We’ve all heard it before: that moment after the big reveal that the Pirate Space Ghost is really Old Mr. McGregor, the former mayor, and just before the canned laugh track kicks in. The “meddling kids” trope has its roots in Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys books and the wacky hijinks of Abbott and Costello movies, especially the ones where they run into the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and the Werewolf. With “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!”, Hanna-Barbera set out to create an animated clone of “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” with a dash of Frank Sinatra, but created a lasting legacy instead. The “kids on bikes” trope is a direct result of the “meddling kids” trope and is currently seeing a resurgence in media. 80’s children are middle-aging into nostalgia for a time period when they could have potentially roamed their neighborhoods in a pack of similarly minded delinquents with little to no parental supervision solving mysteries. If that sounds like it could be you, here are some recommendations for further study.
by Edgar Cantero
The three surviving members of a four-kid-and-a-dog mystery-solving group, now heavily traumatized adults and a ghost, reunite one last time to solve the case that broke them.
Read for:
Comedy, Lovecraftian Horror, Nostalgia
by Grady Hendrix
What’s a little demonic possession between friends? Especially best friends? After a night of skinny dipping and illicit drug use, something is wrong with Gretchen and Abby knows that a demon is responsible.
Read for:
Female Friendship, 80’s Music, Body Horror
by Kiersten White
The cast of “Mister Magic,” a children’s program with a cult-like following and no surviving footage, is reunited by a podcast to answer the question of what happened on the day of its final episode and the true identity (and intentions) of its host.
Read for:
Child Actors, Unreliable Narrators, Cult Following
The Ghost that Ate Us : the Tragic True Story of the Burger City Poltergeist
by Daniel Kraus
The story is presented as a true-crime investigation into the supernatural events that led to the “Burger City Poltergeist” tragedy, in which six individuals at a fast-food restaurant lost their lives.
Read for:
Fast Food Culture, True Crime Parody, Found Family
by David Wong
Dave and John (who indeed dies at the end) are confronted by the equal horrors of mundane existence and the supernatural after coming in contact with “The Sauce” , a drug with its own dimension hopping agenda.
Read for:
Cosmic Horror, Paranormal Investigation, Absurd Comedy
by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Social misfits in a small Pacific Northwest town, home to a major biotech corporation, band together to survive their hyper-aggressive and murderous peers.
Read for:
Science Gone Wrong, Conspiracy, 28 Days Later-Style Zombies
by Richard Cox
The childhood of five Wichita Falls, Texas boys is interrupted by a deadly tornado, leaving one of them, Todd, in a coma. When he awakens four years later, their lives are interrupted again, this time by a series of fires with a supernatural origin.
Read for:
Childhood Trauma, Dark Secrets, Supernatural Horror
Something Wicked This Way Comes
13-year-old best friends, Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, confront the mysterious proprietor of Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show, Mr. Dark, when it arrives in town, offering its residents their very heart’s desires at a price.
Watch for:
Screenplay by Ray Bradbury, Twisted Wishes, Librarian Protagonist
Gravity Falls: The Complete Series
Dipper and his twin sister Mabel are unceremoniously dumped off at The Mystery Shack, a tourist trap in Gravity Falls, Oregon under their care of their great-uncle Stan. After Dipper discovers a mysterious journal, the pair learns that not everything in the Mystery Shack is fake and Gravity Falls isn’t at all what it seems.
Watch for:
Bill Cipher, Summerween Trickster, Imminent Mysteries
Two half-brothers, Wirt and Greg, travel through a strange forest called the Unknown, aided by a woodsman and a bluebird, in search of a woman called Adelaide of the Pasture who knows the way home.
Watch for:
Jason Funderburker, Storybook Feeling, Musical Antics
A group of young boys discovers the unimaginable: a girl their age. But not just any girl, a girl with psychic abilities and ties to a government conspiracy responsible for the disappearance of one of their own.
Watch for:
D & D References, Kids on Bikes, Love of Waffles
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
Holistic detective Dirk Gently investigates the interconnectivity of all things, including how a bellhop, Todd, is tied to the murder of millionaire Patrick Spring all the while avoiding a holistic assassin, Bart, and the CIA.
Read for:
Douglas Adams, Everything is Connected, Unconventional Detective
MF Doom
Fun Lovin’ Criminals
The Implants
John Carpenter
Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Tears for Fears
Rockwell
Four Stroke Baron
