As a ’90s kids, watching Goosebumps and Are You Afraid Of The Dark? was part of regular life. It was fun being freaked out by stories about everything from monsters and creatures to creepy apartments and librarians.
Now it feels sweet and fun to look back on these two shows, but it’s also possible to break down each episode of Are You Afraid Of The Dark? and see how these stories captivated fans and kept them coming back for more. Are You Afraid Of The Dark? takes a totally unique approach to telling scary stories, and people can appreciate a lot of things about this popular series, including its impressive storytelling.
Out of the ’90s kids shows people are nostalgic for, Are You Afraid Of The Dark? does a great job showing the art of storytelling. The very premise is all about how people tell scary stories, not just the content of those stories themselves. Fans know and love The Midnight Society, the group of kids who make a fire in the woods and share terrifying tales about apartment buildings where ghosts live or aliens running a boarding school. It’s interesting that the show decided to have this type of set-up. Instead of being an anthology horror series with different stories in each episode, the show has characters introducing the tales and sitting around a campfire. This is a deliberate choice that sets the series apart and it’s one reason why people love it so much.
Telling stories around a campfire is a tale as old as time. It’s one of the most classic forms of storytelling and evokes images of people living in caves and entertaining each other. In a way, Are You Afraid Of The Dark? proves Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” theory to be true. The fact that these characters are telling each other stories around a campfire is what really makes this show special.
As it turns out, The Twilight Zone inspired Are You Afraid Of The Dark? Filmmakers and TV showrunners are always looking for fresh, new ways to tell stories and Are You Afraid Of The Dark? showed that it’s possible to talk about a lot of different experiences, characters, settings, and scary situations in a single season of a TV show.
According to Den Of Geek, creator Joel MacHale made sure that the characters would say “submitted for the approval of The Midnight Society” prior to telling their scary story because that phrase was used in a few episodes of The Twilight Zone MacHale also talked about being inspired by that classic series: “Are You Afraid of the Dark? sprang more from the kind of short story spooky tradition, of which I’d put Twilight Zone in that category. I tried to come up with [different] types of stories, whether some be more dramatic, some maybe romantic, some flat out scary, some with vampires. Each season was crafted to have a whole range of stories. And that’s straight out of the Twilight Zone. They always made you think a little bit, and there’s always a little bit of a twist to it, and it was more unsettling and weird than it was flat out scary.”
Are You Afraid Of The Dark? has scary episodes and it’s possible to feel creeped out by what these characters go through. While every episode has characters who figure out what’s happening and who fight back, there are some episodes that are particularly good. When the show excels, it’s because the scary stories take a regular and familiar situation and amp it up.
The season 4 episode “The Tale of the Quiet Librarian” has an excellent story that backs up its perfect name. What would happen if a librarian was sick and tired of hearing noise and really wanted to keep the place as quiet as possible? Everyone knows that they should try to whisper in this environment, and this episode takes it one step further. Kiki (Jodie Resther) shares the tale of a group of kids who realize that something weird is happening at their library. The characters see the Quiet Librarian, a horrible spirit who gets mad at noises and will put anyone or anything making noise into a box. The ending is satisfying as the kids save everyone who has been put into the box and they get to go back home, and the memory of this creepy librarian ghost lives on.
The Are You Afraid Of The Dark? reboot, which has had two seasons so far, has done a smart job with scary storytelling. Season 1 is called “Carnival of Doom” tells the story of Rachel (Lyliana Wray) who becomes part of The Midnight Society and who discovers a scary carnival that is incredibly dangerous. Season 2 is called “Curse of the Shadows” and focuses on a group of friends who look into a terrifying legend when one of them disappears. Instead of being a horror anthology, these two seasons tell a longer story but still feature the same creepy tone and great characters who are good friends and investigate what’s going on.
Everyone who grew up watching Are You Afraid Of The Dark? remembers it well, and the show’s approach to storytelling is definitely interesting.
NEXT: New Goosebumps TV Series Picked Up By Disney Plus
