Local filmmakers turn Butte County into 1980s horror set for ‘The Fuzzies’

By Molly Myers - PUBLISHED: October 7, 2025 at 4:30 AM PDT

CHICO — What do puppets, Bidwell Park and a twisted sense of horror have in common? They all star in “The Fuzzies,” a new horror-comedy filmed entirely in Butte County.

“I think that if you don’t like horror films, you can get into it because of the comedic level of it,” said Dustin Vaught, who produced the film and acted in it. “And if you’re from the area, you can be like, ‘Oh, I know that area. I know where that is,’ and that’s always fun.”

Vaught co-wrote the film with his brother-in-law Josh Funk, who directed and animated the movie. While the movie’s 3-day premiere at the Pageant Theatre is sold out, the pair is working on distributing the film on major streaming outlets in 2026. Much went into the filming process, including the use of about 20 puppets, countless hours of painstaking stop motion shots and the help of 40 Chico State students.

Funk, an assistant professor of digital media at Chico State, emphasized the important role the students played in the production of the film. Many of them took his digital illustration and stop motion classes, directly using the skills he taught them to work on the movie.

In true full circle fashion, Funk’s former professor, Dave Hoppe, also helped by offering up an entire house to serve as a set. Hoppe was in the middle of moving into another home on his property — leaving the filmmakers free to turn the empty space into a full-blown 1980s wonderland.

“He was very gracious and let us kind of set decorate every single room in the house and put wallpaper up and paint,” said Funk. “Not only that, he also painted and did so much of the art design too. … He became a very crucial part of our prop team.”

Other filming locations included Cedar Grove in lower Bidwell Park and a private property in Cohasset. Vaught said they filmed at the Cohasset location in 2023 and had planned to return, but the property was destroyed in the Park Fire.

Overall, Funk and Vaught said the filming process in Butte County went smoothly, and they hope their movie inspires other filmmakers to come to the area. Vaught himself is a full-time filmmaker who also serves on the Chico Arts Commission and on the board of Save the El Rey.

“You don’t need, you know, $10 million to make a movie,” said Vaught. “You can make a good quality film here in Chico by yourself and with your friends.”

Vaught said the budget for their movie “was under $500,000.”

More than 100 people worked on the film. Most of them, aside from a few of the movie’s actors and crew members, were from Northern California.

Inspiration

Funk, a Chico local, said the idea partly grew out of his childhood appearances on the 1980s kids show Romper Room, where he was featured in three episodes at age 9. Funk recalls fondly watching the show each morning with his sister before school.

“They had puppets on it, and they had this magic mirror that the host would like talk into to see all these visual effects and stuff as she said the children’s names watching at home,” he said.

While he said the overall experience was great, being on set “kind of broke the illusion,” of the show.

“For example, we did three episodes, but it was all in one day and we just changed our clothing,” Funk said. “The magic mirror was just her holding a mirror with nothing in it, and then they added all that stuff later.”

The synopsis of “The Fuzzies” shows the direct inspiration this experience had on the plot:

“When childhood friends reunite at the bizarre estate of their late friend Shirley — a former children’s TV host — they discover her show’s grotesque puppets and stop-motion nightmares are still alive … and hungry for an audience. Set in 1980s Northern California and blending practical puppetry with unsettling stop-motion animation, The Fuzzies twists nostalgia into terror.”

“The Fuzzies,” an 88-minute film, was first created as a short film by Funk and Vaught shot entirely in a bathroom in 2021. The film went on to receive more than two dozen nominations and various awards at film festivals across America. Inspired by the success of the short film, the two spent roughly two years on the full-length version, now ready for theaters.

Unofficially, Vaught and Funk give the film a PG-13 rating. While it is a horror film, there is no realistic gore involved. Instead, they used “felt gore” a term they coined to describe the children’s crafts items they used to represent blood: felt, yarn and string.

“It is important to note that this is a horror comedy,” said Vaught. “So you’re supposed to be laughing anyway.”

While not recommended for young children, they said horror fans in particular are likely to enjoy it.

“We have Easter eggs and homages to so many of the classics and the movies that we grew up on,” said Vaught. “And it really is a love letter to the early ’80s and late ’70s horror films.”