A Night of Fright is
No Delight may be one of the most iconic episodes of Scooby-Doo. The convoluted
mansion on the rocky cliff is stunning. The apparently ephemeral but
chain-clanking shadow is an interesting exploration of the fundamental tensions
of spectral incarnation. “If he’s a
Phantom Shadow, how come he leaves footprints?” asks Velma. Eventually the
“shadows” are manifest as “ giggling green ghosts” with a cool Nazgul vibe –
except, of course, that these cackle madly, with the malevolent insanity of the
undead.
Spider webs are everywhere, a reminder that this building is
old, and untended. Relics from the Civil
War are hidden away under the mansion.
Supposedly the Colonel collected them, but they are packed away in a
gloomy cave, buried like so much of America’s violent history. Yet the Colonel still has a fortune in
Confederate money, and is evidently clinging to the South’s broken political project, like a ghost clinging to the world long after physical
reality has pushed itself past the reach of the mortal body.
There’s some nice humor in the episode, of course. Scooby marches along in four slippers,
heading for the bathtub. Shaggy, in his
sleeping cap, prepares a giant sandwich – and tries to put fish food on top,
only to be snarled at by a fish.
But who builds a mansion with crushing walls? Really.
How often does that prove useful?
And do you know how expensive those kind of pneumatic systems can be? Never
mind, we’re in the world of cartoon physics, where an ordinary electric fan can
lift a washing machine off the ground and people in costumes can somehow fly
over the floor. It doesn’t matter. Scooby-Doo
is all about mood, mayhem, and imagination.
And those wonderful monsters have lingered in my consciousness for decades
– giggling, cackling little shards of creepiness tucked away in my childhood
mind.
Image: http://scoobydoo.wikia.com/wiki/Green_Ghosts_(A_Night_of_Fright_is_No_Delight)
