Premiering in 2012, Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series is surprisingly heavy on horror movie inspiration, and the best way I can describe the show is that it seems to have been tailor made for parents who are horror fans – and kids looking to break into that fandom in kid-friendly fashion.
It’s quite evident that someone behind the scenes of the show is a massive horror fan, as each episode – particularly in the current season – is littered with little winks and nods to the genre. For horror fans like ourselves, the new show is one hell of a treat, and I implore you to start watching – no matter your age.
In an effort to give you the push needed to start doing just that, today we take a look back on ten of those horror movie references that have thus far put a huge smile on my face!
10 TMNT Horror Film References
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1
The Season One episode 'Monkey Brains' centered on the character Dr. Victor Falco, who became this series' incarnation of The Rat King. A mad scientist, Falco wore a white lab coat and was conducting strange experiments with the green-colored Mutagen, injecting it into patients and turning them into monsters. Sound familiar? Yep, the character was based on Re-Animator's Herbert West, and Falco was voiced by none other than Jeffrey Combs. The rat experimentation is also likely a nod to Beyond Re-Animator, wherein one of West's test subjects became a human/rat hybrid - much the same way Falco does.
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2
It's not uncommon for entire episodes of the series to be based on horror movies, and Season 2's 'Invasion of the Squirrelanoids' was one big ole animated love letter to the Alien franchise. The titular monsters start out as harmless-looking squirrels, which jump down the throats of their victims. Once inside their hosts, they multiply and burst out, eventually becoming much more monstrous creatures with elongated heads and secondary mouths inside their primary mouths. Back in the '90s, Aliens was almost turned into an animated series, and this episode finally gave us a glimpse at what that cartoon might've been like.
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3
Season 3 of the series kicked off this past October, and it has thus far been the most horror-influenced season yet. The start of the season saw the Turtles and April hiding out in the O'Neil family's secluded farmhouse in the woods, and every episode has essentially been its own horror movie. The farmhouse itself was quite clearly based on the design of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre house, and there's even a swing out front that the characters often sit on. But the house is far from the only reference to the classic horror film, as you will soon see.
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4
Kicking off Season 3 was the episode 'Within the Woods,' the title of which was derived from the original Sam Raimi-directed short film that went on to become The Evil Dead. The majority of the episode, however, was a tribute to the Friday the 13th franchise, featuring a mutant monster with Swamp Thing inspirations. The monster, dubbed 'The Creep,' wears a sack-head mask and a pair of 'Vorhees' brand overalls, and he even wields a pitchfork at one point and builds a familiar-looking shrine in a woodshed. Later on in the episode, The Creep ditches the sack in favor of Casey Jones' hockey mask, echoing Jason's mask change in the Friday franchise. If you watch the episode, be sure to also pay attention to the musical cues, whenever The Creep is stalking!
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5
The second episode of TMNT's third season was titled 'A Foot Too Big,' and in it the Turtles discover Sasquatch in the woods and bring him into their home. Though the episode is more of a Harry and the Hendersons homage than anything else, the writers managed to work in a character ripped straight out of Predator, who has made it his life's mission to prowl the woods and hunt down the creature. Calling himself 'The Finger,' due to an extra finger he has on one hand, the character was voiced by Jesse Ventura, who of course played Blain in the original Predator. The characters don't visually look all that similar, but one thing's for sure: they're both sexual Tyrannosaurs.
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6
There are a handful of horror references in Season 3's third episode, 'Buried Secrets,' but no movie gets more love in the episode than John Carpenter's The Thing. In the episode, the Turtles discover a buried spacecraft underneath the farmhouse, and in it is the frozen body of what appears to be April's mother. As it turns out, it's actually a mutant monster disguised as Mrs. O'Neil, and once the monster is unleashed, it also assumes the form of Donatello. By the end of the episode, the O'Neil monster grows spider-like legs and her head splits clean in half, making it a family-friendly version of Carpenter's remake.
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7
Another film referenced in 'Buried Secrets' is The Evil Dead, which appears to be a favorite of the writers. The aforementioned ship is discovered in the cellar of the farmhouse, after the Turtles come across a previously unseen trap door in the floor. The scene where they head down there is pretty much the same as the similar scene from The Evil Dead, right down to the camera angles and a shot of their feet as they walk down the creaky steps. The previously mentioned episode 'Within the Woods' also mimicked a scene from The Evil Dead, when the Turtles entered a creepy woodshed on the property.
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8
The last major homage I spotted in 'Buried Secrets' was to Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, a much maligned film that has finally achieved the cult status that it has long deserved. At one point, Raphael is lounging on the couch watching TV, and it's the Silver Shamrock commercial that's playing - accompanied by a hypnotizing tune. Worth noting that the episode aired on October 17th, and was the last one before Halloween. Good thing Raphael wasn't wearing a pumpkin, witch or skull mask at the time, eh?!
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9
This past Sunday night's episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was hands down the biggest treat for us horror fans thus far, as it was an unofficial 30th anniversary tribute to A Nightmare on Elm Street. Titled 'In Dreams,' the episode featured the voices of Robert Englund and John 'Crypt Keeper' Kassir, and it centered on nightmare-invading monsters called 'The Dream Beavers.' Englund voiced two of the monstrous beavers, and his iconic Freddy Krueger cackle was heard several times throughout the episode. The closest we'll probably ever get to Englund playing Freddy again, so we'll have to take it.
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10
'In Dreams' also featured the voice of Bill Moseley, playing a general store owner who looked an awful lot like Texas Chain Saw Massacre's Drayton Sawyer. As we find out, it is Moseley's character Bernie who keeps the Dream Beavers locked in the dream world, thanks to a Necronomicon-style book that he has locked up in his shop. Also in his shop is a chainsaw with the words 'Saw is Family' etched into it, which he eventually ends up attacking Casey Jones with. The same words were spoken by Drayton in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and they were also engraved in Leatherface's chainsaw in the second sequel.
