It was filled with endless graphic scenes, but OMG, the part where Cat comes out of Dog’s mouth and is inside out is a picture no one under 13 should see. The image sends shivers down my spine, and I truly believe this was a disgusting PSA for kids brushing their teeth.

EPISODE SUMMARY: Cat learns that whatever Dog eats impacts Cat's teeth, so he tries to get Dog to eat healthier.

17. And finally, how could I forget when Tom dies in the episode “Heavenly Puss” from Tom and Jerry? The whole episode is about Tom desperately trying to escape a demon dog dragging him to hell. While it looks a lot sillier and more gimmicky, the overall concept of a cartoon character going to Hell seems a bit out there. I know the show is known for having some pretty messed-up moments, but this episode really took it a step too far, IMO.

EPISODE SUMMARY: While trying to capture Jerry, Tom dies after being crushed by a piano and is unable to enter heaven due to his constant abuse of Jerry.

I never thought I would revisit all of these traumatic experiences, but given it’s the Halloween season, I felt the need to get into the spirit by sharing them with you all.

Do you remember a scary moment from a kids’ show at the top of your head? Please feel free to share them in the comments, or in the anonymous form below!