CA filmmaker melds puppets, horror in take on fictional Sacramento kids’ TV show

By Tania Azhang

Updated August 6, 2026 11:58 AM

The year is 1981. No shoulder is unpadded, large crystals hang from delicate necks, and swooped bangs curtain women’s faces, held aloft by Farrah Fawcett-strength hairspray. News flashes on a static-filled screen of the sudden death of much loved (and fictional) Sacramento children’s TV star Miss Shirley — “Drysdale’s Death Makes the Sun Shine Less” reads the headline of The Sacramento Bee-spoofed newspaper, “The Sacramento Examiner.” This is the sinister world of “The Fuzzies” (2025), a horror-comedy that follows three childhood friends as they search for Miss Shirley’s television co-star — a puppet named Sally — in Miss Shirley’s summer house deep in the woods.

Filmed and produced in Butte County, director and Chico native Josh Funk conjures candy-colored horrors as “The Fuzzies,” as Miss Shirley called them, turn on the hands that command them. A film and animation professor at Chico State, Funk delivered the film’s jump-scares through tactile stop-motion animation, a technique that emphasizes the texture of real objects which are moved in tiny steps and photographed one frame at a time.

“I find that stop-motion is more believable and more unsettling because real light is hitting it, real shadows are on it, or it’s creating real shadows within an environment. Where with CGI, for whatever reason, we can just tell,” Funk said. The concept stems from his experience as a child actor on the children’s show “Romper Room,” which aired from 1953 to 1994. “I was the kid in the Ninja Turtle shirt,” Funk said.

“I find that stop-motion is more believable and more unsettling because real light is hitting it, real shadows are on it, or it’s creating real shadows within an environment. Where with CGI, for whatever reason, we can just tell,” Funk said. The concept stems from his experience as a child actor on the children’s show “Romper Room,” which aired from 1953 to 1994. “I was the kid in the Ninja Turtle shirt,” Funk said.

“I did it just because I loved stop-motion films, and I just wanted to see how it was done,” he added. “The Fuzzies” began as a short film, which Funk filmed with his best friend and brother-in-law Dustin Vaught. Filmed during Covid, Vaught and Funk crammed themselves into a small bathroom to film a scene where a puppet bursts out of the toilet to throttle Vaught.

“I did it just because I loved stop-motion films, and I just wanted to see how it was done,” he added. “The Fuzzies” began as a short film, which Funk filmed with his best friend and brother-in-law Dustin Vaught. Filmed during Covid, Vaught and Funk crammed themselves into a small bathroom to film a scene where a puppet bursts out of the toilet to throttle Vaught.

“It’s a really specific tone. Ours is the tone of our film is weird, and some people embrace it, and some people don’t understand it,” Funk said. But the tone seemed to resonate with audiences when it premiered at film festivals. Buoyed by the warm reception, they decided to expand it into a full-length feature. Vaught would go on to produce and star. The original short debuted in 80 film festivals across 15 countries. It won 11 awards including Director’s Choice Award at the Chicago Horror film festival. The feature film had a local premier at Chico’s Pageant Theater in October before its release on digital platforms — it also garnered the attention of the New York Times in their list of horror movies to stream.

“Evil Dead 2,” “Peewee’s Playhouse,” and the Japanese horror film “House” were among the film’s inspirations. The surrealist animation-style of Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer also heavily influenced Funk, particularly his film’s sequence involving a spider-like creature with legs made of pretzels.

Going from a short film to a full-length production wasn’t easy, Vaught said. It took two years to film and animate the full feature, with shooting taking place during the summer of 2024 and 2025. “The first rule is you don’t put your own money in the project, but because we love this project, we believe in it so much that we’re willing to break that rule,” Vaught said. In order to assemble a crew in Northern California, Funk looked to his film students. He hired many of them as interns; Others would receive school credit for working on the production. “I had over 40 Chico State students work on this film with me. People who were good at different things like sculpture, concept design, character design, storyboards, anything,” he said. Although the production was long and labor-intensive, Funk wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I would much rather make a film that took three years that I stressed over, and I’m doing it by hand with a bunch of friends, then something that I can press a couple buttons or write a few prompts,” he said. Funk is currently working on two other feature films, both of which will involve stop-motion and live-action. He plans to continue including his students in his film productions. “The Fuzzies” is currently streaming for free on Tubi. It will soon be released on Blu-ray, with special behind-the-scenes commentary from Funk and Vaught.