A TikTok user has shared footage of the time her daughter was “living in a horror movie,” but the incident in question is far sweeter than you might assume.
Uploaded by user Madison (@maaaaaaadison), the video begins rather concerningly, as we see Ring Camera footage of a front yard and the distant screams of a little girl screaming “Mommy!”. That haunting plea is followed by an even scarier “they’re following me!”, with viewers naturally left to believe that the unseen girl is being stalked by something that warrants all the blood-curdling squeals.
Is it an unwelcome gang? Or perhaps a horde of suspicious teens? With our algorithms increasingly overrun by scary tales in recent days, it’s natural that such questions are top of mind, especially as the girl sprints into view to knock anxiously on the front door and beg for her mother’s assistance. Well, fear not, dear reader, because as the clip continues to unfold, we learn that the subject of the girl’s screams is not some dubious entity, but a family of ducks.
Composed of a few larger ducks and some adorable ducklings, the flock is soon seen waddling in the girl’s wake, delivering a level of cuteness that sits in stark contrast to the screams they induced just seconds earlier. Their response to the girl’s overreaction, as you’d expect, is a few well-deserved quacks, which probably translate from duck to English as “drama queen, much?”.
Understandably, the girl’s mother is seen holding back laughter as she rushes to the front door to assess the situation, as her daughter sprints out of frame with all the energy of Usain Bolt. The mother warns the girl to “stay in the car” or risk the wrath of the little waddlers, before the video ends and leaves us in a state of euphoria, which all-too-rare as we collectively doom scroll in the wake of the presidential election.
If you initially thought the girl was in danger — on account of the fact that her squeals could shatter glass — then you’re not alone. “Omg I was so happy to see ducks come around the corner instead of a person,” one user wrote in response to the video, with another also expressing relief when “I saw it was just a few ducks.” Echoing this sentiment, some commenters said they were “so not prepared” to discover the flock, who they adorably called “Donald, Daisy and Daffy.”
The overwhelming reaction was relief, since many users expected “to see Mike Meyers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger and Pennywise turn the corner.” Elsewhere, viewers commented on the girl’s hilarious reaction, writing sarcastically that “at least she stayed calm,” and thought that the contrast between “the slow emergence of ducks [and] a blood-curdling scream is top-notch comedy.”
It marks the most recent instance of TikTok delivering us a much-needed dose of cute animal content, having witnessed everything from an adorable doggy daycare to lone kitten rescues and Oscar-worthy dog faints in recent days. As the For You Page increasingly becomes a source of commiseration, it’s nice when the only imminent horror is a group of waddling ducks.