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Freaky is a New Zealand series. It's a live-action kid's show, comparable to a kid's-grade Twilight Zone. (Or, a Kiwi version of Are You Afraid of the Dark? or Goosebumps (1995).) Set in standard places such as a mall, at home, or at school, each episode starts with a normal person going about their routine and then everything quickly turning weird.

No relation to the American horror movie.

This series exhibits the following tropes:

  • Almighty Janitor: A troublemaking student discovers too late that the school caretaker is some kind of supernatural being who commands an army of floor buffers. Said troublemaker ends up a permanent stain on the floor of the school gym.
  • Animate Inanimate Object:
    • "Signs". Guess what moves.
    • In "Trolley," shopping trolleys are sentient beings very similar to animals, and the ones we see at stores have all been captured and tamed. As the episode goes on, the protagonist encounters a woman walking her own trolley (and making a snide comment on how he should better train his own out-of-control one), and discovers a whole herd of trolleys living in the wild. It makes as much sense in context.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: This is the basis of multiple episodes; oftentimes the wish comes at a hefty price.
  • Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts: Played with in "Hitcher". Picking up hitchhikers while driving at night never seems like a good idea. Especially when the hitchhiker tells creepy ghost stories. Maybe Dad and Michael will have the last laugh when they share a story of their own...
    Dad: After what you did to us, we don't much care for hitchhikers, do we, Son?
  • Bratty Half-Pint/Bratty Teenage Daughter: Some of the protagonists fall into this category, and usually they meet an unpleasant fate.
  • Break the Haughty: In "Freak," the bully Dennis is made meek and cowardly when he sees the new student's space helmet actually hides a monstrous second face on the back of his head.
  • Creepy Basement: The siblings in "Babysitter" lock their sitter and her boyfriend in one of these. It's dark, cramped, and damp, made worse by the fact there's an intense storm going on outside.
  • Creepy Red Herring: In "Babysitter," Tim and Susan see a news report of an escaped knife-wielding criminal, and soon after see a figure wearing a yellow raincoat approaching their house, his face hidden in shadow. Naturally, they think he's the escaped killer and trap him in the basement with their hapless babysitter. It's not the killer; it's her boyfriend, who got worried due to the storm cutting the power and the aforementioned news report, and was coming to check in on all of them.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: In "Costume", a kid acquires a pink superhero costume that bestows real superpowers on him. Until it shrinks in the wash, that is.
  • Demonic Dummy: It goes as far as turning its owner into a second doll. A poster of him can be seen flapping from a telephone pole.
  • Disproportionate Retribution:
    • "Junk:" Does delivering unwanted junk mail really warrant the delivery boy being transformed into a picture in one of the catalogues? Sure, there was a 'No Junk Mail' sticker on the letter box, but still...
    • "Babysitter:" Tim and Susan think they're too old for a sitter, and dislike the teenager their parents frequently hire to watch them because she talks to her boyfriend on the phone and watches TV. So they lock her in the basement, simply because they can. When they think the escaped killer from the news has broken into their house, they lock him in the basement with her, knowing full well she wouldn't survive. They simply plan to tell the police and their parents that the killer took her hostage.
  • The Dog Was the Mastermind: In "Bullies," the head of the Bully Council turns out to be the short nerdy girl, who puts on an act of meekness to test the bully's abilities.
  • Downer Ending: Several stories end with the protagonist suffering a wholly undeserved fate, being killed or worse.
  • Evil Elevator: Variation of this, where the elevator is bedecked with a host of traps to obliterate anyone unfortunate to tick off its operator. This manifests in a series of levels that are all potentially fatal, and may as a whole be never-ending.
  • Found Footage: "Camp" is shot like this, with a camper filming a night at sleepaway camp. Notable in that it's the only episode to do so.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: "Babysitter" cuts to black just as the escaped maniac raises his knife over the siblings.
  • Grass is Greener: "Dog" features a teenage boy who wishes he could be a dog instead, as dogs don't have to do chores or do anything but eat, sleep, and play. He changes his mind when he switches places with the family dog, and realizes he's only fed kibble or table scraps, has to use the bathroom outside, and isn't allowed or able to do any of the fun things humans can do.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: One episode had a bullied kid be given a super-suit that gave him powers. He ended up worse than the bullies, only to be faced down at the end by one of the kids he'd bullied - she has an even more powerful suit.
  • Here We Go Again!:
    • "Fridge:" Evie learns that the girl from the 1970's she spoke to and traded jewelry with through the titular fridge was her own mother as a preteen. The two of them wonder just how far the time travel goes, and the fridge opens again to show another little girl on the other side, who cheerfully greets them with "Hi, Mommy, hi, Nana!" and asking what they should trade.
    • "Family:" Michelle manages to escape her otherworldly kidnappers and reunite with her real family on Earth, but the final scene shows her kidnappers with a different girl serving as their "daughter." As the new girl goes to do the dishes, the little brother speaks in a deep voice as he tells his parents they'll "do it right this time."
    • "Dog:" The protagonist has learned his lesson and takes his dog for a nice walk… and then passes another teenage boy being walked on a leash while shouting that he's not a dog, having to learn his own lesson.
  • Hope Spot:
    • In "Sitcom," a girl realizes that being Trapped in TV Land isn't all it's cracked up to be, and escapes back to her own family. And then when her parents surprise her with a new dog, she hears a Laugh Track
    • In "Mirror," Trevor wakes up in his own bed, certain that the whole ordeal with his reflection was only a dream. Then he goes to open his bedroom door and finds a Blank White Void, instantly proving him wrong and leading him to realize now he's the reflection.
  • Horror Host: A more subdued and chill example played by Daniel Costello, a teenage boy who gives a brief introduction to the theme of the story.
    Daniel: *as his father drives past a hitchhiker* My dad doesn’t stop for hitchhikers anymore. He used to, until he heard this story…
  • I Want My Mommy!: The protagonist in "Dummy" screams for his mother when he discovers the Demonic Dummy is turning him into one as well.
  • Karmic Twist Ending/Karmic Jackpot: For a child, at least. In "Costume," the protagonist uses his super suit to get revenge on bullies, then moves on to being a bully himself. When his suit shrinks in the wash, those he hurt realize that he can't intimidate them anymore and chase him through town. While running, he passes three people in need of help; a girl whose cat is stuck in a tree, a woman needing help crossing the street who pleads she'll give ten dollars to whoever helps her, and an ice-cream truck driver whose truck has broken down lamenting that someone will have to eat the ice-cream before it melts. When he reaches his house, his younger sister has put on the suit herself, as now it fits her perfectly, and takes her own revenge on her brother… and also had helped the people from earlier, so she's holding money and eating an ice-cream while she's at it.
  • Longing for Fictionland: In "Sitcom", a girl with a troubled home life fantasizes about being part of the perfect family in her favourite Dom Com. This turns into a case of Be Careful What You Wish For when she becomes Trapped in TV Land.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: In "Camp," we never find out what "Rat Boy" looks like, we only see the other campers' reactions, as the kid filming first refuses to film it, and then the batteries losing power makes the video go dark. Based on the terrified screams, it's probably better we don't see.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In "Dog":
    "Okay, you've taken it too far. The joke's over. Let. Me. In. Now!"
    "I! Am not! An animal! I'm a human being!"
  • Robotic Reveal: In "Sister," Robert's little sister Andrea is revealed to be a Ridiculously Human Robot after she gets water on herself and begins short-circuiting. And then Robert notes his skin peeled back to show wires…
  • Suddenly Shouting: In "Braces":
    Nathan: How about I give you five bucks, and you let me get to class?
    Bully: How about I... TELL EVERYONE THAT YOU'RE TRYING TO BRIBE ME!
  • Swallowed Whole: In "Slide," a boy loves swimming, so he jumps on a waterslide, is somehow transported into prehistoric times then gets back to present day time. He decides to jump into the pool again using the diving board (as he thinks it's safe to go back to the water now) It isn't. It's now inhabited by a giant aquatic dinosaur that eats him in one bite CHOMP
  • Tested on Humans: In one episode, a girl objects to the 'cruelty' that comes from running rats in a maze. Her science teacher and the other male student scoff at this and begin to eat the rats in the maze. Mortified, the girl runs for her life, only to find that the doors are not real and she cannot open them. When the girl is cornered by the teacher and student, she is lifted into the air by a giant green hand. It turns out that the school is actually a maze, with 3 aliens studying the students... including a female one that objects to the cruelty of running humans through the maze.
  • Tomato Surprise:
    • "Sister:" Robert and Andrea are both robots, as Robert discovers when Andrea starts sparking and his own wires come exposed.
    • "House:" The protagonist is walking through a haunted house attraction, and was never in any actual danger. Though he was scared, he loved the experience and wants to do it again next year.
    • "Pioneer:" The protagonist and his family aren't real, they're museum mannequins in a pioneer exhibit.
    • "Graveyard:" The reason the protagonist is running through the graveyard at night is because her family's new house that sits right next to it, and she has to pass through it to get toilet paper for the outhouse; the bathroom hasn't been finished yet. And to top it all off, she's not even really afraid of the ghosts and monsters in said graveyard, she just considers them a bit annoying.
  • Trapped in TV Land: In "Sitcom", a girl with problems at home gets sucked into a TV where she finds she is part of a perfect Dom Com family. She soon learns that TV perfection is not without its drawbacks.

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