Scooby Doo is an Unreliable Narrator

 The problem with the Scooby Doo genre, the horror/mystery fusion, is making a believable scare. How do you create a convincing supernatural horror story that is not supernatural? People are familiar with special effects, it’s easy to recognize the difference between a real face and a rubber mask and what criminal is going to go through the trouble of building a convincing hoax to cover a criminal enterprise? And, there’s the additional problem that, these days, hauntings attract more attention than they discourage. 

My theory is that the supernatural events aren’t as realistic as they appear, my theory is that the Mystery Incorporated gang are unreliable narrators, but not on purpose. 

The scare doesn’t have to be realistic. It just has to be scary enough to get people to run from it. All the Scooby Doo mysteries are told from the perspective of the gang. If they were studying the witch and her zombie slave up close, they would see the loose skin around the eyes and neck, the Converse All Stars and that they have the exact same build as the only two residents of Swamp End. But, they’re not studying the witch and the zombie, they’re running from them.  

Zeke and Zeb grew up in Swamp End raised by Louisiana’s version of Mama Fratelli. They were bullies in school, they know how to make someone panic and run, and that’s what they do. They don’t want TAPS showing up to investigate, they want people to stay away so they can search for the armored car. 

That’s why the Scooby Gang are unreliable narrators, the best look they get of any supernatural threat is over their shoulders on a run. Daphne is brave enough to stand up and get a look, but that usually results in her getting captured before she can confirm any suspicions.

And, that’s the secret. The supernatural threat doesn’t have to be real, or even appear close to real, it has to scary the curious enough that they don’t look back. The images they build in their minds will fill in all the supernatural details and the stories they tell will get weirder and more horrifying with every telling. And, since you’re writing from their perspective, the trick is to write what they perceive, not what is actual.