When Thomas was Terrifying - A Thorough Look on Childhood TV Horror
Despite growing up watching many dark shows at a young age and reading, and being read, many scary books as a kid, I never got truly scared of any media when I was young. There were certainly stories that made me tense or jumpy but not a single TV show, film, book or anything I watched at the time actually scared me (keep in mind I only had access to media for youngsters at that age). Except for one thing. Episode 11, Season 5, of Thomas The Tank Engine. The episode premiered September of 1998 with the very appropriate title, Haunted Henry.
This episode and this episode alone gave me nightmares as a child, whenever I’d put on a Thomas DVD I would close my eyes or run out of the room whenever the episode played because I was too afraid to even look at one frame. I don’t know how and I don’t know why but this episode still remains the scariest piece of horror media that I hold nostalgically.
That got me thinking, what exactly about this episode scared me so much? I mean, there was really no scary imagery of gruesome implications (there are episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine much more violent than this one) and looking at the episode from afar I realized, nothing bad happens in this episode at all? So why was I so scared of it? When I asked others what episodes they remember as a kid being the scariest I realized that it’s the same case for most. Nothing bad happens, nothing gruesome takes place and no images are especially chilling. So, I figured I’d answer that question, what is it about these episodes that kept us up all night wetting the bed?
To answer this I want to review and breakdown that aforementioned episode of Thomas The Tank Engine. I believe an in depth examination on how it was made may provide some answers in how this was particularly scary. (Keep in mind I’m watching the UK version so there may be some differences between my account if you watched the US dub)
The episode opens fairly normally. A charming sounding music plays over Henry and Edward sitting in a shed waiting for a goods train, nothing out of the ordinary. The calm narration from Michael Angelis eases the viewer into a relaxed setting, as if this was going to be a calmer episode like Make Someone Happy or All at the Sea. A howl calls in the wind and Edward warns Henry of mist making it hard to see, thus our “Conflict” is quickly established. Edward also informs Henry of a legend of a ghost that makes its presence known once the mist roles in. Henry quickly dismisses this legend.
Once he departs, the calm oboes and clarinets that filled the opening scene are not replaced with pitched chimes and low strings, the music sounds more out of a dark fantasy horror flick than a Thomas episode. In a brilliant moment of unease that I think is genius story building Henry mumbles and complains about Edward’s warning, he dismisses the legend due to the fact that there is no mist anywhere, even though Edward said there would be earlier. However in the next shot we are immediately informed that the Ghost is real once a heavy mist roles in, just as Edward predicted.
The suspense of this segment is truly wonderful as Henry comes across a red lamp nailed to a tree in the fog. The lamp is freshly lit and means danger ahead. They proceed with caution while the audience now knows Henry is A. in danger and B. not alone. As they press on, more signs warning them of danger ahead begin to pop up, a sign “Danger” is nailed to a tree, a signal crossing lamp is set at red and the crossing gates are closed despite there being zero vehicles for miles. The tension builds as the characters are confused as to what’s happening. The scene climaxes when they find a coat hanging on a tree branch and a light moving within a nearby building. Once the characters notice and exclaim they are not alone the lights turn off in that very building. The scene ends with the train leaving the area and cuts to the next day.
Now that the suspense and fear have been established the episode now sets up a mystery in the next scene. The characters discover there was indeed danger ahead of them, in the form of some broken track, but who exactly warned them about it is now the question the characters are asking. Even though they don’t know who warned them they are informed that it’s been fixed and they’ll have to go across it again. Later that day we get a mirror scene to the opening with Henry waiting at the station, although this time he’s incredibly nervous about the journey. However it does retain the calm nature of the opening which acts as a breather for the audience right before and after they have experienced some tense scenes.
However, in a shocking act of cruelty from the writers, there is a jump scare in this scene when an express train thunders by, scaring Henry and rattling the audience out of their comfort zone. Now that it’s established Henry is on edge (as well as the audience) they begin their second journey.
Their journey appears to mirror the previous one at first with Henry spotting the same red lamp. Suddenly we see something legitimately creepy as we see the crossing gates close on their own and the crossing lights do as well. It really helps build up the fact that things are more serious the second time around. The music also helps this, in the first ghost scene the music was eerie and creepy, old chimes and low strings filled the scene with a very uneasy feeling. For the second one the music still keeps many of those same instruments but it’s more fast paced and thrilling, almost like a chase scene. This instills a sense of urgency and thrill into the scene, almost like legitimate danger is a foot (which becomes the case later on).
We see another shot of the old building, however unlike last time where it was a simple moving light and not much else, we see a clear silhouette of a man standing in the window watching Henry and his train go by. The danger the music instilled throughout the scene is now legitimized with a shot showing the track they said was mended broken again.
In what is a very neat shot we see all of Henry’s trains fly into a pit, it’s a cool destruction sequence. Here the episode’s creepiness is gone as the conclusion to the scene shows the mysterious “ghost” was just an old fogman who was trying to warn the engine of the danger ahead. The episode ends with everyone singing the Fog man's praises and him getting the station he always wanted.
Welp, that was the episode. While a certainly great episode it’s nowhere near the best episode as others have been more profound or better looking visually but still a great nonetheless. So, why did it scare me so much? Hell, many others who watched Thomas as well said this episode was really scary, but why? Nothing terrible happens, unlike other episodes, Henry just gets lost in some fog. And nothing gruesome or violent is shown. So why is it so terrifying? One word: Presentation.
The pure atmosphere and dark visual style of the episode, to me, is the main culprit for why it’s so scary for youngsters. The episode almost treats itself as a ghost story, I can see elements like, “there was a lone jacket hanging on a tree branch” and “the gates mysteriously closed on their own” as part of a ghost story that young teens would disperse among themselves. I almost wondered if that was intentional due to this episode's differences to how many episodes were made.
Most episodes of Thomas would feature many perspective changes, the story would shift from one engine's perspective to the next quite usually and almost every episode would feature more than one character serving a major role to the story. However Haunted Henry is probably the most linear episode of the series. The whole thing is shot, edited and narrated from one character’s perspective and the story never faults from what he’s thinking, feeling and experiencing. Edward is the only other engine in the entire episode and he only has a couple lines of dialogue in an already very quick scene.
Writing and editing an episode differently than the rest for a horrifying effect is not an uncommon practice in cartoons. One of the best examples of this I can talk about is Freaky Fred from Courage the Cowardly Dog. The episode is the only one to be told nearly exclusively through narration and its story style and structure is different than most episodes with the setting being in the bathroom and the main flesh of the episode being taken up with flashbacks told within said bathroom. Not to mention, while most episodes will feature Courage saving his owners from doom, here he’s the only one in any actual “danger”. Just like Haunted Henry, nothing bad or gruesome happens in this episode, just Courage being shaved. Yet it’s the scariest episode of the series for the same reasons as Haunted Henry.
Kids shows primarily run on formula. Each episode has a format, a structure of what’s going to happen each episode. Most will introduce their characters, introduce their conflict, bring in someone else or a realization to show them the fault of their actions and then they all move on happy with the conflict solved. That’s not particularly every kids show structure but it’s the most common. By having these struggles kids fall into a safe place, they know what’s gonna happen and they find comfort in them.
Creepypastas are a great example of using the break in formula to create horror. To stay on theme let’s use the creepypasta Thomas and the Children, while it has a lot of elements I dislike and I generally think it’s a bad creepypasta, it’s a textbook example of what I’m discussing so I’m going to use it regardless of its quality.
The story introduces a set up pretty standard for a Thomas episode. Thomas is instructed to take some children down to the beach (the set up for the characters). Next he sees Bertie on a crossing road begging for help because he’s stuck (the conflict), however the formulaic diversion comes when Thomas doesn’t. In a dark turn, Thomas runs Bertie over and horror ensues. The fear from this story comes from the formulaic divergence, almost correlating with the term Uncanny.
Uncanny can be simplified to when something should be one way but it isn't, I know that’s a fairly simple explanation but it works for what we’re talking about. The reason that these episodes and this creepypasta creep us out is they seem like they should be a normal episode but they aren’t. They are much darker, twisted, terrifying and horrifying. And they help shape us as humans.
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