That final kiss wasn't quite what we thought it would be.
"Horrificator, I am Hawk Moth. Up until now you have felt fear. From now on, you will cause fear. And after you've shown them how they make you feel, you will do something for me in return."
—Hawk Moth
When Marinette's class makes a short horror film, the lead actress, Mylène, is akumatized into the Horrificator, a slimy monster that feeds off of fear.
This episode includes examples of:
- Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: Chloé has Sabrina block off one of the classroom doors with lockers, only to find that they locked themselves in with the monster.
- All Drummers Are Animals: In the impromptu band that defeats the monster, Cat Noir enthusiastically takes the drummer role, using his split staff as drumsticks and various trashcans.
- All Monsters Are Dogs: After Horrificator is shrunken by the other students’ refusal to be afraid, she scampers out, jumps into Ivan’s arms and nuzzles him like a puppy.
- Almost Kiss: Both Chloé and Marinette get one with Adrien while filming the movie.
- Amateur Film-Making Plot: Marinette’s class is making a horror movie to enter it in the Parisian Student Short Film Festival.
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: Mylène as Agent Smith says the monster ate her family, friends, and dog.
- Angst? What Angst?: In-Universe, Alya is annoyed that Nino decided that the female lead should enter a romantic relationship with her partner not long after her entire family was devoured by a monster.
- Attack Its Weak Point: As usual, the heroes target the villain's akuma, though they can't even spot it until Horrificator shrinks down.
- Bad "Bad Acting": The student film Marinette and her classmates are trying to make is rife with wooden acting and awkward movements.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Shown in the end of the horror film, but not with who'd you expect.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: Cell phone coverage drops out when the Horrificator covers the building in goo. This is even lampshaded by Nino:Nino: Dudes, you know cell phones never work in horror movies.
- Closed Circle: The entire group gets locked in when the Horrificator covers the school with impenetrable pink slime.
- Comically Missing the Point: Everyone shares this after the reveal that Mylène is missing. Alya complains about the changes Nino made to her script, Alix points out how many takes they've attempted so far, and Nino hates everyone saying "Cut!" for him when he's supposed to be the director.
- Curse Cut Short: The show deliberately leaves out a couple of choice words from the "Smelly Wolf" song.Smelly wolf, smelly wolf, trapped in a stinky hut…Smelly wolf, smelly wolf, I'm going to kick your - [cuts to Rose clapping her garbage can lid-cymbals together]
- Cute Monster Girl: Noticeable aversion — Ladybug and Cat Noir can't even tell that monster is female until they realize she's Mylène.
- Dwindling Party: The kids start getting picked off one by one by the Horrificator and trapped in her cocoon-like sacs of goo.
- Emotion Eater: The Horrificator feeds on fear, which causes her to grow larger and more powerful.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Even as Horrificator, Mylène spares Ivan due to him cheering her up earlier.
- Excuse Plot: In-Universe. This is Chloé's rather hilarious approach to the "movie", whose consistency and character motivations are mutable so long as her character can wear cute outfits and snag a kiss off Adrien, the male lead.
- Executive Meddling: In-Universe, Nino adds in a scene with the lead actress and actor kissing, something everyone is surprised by, especially Alya, the writer.
- Failed Attempt at Scaring: Juleka finds the Horrificator awesome instead of scary, and is hardly fazed by it. This proves critical to beating it.
- Genre Blindness: Chloé decides the smartest thing to do is to run off and hide on her own. She's in the middle of congratulating herself for her cleverness when she and Sabrina get snagged by Horrificator.
- Genre Savvy: Nino lampshades the horror tropes like the bad cell reception.
- Halloween Special: Released on Halloween in France, and follows a typical horror theme.
- Hypocritical Humor: Plagg remarks how Adrien claims he smells of Camembert when the latter takes off his shoe to convince everyone he was kidnapped.
- Imagine Spot: Marinette has this when she realizes the inclusion of The Big Damn Kiss.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Adrien sneaks off to transform, he says that he needs to get his character's costume. Not only does no one question his skewed priorities given that they've already guessed there's an akuma in the school, no one notices that (as far as we've seen) his character doesn't have a costume.
- Jerkass Has a Point: As usual, Chloé's Brutal Honesty verges on cruelty, but she does have a point that if Mylène is too scared to play the lead in a student horror movie, they should replace her with someone who doesn't break character every time the script calls for a jump-scare.
- Jump Scare:
- Most of the abductions of the students when the Horrificator gets to them.
- In-universe, the scene Mylène is trying to film ends with a jump-scare. Unfortunately, the scare (Ivan popping up from behind a desk in a monster mask) startles her so much that she breaks character every time.
- Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: Adrien deliberately leaves his shoe behind before transforming so that everyone will think he was kidnapped by the monster too. Marinette does something similar by abandoning her phone.
- Lovable Coward: Aside from Nino being frustrated by interruptions in filming and Chloé being Chloé, no-one holds Mylène's nervousness against her.
- Monster of the Aesop: The Horrificator helps teach the kids about facing their fears.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Juleka isn’t the slightest bit scared of the Horrificator, which the group uses to their advantage as her lack of fear makes the monster shrink.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Chloé heads off to find a nurse outfit, she realizes that Marinette was just trying to get rid of her, since Marinette never agrees with her suggestions.
- Romantic Plot Tumor: In-Universe, how Alya sees Nino's addition to her script.
- Rule of Sexy: Chloé suggests adding a scene where she's wearing a nurse outfit for no reason other then that she would look good in it.
- Running Gag: Nino hating how everyone yells "Cut!" when he's the director, and how he freaks out when the heroes start to appear or when something exciting happens that he would want in the film.
- Ship Tease: When Ladybug fearfully calls out to Adrien while searching through the Horrificator's victims, he responds by calling out for Marinette with just as much concern. In addition, Adrien's noticeably more enthusiastic about kissing Marinette on camera than he was with Chloé.
- Shout-Out:
- At one point, Ladybug calls Nino "Spielberg" on account of him recording everything that is happening.
- The final act consists of the Horrificator being imprisoned by iron bars and weakened with sound a la Spider-Man 3's Venom.
- Skewed Priorities:
- Filming grinds to a halt after Mylène runs off, largely due to Marinette and Chloé both trying to score the lead role and a kiss with Adrien.
- Nino keeps his phone out and filming, even after it becomes clear that an akuma is loose in the school and the students are in real danger.
- Smelly Feet Gag: When Adrien takes off his shoe to leave behind so it looks like he got taken by the Horrificator, Plagg is disgusted by the smell.Plagg: And you say I stink of Camembert!
- Stealth Pun: The shoe that Adrien leaves behind in order to convince the others that he's been abducted by Horrificator is the left one.
- Sticky Situation: The Horrificator's goo can neutralize both superheroes by sticking them to walls on a direct hit. They're in a hurry to escape before it hardens. Cat Noir even calls the trope by name in the English dub.
- Stock Footage: Stock animation, more like, but the animation on Ladybug's Lucky Charm closeup is from Stormy Weather/Climatika.
- Title Drop: The name of the horror movie is the name of the episode and the villain.
- Trash-Can Band: Ladybug, Cat Noir, and the rest of the students who haven’t been captured by the Horrificator create one out of junk found in the school basement to sing the “Smelly Wolf” song and use their bravery to defeat the monster.
- Your Costume Needs Work: When Mayor Bourgeois sees the finished film, he eliminates it, calling the monster "a horrible replica, completely unconvincing".
