Are You Afraid Of The Dark? Starring Ross Hull, Raine Pare-Coull, Jodie Resther, Jason Alisharan, Daniel DeSanto, Joanna Garcia, Rachel Blanchard, Nathaniel Moreau, Jacob Tierney & Codie Lucas Wilbee Original run: October 31, 1990 - June 11, 2000

This style would span several other shows over the years, examples being the extremely short lived and underrated "Outer Limits" and the not so memorable "The Art Gallery". "The Twilight Zone" was rebooted several decades later, but it wasn't the same.

Then there's the famous "Tales from the Crypt" inspired by the old comics. The show ran on HBO for several years and had some insanely bizarre episodes, some funny, some scary, and some just what the fuck? Another show at this time was "Tales from the Darkside", but I hardly watched it.

Out of all these shows though, the one I grew up watching was a show on Nickelodeon. It played usually on Snick (short for Saturday Night Nickelodeon) on Saturday nights, and even for a kids show, it was surprisingly dark in some episodes. I've wanted to do this article for a while now, and I'm hella excited to finally type it, especially for Halloween season.

So, Submitted for the approval of BthroughZ, I call this article...Scariest for Kiddies: A Tribute to "Are you Afraid of the Dark?"

In case you where wondering what the hell it was all about, the basics of the show were this: On a designated night, a group of teenagers (around five to seven) would meet around a fire in the woods after dark. They would call themselves the Midnight Society and they would meet to simply tell the story they had planned.

Usually how his process worked was that whoever had the story that night would sit at the main chair and give a brief hint at what the subject their story was about. After that, they would say "Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story..." After that, they would throw a powdery substance to increase the flames and build the fire, and then say the name of the story as "The tale of *** ****** ***".

From then on the story would be played out with brief narration by the character telling the story. After the story was fully played out, it would shift back to the campfire. The scene would then usually end with the line "I declare this meeting of the Midnight Society Closed" and one of them would pour water from a red bucket onto the fire.

The show lasted for five good seasons and as the seasons went on, some of the teenagers would leave (in the story they moved away) and new teenagers joined the group via being friends or relatives of members. The characters of the Midnight Society were:

Garry (Full Series)
Betty Ann (Full Series)
Kiki (Full Series)
Frank (Season 1-4)
Kristen (Season 1-2)
Eric (Season 1)
David (Season 1-2)
Tucker (Season 3-5, also Garry's younger brother)
Samantha (Season 3-5)
Stig (Season 5)

Usually, certain characters had reoccuring themes to their stories, and where well known for keeping them through there seasons. Sometimes there stories where adaptations of already famous stories (The Twisted Claw was a younger version of the Monkey's Paw). Other times they where inspired by real life events.

Before I continue, I'd like to point out that after the series ended in 1995, it was restarted again in 1999 with Tucker starting his own Midnight Society with his brother and the others having grown up and left. I didn't watch this, not because it was bad or anything, but because this was when I was reaching my teen years and I was watching less and less Nickelodeon. So Seasons 6 and 7 won't be addressed in this.

Opening and Closing Themes

I feel these also deserve to be addressed. The show's opening and closing are some of the most memorable I've seen.

The opening had a low stringed instrument playing with images at night, moving from several locations; a boat at a dock, a playground, some window shutters banging. It then shifts to an attic with toys and closes in on a keyhole. It finally ends with a hand holding a lit match infront of the title. I don't care what age you are, watch that opening in the dark and try not to have chills. Also, one or two episodes in the beginning had a different opening. The ending usually consisted of a rocking Halloween like theme with an image from the episode shown behind the credits. Not nearly as bone chilling, but depending on the episode it still gives a shiver.

Types of Episodes

A lot of the episodes varied, some were straight up horror, other's were a lot deeper and meaningful. Some where fun, others scary, and some sad. A wide range of supernatural elements where used as well, including ghosts, aliens, monsters, folklore, wizards and vampires. They also always focused on teenagers, a lot of the time the story showing them as they go through troubles of some kind.

Some episodes where similar to already existing stories, TV episodes and books, as mentioned above with the Monkey's Paw. Another example is the tale "The Curious Camera" which showed inspirations from the Twilight Zone's "A most Unusual Camera" and Stephen King's "The Sun Dog". There was also "The Midnight Ride" which was a modernday telling of Sleepy Hollow. Also, the "Super Specs" shows hints of "They Live".

Another well known and memorable aspect of the show was the number of guest appearances. Check out Wiki and go down the list of guest stars, you'll be surprised.

Endings

Usually this show had a bit of a happy ending to leave you feeling good. Example being 'The Frozen Ghost', the story of a rich boy and his babysitter who are sent to stay at his elderly aunts where he see's visions of a ghostly boy claiming he's cold. He learns that the ghost died after hiding some stolen treasure and froze while hidng in the snow. After giving him his lost coat, the spirit disappears and the boy finds the treasure.

Another example is the pilot episode, "The Phantom Cab". In it, two brothers stumble upon a professor (I'll get to him later in the article) and after failing to solve a riddle are given to a dead cab driver who kills everyone who fails to solve the riddle by way of car crash. However, the younger brother solves it before the accident and they live, with him getting more respect from his older brother (who found him mostly irritating).

However, not all episodes ended happily, and actually gave us some very dark endings for a kids show. The episode "The Pinball Wizard" has a kid who works for a shop keeper simply to play the new pinball game he has, something the owner doesn't want as the last kid did this. Once he tries to leave, he finds he's stuck in the game and must save the princess. He does, but then relizes that the shop owner has trapped him in the game forever.

"The Tale of the Chameleons" is another example. In it, a girl doesn't listen to the rumor that being bitten twice by a chameleon and touching water will turn you into a chameleon. So, the girl gets turned into a chameleon and the chameleon assumes the girl's identity. The girl manages to change back and both she and the chameleon version of her fight with a friend who cannot figure out which one is evil. At first, it seems the friend does the right thing as she dumps all the chameleons down the well and sprays water on the girl she believes is her friend (rather than the chameleon version of her friend). However, afterwards the girl is revealed to be the chameleon as she to the well for her chameleon family, and they then plan to start an invasion.

Occasionally there was an ending that was in the middle of the Good/Bad scale, as the lead characters aren't harmed but the danger wasn't gone. In "The Thirteenth Floor", two teenagers in an apartment usually play on the abandoned 13th floor. However, one day they find it remodeled into a playroom. At first its fun, but soon the boy is put to sleep and the girl is continually in danger of being captured by the aliens who run it. Both manage to escape, but then the TV in the girls room reveals that she is actually the aliens daughter and they where trying rescue her. When the boy looks over, she has suddenly changed into an alien.

One other I remember well was "The Renegade Virus". Two teenagers are good friends but one tends to give the other the raw end of the stick. When they visit a friend who's working on a virtual reality game, one of them agrees to give it a try. Once inside, he finds he's at the mercy of a computer virus that intends to invade his mind and ravage the real world. With the help of the friend (who actually put the virus in as a means to get even, but didn't intend to do real damage), he manages to escape and they both walk away fine, however, the virus is shown to still exist.

Returning Characters

All the stories were stand alone. However, two characters would return for several episodes as they where created by certain members of the Midnight Society.

One was Dr. Vink, with a Vuh-Vuh-Vuh. With a large build, long gray hair and large beard, he was a semi-antagonist in most episodes. A running joke was his people calling him a 'nutbag' and him replying "I am not a nutbag". Usually, he wasn't intentionally evil, and didn't ever want to hurt someone too badly, but he would do anything to succeed in what he wanted, an example being "The Tale of the Dangerous Soup". In it he's a chef and has a soup that everyone comes to eat. As it turns out, the secret ingredient is an exiler made from fear. A demon in a tribal statue owned by Vink finds your worst fear, forces you to confront it and harvests the fear in the form of the elixir. Vink uses his employees to get the elixer. Two young cooks of his release the demon, but even after it's under control, he's shown still fully intending to use the statue to keep his business going.

The other character was a fraud magician named Sardo, no Mister, accent on the doh. More comedic, he's always seen running a magic shop offering certain magical objects for a price. He usually would have them for sale at outrageous prices, but after the complaint by a customer, he would lower the price and add "but I'm losing on the deal".

The episode I remember most with him was "The Tale of the Carved Stone". He sold a magical stone to a teenage girl who just moved to town and had no friends. However, that stone is also needed by a dark clothed man who's an evil sorcerer. Using Sardo, he finds the girl but before he can claim the stone, she uses the stone to teleport in time to the 1890's and befriends Thomas Jefferson. Together, they stop the sorcerer and she returns to her own time, knowing that even through the ages, she has a friend. These two characters would actually reunite in a two part episode where both played part in two boys being trapped by the ghost of a dead pirate who longs to be free from his prison.

Also worth mentioning was a character called Zeebo the Clown, from the episode "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark", who was referenced several times in other episodes.

My top 5 favorite episodes

Honorable Mention: "The Tale of the Dark Dragon" - A unique episode, a boy with a limp uses a potion to help free him and impress the girls, but in turn causes him to struggle with a new ugliness. To make matters worse, a girl who likes him starts using the potion as well. If anything, this was more a love story then a horror one.

Honorable Mention: "The Tale of the Dollmaker" - A young girl who visits her aunt and uncle for the summer, finds that her best friend's house is empty. When she explores it, she learns that the doll house in the attic is more then just a replica and learns how some dolls are made.

#5: "The Tale of the Quiet Librarian" - This episode has a bookworm student reluctantly teamed with a jock for their class project. After he leaves her books in the library, they sneak in to try to find them. However, they discover that the librarian is one of the stereotypical ones that demands silence. Absolute silence. They then must avoid being completely void of sound and life.

4: "The Tale of the Unfinished Painting" - A young woman who is an aspiring artist is struggling to find inspiration. She finally gets her break when a woman from an art gallery lets her practice painting on an un-finished panting, with the rule of only using the brushes she provides. However, she gets a feeling something isn't right and learns that the paintings can capture the soul. Literally.

3: "The Tale of the Hatching" - A brother and sister are sent to a boarding school that serves a bizarre lunch called Spunge. Also bizarre is that the Headmaster and teachers can't stand extra loud noise. The children resist the urge to eat the food, and weeks later relize that they were smart not to. The Spunge makes the kids come at night and feed a reptile like race that plans to hatch and launch an invasion.

2: "The Tale of the Fire Ghost" - A brother and sister are celebrating their dad's birthday at the fire station, but it's cut short when he and the fellow firefighters are called out to a fire. The two are then left with the firefighter who watches the station. As they talk, he begins to explain that fire isn't simply combustion, it's alive with a spirit, and that even after it's dead, is still deadly. He warns them that by looking into the flame, the Fire Ghost will be allowed into their world. Sadly, the brother is lured by flames and looks in.

1: "The Tale of the Dead Man's Float" - Many, me included, consider this one of the scariest episodes, the only one scarier being the Night Shift. Most consider Night Shift the scariest, but I'd say Dead Man's Float comes in a close second. At a High School pool in the 50's, a kid is enjoying the water while the lifeguard is with his older sister. However, something comes for him and despite the lifeguard arriving, it doesn't allow him to rescue the boy. Decades later, a nerdy high school boy who's got a crush on a girl in the swim team shows her the pool which was hidden and locked up. Weeks later, it's restored and she then brings him there after school hours to teach him to swim in exchange for help on chemistry. However, the thing that was there 40 years ago returns.

That will just about due it for this issue, you can find the show on DVD now, so give it a try if you can. Next Issue, we return to normal and review big ass worms in the Nevada Dessert. Until then, Happy Halloween!