History Main / MascotHorror

* "WebAnimation/Kandyland" follows animatronics working at the titular amusement park as they slowly turn hostile due to a virus.

* ''Film/WillysWonderland'' is about a drafter trying to survive the night in a once-successful family entertainment center with HostileAnimatronics.

* ''VideoGame/CafeVenusFlytrap'': The game centers around a fly who hears about a restaurant run by frogs and decides to eat there. Little does he realize that he would be on the menu.

* ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'': Features Slappy, a man dressed as the mascot for a clothing store chain, who attempts to kill Chuck under the belief that he started the zombie outbreak and in turn lead to the death of his girlfriend.

* ''VideoGame/LunaGame'': A series of fan games based on the show ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' created by an [[AnonymousAuthor unknown game designer]]. The games are relatively simple 2D platformers which are relatively faithful to the show they're based on in tone. That is until the [[DisguisedHorrorStory horror elements start to rear their heads]]. The first game the series in particular was notable for [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou creating creepy image files on the hard drives of computers that downloaded it]], leading to some players mistaking the game for a virus.

These are common features of many (though by no means no all) Mascot Horror games:

* A relatively cartoonish art-style, or at least for the mascot(s) specifically, that often [[ArtStyleDissonance contrasts with the horrors found within]].

The recency and unusually specific nature of this genre, despite its numerous examples, derives from the heavy influence of ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' (which started the trend in 2014) on the indie game scene. Similar trends to Mascot Horror are previously known from the [[SlasherMovie slasher films]] of the 1980s, and the {{creepypasta}}-based games of the early 2010s; both of these also revolved around a recognizable character to market their horror-based properties. In contrast to Mascot Horror however, these mascots are often unsettling or disturbing from the get-go, whereas Mascot Horror mascots, while sometimes also unsettling in appearance, tend to retain at least some semblance of the idea that they were once intended for children in-universe.

These are common features of many, but not all, Mascot Horror games:

* References to popular childhood media, such as child-oriented products or establishments, especially those popular around the 1980s to the 2000s.
* Themes of childhood in general, such as taking place from the point of view of someone who grew up with said children's media, help create it, or is even a child themselves.

* A relatively cartoonish artstyle, or at least for the mascot specifically.

* Themes of childhood in general, such as taking place from the point of view of someone who created said children's media or is even a child themselves.

* ''VideoGame/PoppyPlaytime'': An ex-employee of Playtime Co. returns to their former toy factory, only to have to escape from the mascots, which are now-living, homicidal toys roaming the area.

* At least one {{Jumpscare}} as a reference to [=FNAF=]'s most iconic element.

* ''VideoGame/AndysAppleFarm'': Posing as a cutesy children's game hosted by the mascot, Andy the Apple, the characters soon start glitching out and the plot takes a turn for the dark as the plot delves into the developers behind the game.

* ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'' and ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheDarkRevival'': Can be considered the TropeCodifier, due to the first game introducing the concept of "[[Main/EnvironmentalNarrativeGame Walking Simulator]] with a gimmick\gadget\[[Main/WeaponsAndWieldingTropes weapon]]" and the idea of the game being released in individual chapters. Based on 1930s cartoons, the protagonist must delve through their former animation studio and battle the former workers, now corrupted into gruesome facsimiles of the characters their studio created, as they uncover the mystery of what happened to the place, all the while fending off the mascot: the Ink Demon, Bendy.
* ''[[VideoGame/BonniesBakery Bonnie's Bakery]]'': The titular Bonnie is a human in a world of sapient animals who appears to be the friendly owner of a bakery at first, but is actually a serial killer who kidnaps the townspeople at night and bakes them into her recipes.

* ''VideoGame/HungryLamu'': A game starting with the objective of helping to fill the stomach of the eponymous llama named Lamu by eating fruits in a cartoony world. In the second half of the game you follow the protagonist trying to find their friends and escape the park while being followed by a starving llama. Similar to other games, the titular character is implied to be a human transformed into this "mascot".

* ''VideoGame/MyFriendlyNeighborhood'' is a survival horror game set inside a studio where a ''Series/SesameStreet''-like show was filmed long ago, and the player has to deal with sentient puppets whose sanity has been gone for a long time. In contrast to most other Mascot Horror games, it's a FirstPersonShooter where you can fight back against the puppets.

* ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'' and ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheDarkRevival'': Can be considered the TropeCodifier, due to the first game introducing the concept of "[[Main/EnvironmentalNarrativeGame Walking Simulator]] with a gimmick\gadget\[[Main/WeaponsAndWieldingTropes weapon]]" and the idea of the game being released in individual chapters.
Based on 1930s cartoons, the protagonist must delve through their former animation studio and battle the former workers, now corrupted into gruesome facsimiles of the characters their studio created, as they uncover the mystery of what happened to the place, all the while fending off the mascot: the Ink Demon, Bendy.

* ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'' and ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheDarkRevival'': Can be considered the TropeCodifier, due to the first game introducing the concept of "[[Main/EnvironmentalNarrativeGame Walking Simulator]] with a gimmick\gadget\[[Main/WeaponsAndWieldingTropes weapon]] of some sort" and the idea of the game
being released in individual chapters.

being released in individual chapters. Based on 1930s cartoons, the protagonist must delve through their former animation studio and battle the former workers, now corrupted into gruesome facsimiles of the characters their studio created, as they uncover the mystery of what happened to the place, all the while fending off the mascot: the Ink Demon, Bendy.

* ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'' and ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheDarkRevival'': Can be considered the TropeCodifier, due to the first game introducing the concept of "[[Main/EnvironmentalNarrativeGame Walking Simulator]] with a gimmick\gadget\[[Main/WeaponsAndWieldingTropes weapon]] of some sort". Based on 1930s cartoons, the protagonist must delve through their former animation studio and battle the former workers, now corrupted into gruesome facsimiles of the characters their studio created, as they uncover the mystery of what happened to the place, all the while fending off the mascot: the Ink Demon, Bendy.

* The ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' series: The TropeMaker, taking place in a Chuck-e-Cheese's-esque pizzeria with a tragic history. The player must survive five shifts while warding off the pizzeria's homicidal mascots.

* ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'' and ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheDarkRevival'': Based on 1930s cartoons, the protagonist must delve through their former animation studio and battle the former workers, now corrupted into gruesome facsimiles of the characters their studio created, as they uncover the mystery of what happened to the place, all the while fending off the mascot: the Ink Demon, Bendy. The first game, can be considered the TropeCodifier, due to the game introducing the concept of "[[Main/EnvironmentalNarrativeGame Walking Simulator]] with a gimmick\gadget\[[Main/WeaponsAndWieldingTropes weapon]] of some sort".

* ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'' and ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheDarkRevival'': Based on 1930s cartoons, the protagonist must delve through their former animation studio and battle the former workers, now corrupted into gruesome facsimiles of the characters their studio created, as they uncover the mystery of what happened to the place, all the while fending off the mascot: the Ink Demon, Bendy.

* The ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' series: The TropeMaker and TropeCodifier, taking place in a Chuck-e-Cheese's-esque pizzeria with a tragic history. The player must survive five shifts while warding off the pizzeria's homicidal mascots.