Fright Krewe is a 2023 adventure/horror comedy animated series produced by DreamWorks Animation and created by horror filmmaker Eli Roth and YA author James Frey. It stars the voices of Sydney Mikayla, Tim Johnson Jr., Grace Lu, Chester Rushing, Terrence Little Gardenhigh, and Jacques Colimon.
In modern day New Orleans, a mismatched group of teens find themselves charged with defending the city from a vast variety of dark creatures. Blessed with powers from voodoo spirits, the teens will have to work together to stop an evil they themselves have unleashed. The series premiered on both Hulu and Peacock on October 2, 2023. A second season has been ordered.
Previews: Trailer
Fright Krewe contains examples of the following:
- And I Must Scream:
- The fate of Headmistress Brulante, courtesy of a vengeful Belial. He murdered her, damned her ghost to wander aimlessly for years, and sealed her mouth shut in the process so that she couldn't ask for help.
- Pierre is an even worse example, as it is revealed that he has existed in a "small corner" of Belial's mind for centuries, trapped and forced to witness what Belial does while being unable to do anything about it.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Season 1 ends with Belial back at his full power and in the process of summoning new demonic minions to defeat the kids.
- Big Bad: Belial, a demon imprisoned in the cemetery by Soleil’s ancestor centuries ago until she accidentally released him.
- The Big Easy: the setting is New Orleans, with its supernatural side taking center stage. The cast includes devout Voodoo practitioners, jazz musicians, vampires, loup-garous, and three separate "curio shop" owners. The first episode takes place almost entirely in a cemetery with the above-ground crypts.
- Book Ends: The series starts and ends with Soleil giving a spooky tour of New Orleans.
- Cliffhanger: While Season 1 and 2 both resolve their immediate plots, they each end with the hint of darker things to come for our heroes:
- Season 1 sees the Krewe defeat Mayor Furst and save the vampires and rougarous, but Belial escapes and begins making plans to summon new demons.
- Season 2 ends with Belial destroyed seemingly for good, the Krewe surrendering their Loa powers, and returning to normalcy...only for the final scene to show a mysterious person opening a portal to the underworld and bringing forth a demon for their no-doubt nefarious purposes.
- Darker and Edgier: The show, rated TV-PG, is definitely aimed more at older kids than the rest of DreamWorks’ television output. For one thing, there is a lot of onscreen blood, both fake and real.
- The Dreaded: Mere mention of Belial’s name makes other supernatural inhabitants of New Orleans wary and even the horror-obsessed Soleil is left frightened by an encounter with him.
- Emergency Transformation: After being fatally injured at the end of episode two, Missy agrees to be turned into a rougarou to gain their healing abilities.
- Emotion Control: In the second episode, Belial amplifies Missy’s frustrations over her new power hurting a teammate into outright rage at Soleil for getting her into the situation to begin with.
- Fur Against Fang: The rougarous and the vampires do not get along, largely due to the mysterious death of rougarou leader Malcolm at the hands of a vamp. This was apparently done by Mayor Furst, in an attempt to trigger a war between the two factions out of revenge for their refusal to turn and save his dying wife.
- Hollywood Voodoo: Played With - voodoo spiritualism is a major element of the show, but the first episode makes a point to mention that it’s not all about voodoo dolls, focusing instead on Loa and demons.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Missy. She was great at being normal, too.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Belial uses emotion control in the second episode to manipulate a frustrated Missy into attacking Soleil.
- Logo Joke: At the beginning of the intro sequence, a bright red full moon is shown dissolving into the DreamWorks logo of the boy on the moon.
- Louis Cypher: The rougarou owner of a rougarou-themed pizzeria is named Lou Garou.
- Magic Music: Mayor Furst uses this to summon demons called grunches, but they can be destroyed if the Devil's Chord is played within earshot of them.
- Never My Fault: Mayor Furst blames vampires and rougarous for the death of his wife because they refused to turn her after the car accident because there were too many people on the street for them to stay hidden. He completely ignores the fact that his wife only died because of him passing on a red light, resulting in the car crash.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Soleil accidentally pricks her finger on a splinter on the Tree of Life, which causes a drop of her blood to fall on it, which leads to Belial's release.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Soleil has a deep love of terror and frightening pranks.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Rougarous are described as werewolves with a New Orleans twist - they are said to feed specifically on children. To be fair, this is mostly when they first transform and cannot control their cravings.
- Playing with Fire: Soleil is granted to ability to summon fire by the creation loa Ayida Weddo.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The main character is a girl with a fetish for scary things, who's descended from the Voodoo Queen who sealed the Big Bad. Her former best friend, who's now the popular girl dating the mayor's son, becomes an outcast after her new powers cause her to injure a member of the dance club. The unpopular new kid whose aunt is a Voodoo priestess and who spent his childhood living in the swamp. The quiet kid from a family of musicians, who's being taken care of by his older brother because their parents are out on tour, and a friendly jock.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Soleil's ancestor, Marie Lavaeu, sealed Belial into the Tree of Life.
- Super-Strength: Missy is given super strength by the warrior Loa Ogun. It becomes enhanced when she's turned into a rougarou.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Missy's first bit of Power Incontinence has her accidentally hurling her fellow dancer Gretchen into the air, sending her crashing into the bleachers. Rather than result in any sort of Amusing Injuries, it puts Gretchen in the hospital and causes Missy to be kicked out of the team.
- Vampires Own Nightclubs: The Bleeding Hearts Club has a reputation of being owned by vampires. Mostly because of the vampire theming… and the fact that, yes, it is really run by vampires.
- We Used to Be Friends: At the start of the series Soleil and Missy used to be close friends before they grew apart and developed an animosity.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Chamomile is lethal to rougarou, to the point of burning them on contact.
