Top 10 episodes from Courage The Cowardly Dog that will give you goosebumps

Courage The Cowardly Dog promises a good mix of absurdist comedy and unsettling horror, with haunting visuals that are appealing to both kids and adults.

The animated series, which John R. Dilworth created and developed, follows a dog named Courage, who is ironically endlessly petrified. He was left and abandoned by his previous owners but has since found a new home and a sweet-natured owner, Muriel.

With themes ranging from demonic beings to alien abductions and a feature of creepy monsters and nightmarish ideals, Courage The Cowardly Dog delivers some of the most unsettling cartoon frights. Here are some of the creepiest, goosebump-inducing episodes from the animated series.

Disclaimer: This list is purely based on the author's opinions.

10 best, scariest Courage The Cowardly Dog episodes

1) Freaky Fred

Season 1 Episode 4: "Freaky Fred" (Image via Max)

"Freaky Fred" is arguably one of the most bone-chilling episodes of Courage The Cowardly Dog involving a "freaky" nephew visiting Muriel's house. Fred is a barber, a skinny man who carries an aura of mystery and impending danger and a naughty, bone-chilling smile.

Besides the face that can give anyone goosebumps, Fred also recalls shaving his childhood hamster's fur in the episode. The back and forth of the camera between the bald pink hamster and Courage trapped with Fred in the bathroom, while the mysterious relative carries a buzzing clipper is nothing short of uncomfortable and disturbing.

2) A Night at the Katz Motel

Season 1 Episode 1: "A Night at the Katz Motel" (Image via Max)

Katz is a regular villain in Courage The Cowardly Dog, and he was first introduced in the show's debut episode. He's a motel owner, who has a collection of giant man-eating spiders and uses his guests to feed his pets.

Besides Katz's imposing figure and the sinister theme music that comes with his appearance in the show, another frightening part of him is his sadistic personality. He doesn't simply take out his guests and feed them to his spiders, he also plays with them before killing them.

3) Perfect

Four seasons of Courage The Cowardly Dog ended with this terrifying episode, featuring a strange 3D being berating Courage for not being perfect. After Courage started taking classes with an elderly schoolteacher, he was always told that he was not perfect, plaguing him with nightmares.

Those nightmares are some of the terrifying bits in the series, which sometimes see Courage getting hurt and, in other scenarios, hurting the people he loves because of his faults.

4) King Ramses's Curse

Season 1 Episode 7: "King Ramses's Curse" (Image via Max)

The plot of this episode is simple and familiar. A magical Egyptian tablet, which was stolen, ended up in Eustace's hands, and he's excited about all the money he can get from it. However, bringing the cursed tablet home unleashed King Ramses's spirit, who then unleasehes three plagues into their home.

Adding to the goosebump-inducing storyline is the chilling detail of his droning voice of the Ramses CGI, a subject of nightmares for children and sometimes adults too.

5) The House of Discontent

Season 2 Episode 12: "The House of Discontent" (Image via Max)

This episode features another infamous visual in Courage The Cowardly Dog, the Spirit of the Harvest Moon. After yet another failure to grow anything on the farm during the harvest season, Eustace has had it and decided that he's done trying. However, it angers the giant, glowing white face of the spirit.

The live-action spirit head is uncanny, with its deep wrinkles and pitch-black eyes. In addition to its horrific face, the spirit also unleashes chaos around the house Poltergeist-style.

Also read: Is Tonka the chimpanzee still alive?

6) Heads of Beef

Season 1 Episode 11: "Heads of Beef" (Image via Max)

When Muriel is too sick to cook, the job of looking for food lies in both Eustace and Courage. In search of something to eat, they happen to find a joint that sells "really cheap" burgers. However, Courage grows suspicious after seeing a face in his burger and later seeing the burger joint owner's wife eating someone's head.

While the events in this Courage The Cowardly Dog episode turn out to be a misunderstanding, the horrific imagery remains. The cannibalism in this episode is a story of nightmares for little kids.

7) The Mask

This Courage The Cowardly Dog episode is equally sweet, strange, and dark. It follows Kitty, a woman in a creepy porcelain mask who won't stop trying to murder Courage because she hates dogs. In the end, the scared dog finds out that Kitty is drifting after she lost Bunny, her best friend, to an abusive gangster called Mad Dog.

When Courage defeats Mad Dog, he helped reunited Kitty and Bunny, making the former realize that not all dogs are bad.

8) Courage in the Big Stinkin' City

Season 2 Episode 2: "Courage in the Big Stinkin' City" (Image via Max)

Anyone who is scared of cockroaches and other wiggly little creatures will get goosebumps watching this episode of Courage The Cowardly Dog. Muriel is set to perform at Radio City Music Hall, but when the family arrives, Schwick, the giant cockroach, intercepts them.

While he claims to be the stagehand, Schwick sends the petrified dog on a quest to get a mysterious package. The journey brings Courage to an apartment building encased in terrors, where he finds monsters behind each door. There are plenty of jumpscares in this episode, including a seemingly normal violin-playing little girl who turns out to have a screaming claymation face.

Also read: Is Acapulco Season 4 happening?

9) The Hunchback of Nowhere

Season 1 Episode 8: "The Hunchback of Nowhere" (Image via Max)

This Courage The Cowardly Dog episode is both jarring and sweet. It starts heartwarming with Courage trying to help a heavily deformed Hunchback who wandered into the Bagge Farm during a rainy night. However, Eustace doesn't want to welcome the intruder into their home.

After constant ribbing and bullying on Courage and the Hunchback, the latter finally stood up for himself. He puts on a large mask of Eustace's face, frightening him and making him see what "real' ugliness looks like. He frightened the farmer to the point that he fell over the edge of the roof and crashed painfully on the ground.

Also read: What happened to Kathleen Schroll?

10) Angry, Nasty People

A zombie director, Benton Tarantella, offers the family to star in his new reality show Angry, Nasty People. He wanted them to have no qualms about expressing their anger and nastiness towards each other, which, unsurprisingly, Eustace embraces fully.

Tarantella's zombie face in this Courage The Cowardly Dog episode is scary enough. But, the scarier part is that he could also be a serial killer, which Eustace and Muriel don't see because they are eager for stardom and the fortune that comes with it.

Catch all four seasons of Courage The Cowardly Dog streaming on Max.

Edited by Bharath S