When you’re a parent who happens to favor all things spooky in cinema, you constantly play the “is this appropriate?” game. Is this show too terrifying for my kid? Will I psychologically scar my teen for life if I let them watch this scary movie? And yet, as a parent who lives for onscreen jump scares, you also sort of not-so-secretly love that your offspring seems to share your obsession. Well, just in time for Halloween, something wicked this way comes — that you can actually watch together. DreamWorks just released Fright Krewe, its first-ever horror TV series for older kids.
Available to stream now on Hulu and Peacock, the new animated series has some serious horror pedigree: It was created by award-winning horror mastermind Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, The House with a Clock in Its Walls) and writer James Frey (I Am Number Four).
Even more exciting? Fright Krewe finds its roots in the supernatural lore of the Big Easy. Five misfit teens — think Breakfast Club — get saddled with saving New Orleans from the fear-eating demon Belial, thanks to an ancient prophecy and a Voodoo Queen. To prevent this evil from taking over their beloved city, they must learn to work together… and that’s just as terrifying to them as learning vampires, rougarou, and evil spirits are all real.
In this exclusive clip, we meet the spirit of Marie Laveau (based on the real-life Louisiana legend) as she gifts the teens with superhuman abilities bestowed by five loas, or Voodoo spirits.
Not only will your creepy-cool tween love the animation and generally spooky vibes, but as a parent, you’ll appreciate the bigger life lessons embedded in the show’s DNA. One such theme with major relevance for kids today is figuring out how to find their people, even if they’re struggling to fit in.
Fright Krewe’s five main characters — Sydney Mikayla as “Soleil”, Tim Johnson Jr. as “Maybe,” Grace Lu as “Missy,” Chester Rushing as “Stanley,” and Terrence Little Gardenhigh as “Pat” — are not longtime friends. Their differences actually make them unlikely companions. However, it’s those differences that make them stronger when they come together.
For millennial parents like myself, it’s reminiscent of the empowering messaging from movies and shows we grew up with. And, in fact, it all started back in 2015 when Roth and Frey set their sights on creating Scooby-Doo for a new generation.
“Scooby-Doo was an essential part of my childhood because it had all the conventions of horror — haunted houses, people in scary masks, a dog that could solve mysteries — and the kids always beat the bad guys in the end,” Roth says.
And yet, you just haven’t seen many shows since Scooby-Doo that have occupied that space, even though kids today are more interested than ever in spooky stories (a quick TikTok dive confirms as much).
Thus, Fright Krewe was born.
“Childhood is a scary place — nothing feels in your control, and yet it’s the most magical time where the world is still full of wonder,” explains Roth. “We wanted to give kids a whole new mythology to dive into and live in.”
All 10 episodes of Fright Krewe’s first season are now available on Hulu and Peacock.
