Pokemon Reimagined as Horror Movie

A fan-made video shows what it’s like to be a Pokemon, and it all seems pretty terrible.

For decades, Pokemon fans have struggled to reconcile a fun world where humans and pocket-sized monsters have adventures together and the reality that the game is basically legalized animal fighting. After all, you capture a wild Pokemon (presumably against their will), de-sensitize it by having it fight other Pokemon and beating them within an inch of their lives, and ultimately pit it against Pokemon owned by other trainers.

The Pokemon franchise tries to hand wave this away by saying that Pokemon love to battle and that it builds the bond between trainer and Pokemon, but the core premise of the Pokemon games don’t stand up to any scrutiny at all.

YouTuber Ryan Higa recently magnified the issues surrounding the Pokemon franchise by posted a four minute video envisioning the world of Pokemon as a horror movie. In the movie, a Pikachu is wrested from its home by a trainer and constantly thrown into Pokemon battles, which are basically shown as street fights. After being healed over and over again by Nurse Joy, the Pikachu suffers from constant isolation inside its Pokemon, basically to break its will and brainwash it into enjoying fighting.

Obviously, this is a skewed view of the Pokemon franchise, but one that has eerie parallels to what actually takes place in the games. After all, why else would Pokemon suddenly turn from wild animals into trained fighters working for their oppressors?

Keep in mind that this is a comedy video, and the costumes are suitably cheesy. Our favorite Pokemon costume is probably the Hitmonchan that is just a paper bag over an actor’s forehead.

You can check out the video up above, and be sure to tell us what you think about the horrors of the Pokemon franchise in the comment section below!