5 Horror-themed Characters Funko POP! Should Do
(But Haven’t)

I am obsessed with Halloween.  Absolutely obsessed.  Costume planning starts in May.  Decorating starts in September.  Slashing up faces into pumpkins becomes socially acceptable without question starting early October.  Rocky Horror gets put on constant rotation on cable starting late October.  In short, it’s awesome, and when it comes to a holiday of this magnitude, I tend to go full Jack Skellington.  Now I think about it, I also go full Jack Skellington for Christmas, too, but Halloween is especially great because I don’t get all the complaints for that one.

And what goes great with Halloween?  Horror films!  I tend to watch and re-watch them often during the month of October especially, and that had me thinking.  Funko has always done a great job capturing horror film characters’ likenesses in their cute stylized fashion right from the beginning.  Look at the POP! movie line, and you’ll notice that many of the classic slashers are in the early numbers.

Yet, even with such an extensive collection, I can’t help but notice a few glaring omissions.  In fact, I had a hard time narrowing my list down to the five there were so many great ones that have yet to be made.  Many of these I assumed would be made eventually, but, throughout the years, just haven’t.  I realize that sometimes the reason lies with the licenser in these cases rather than the licensee, so do not take this as a criticism of Funko.  As usual, these lists are subjective and you may have a completely different opinion on the matter, and that’s fine. Feel free to sound off in the comments below and let me know if there’s anyone (or anything) that you felt wasn’t on the list yet should be.

5) SAMARA MORGAN/SADAKO YAMAMURA
(THE RING/RINGU)

Despite only appearing in two films stateside, Samara started an interest in Japanese horror films getting Americanized remakes (to varying levels of quality).  In Japan, Samara was named Sadako and absolutely represents the horror genre.  The character there actually matches the popularity of our horror icons like Jason or Freddy here.  Design-wise, there’s a lot of creativity that could go into her, like  having her thin, pale frame crawling out of a TV set.  Her design of a soaking wet girl with the hair covering the face is also an extremely recognizable feature preventing it from looking too generic and therefore indistinguishable.  Heck, package her with a special The Ring vs. The Grudge set (which is a real film in Japan already), and you got yourself what’s sure to become a fan favorite POP!  Funko, get on this!  Hollywood, get on that whole The Ring vs. The Grudge thing.

4) BRUNDLEFLY
(THE FLY)

Definitely making a case for remakes being worth watching, Jeff Goldblum’s titular role in The Fly as Seth Brundle is one of the missing 1980s horror icons that I’m still surprised has yet to be made.  For those unfamiliar, it’s basically a classic “man-caught-in-weird-experiment slowly turns into a monster” horror story.  To be honest, I’d also love to see the original Fly character get made into a Funko (complete with a companion mini-piece of his actual fly counterpart), but I give the remake a bit of an edge as a POP! because, as Brundle loses his humanity to his Fly persona, he goes through so many different variations that I could picture a few exclusive fun variants.

3) PAMELA VOORHEES
(FRIDAY THE 13^TH)

With Jason being such a horror icon, many forget that he wasn’t even the star of the first film in his franchise.  His mother did all the carving up the first time around.  It might be a bit of a challenge to make the stylized POP!s look distinguishable as Pamela, but she represents an iconic character to the franchise.  Just make sure she at least has that unassuming sears catalog sweater and 80s mom hair, and all will work out.  Personally, I’d love to see a dual package including both Ms. Voorhees and a young Jason as her deformed hydrocephalic son.

2) NORMAN BATES/MOTHER
(PSYCHO)

…and speaking of mommy issues…

This one HAS to happen.  Alfred Hitchcock delivered a perfect horror creation over fifty years ago with Norman.  He’s a rather unassuming reclusive individual with a split personality in the worst way, Norman was always equal parts sympathetic and horrific, and, for that, deserves to be a Funko POP!  Personally, I really want him as the mother persona for the vinyl.

1) THE CRYPTKEEPER
(TALES FROM THE CRYPT)

The Cryptkeeper spans generations as an icon of horror.  Starting in the 50s, he had a horribly ghoulish comic book series from EC comics where he told the reader gruesomely horrid and dark comedic stories.  Starting in the 70s, a film series started adapting some of the tales as anthologies, still hosted by the Cryptkeeper.  Starting in the 90s, the Cryptkeeper returned in probably the most memorable adaptation yet via a HBO television series.  Starting in the 2010s, Cryptkeeper returns once again as a new television series.  He even had his own cartoon series and music album at one point.  Yes, you read that right.  The Cryptkeeper even had his own Christmas album.  Why?  Who knows?  But it worked!

The little ghoul has popped up everywhere over multiple generations.  With the upcoming television reboot, new fans are sure to come and a new Funko POP! of the character would be in demand.  Personally, I’m hoping we get him as a set with his lesser known friends from the comics: Vault-Keeper and Old Witch.

For those unfamiliar with the character’s “charm”, here’s a bit of a reminder in the form of an early 90s rap music video he did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiKLAH7N-lg

Oh, 90s.  I can’t defend you, but I still love you.

As I said, this was an extremely difficult list for me to make, as I felt I left off so many deserving characters, but these five are the most glaring omissions at this time.

So do you agree?  Disagree?  Let us know below. What horror franchises do you want POP! to do in the near future?

In the meantime, I have a pumpkin to carve!