Public-domain horror has given us killer Pooh bear, murderous childhood icons, like Steamboat Willie-era Mickey, and a graveyard’s worth of “sure, why not?” premises. Some are fun, some are… choices. But every now and then, one of these reimaginings actually clicks with the character’s DNA and a genre that suits it. Enter Betty Boop, as she’s the latest classic cartoon character getting the new horror movie treatment, and honestly, this one makes a ton of sense. Or at least more sense than a spinach-eating sailor as a slasher.
According to Deadline, sales outfit VMI is taking Boop to AFM with a logline that’s refreshingly straightforward: a team of horror podcasters breaks into an abandoned theater to investigate the hauntings of a once-famous flapper era star known as “Boop,” only to find themselves trapped in a blood-soaked revenge tale.
Why A Horror Betty Boop Makes Sense
Betty Boop is a famous children's cartoon character, sure, but she's also always been a little uncanny, as a flirtatious icon of 1930s jazz-age glamour —a cartoon built on the boundary between innocence and suggestion. Translating that into horror via a haunted theater doesn't feel all that gimmicky; in fact, it feels like a natural fit. You don’t need a convoluted “what if X was secretly a slasher” pitch. You need a fallen star, something Hollywood knows all too well, and an empty house full of terrifying memories. It’s Phantom of the Opera by way of public-domain remix, and it feels like a perfect match.
Compared with horror spins on Bambi or an evil Peter Pan, which had to twist themselves into pretzels to justify the premise, Boop sounds refreshingly straightforward. Even if it possibly treads similar ground with the animation-inspired horror gaming franchise Bendy and the Ink Machine, it's a solid premise.
The Talent Behind The Camera
Jared Cohn has a nimble, scrappy rep in genre filmmaking, which is useful when your movie lives or dies on atmosphere and pacing. Casting Devanny Pinn as Boop signals a performance-driven menace that will be less masked slasher and (hopefully) more of a charismatic terror. And with VMI’s Jessica Russo framing the story as a power reclamation, there’s clearly an ambition to be more than a meme. That’s the difference between a disposable curiosity and the kind of midnight movie people actually recommend.
We’re deep into the “public domain, but scary” wave. The trouble is when the concept starts and ends with IP recognition. Boop dodges that trap by dropping a 1930s icon into a setting already steeped in tragedy and ghost lore. The character’s vintage glamour doesn’t clash with horror, but, in my opinion, amplifies it.
One practical note: Betty Boop hasn’t fully entered the public domain yet. The earliest shorts from 1930—Dizzy Dishes, Barnacle Bill, Accordion Joe, and Mysterious Mose—are the first to enter the public domain, beginning in January of the 2026 movie schedule, with 1931 titles following in 2027, and so on. So if you start seeing more Boop merch pop up —which I definitely have —that’s why.
Beginning next January, the version of the character as she appears in those first four shorts is fair game for anyone, whether that’s for a Hot Topic T-shirt or a new horror movie spin.
