Are You Afraid Of The Dark? terrorized a whole generation of kids with its spooky stories and unforgettable monsters. Many of us longed to join the ranks of the Midnight Society and take our turn throwing non-dairy creamer into the crackling fire.
The show remains a burning beacon of nostalgia in our memories. Many of the ghouls and ghosts still haunt fans to this day. With a reboot of the show on the horizon this Halloween season, it's time to revisit some of the best and scariest episodes, submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society.
The Tale of the Midnight Madness
This tale features a small historic theater on the verge of going out of business. One of the employees, Pete, wants to find a way to save the theater, and who should arrive but Dr. Vink (with a v, v, v) in his second appearance since the very first episode.
He brings with him a very special edition of the movie Nosferatu, sure to bring in customers. Things take a turn for the worse when the silent vampire slips from the silver screen into the real world, and Pete has to put his knowledge of horror cinema to the test to defeat it.
The Tale of the Shiny Red Bicycle
Despite David in the introduction to the episode trying to claim losing your bike is like losing a part of your brain, this episode remains one of the most genuinely emotional tales of the series. Mikey is unable to prevent the death of his best friend Ricky, and the guilt of it haunts him.
But guilt isn't the only thing haunting him; the pale specter of the drowned Ricky, trailing his beloved red bicycle, keeps showing up. In a touching reveal, it's made clear that Ricky isn't haunting Mikey, but instead trying to warn him that his brother Ben is in danger.
The Tale of the Unfinished Painting
This is one of the more dreamlike and surreal episodes, but that doesn't make it any less frightening. The unreality of the set up only serves to make the viewer uneasy, even if at first everything seems normal enough. Cody even seems like she's getting a lucky break with a chance to apprentice under a prolific gallery owner to improve her own art.
But, as with all tales for the Midnight Society, nothing is what it first appears. The gallery owner Mrs. Briar is actually a witch. Rather than nurturing young artists, she's stealing their souls through their paintings and sacrificing them for eternal life.
The Tale of C7
The name of this tale sure doesn't give much away, but t's actually in reference to a record in a haunted jukebox discovered by siblings Jason and Lisa shortly after moving into a new home. The two kids figure out that the jukebox seems to be able to summon spirits from the past.
This is another episode more sweet than scary. When Jason plays the C7 record, he's transported back in time to a scene where a young soldier returns home only to find that his beloved had given him up for dead. However, Jason and Lisa's efforts in the present manage to reunite the two lost souls and makes for a happy ending.
The Tale of the Mystical Mirror
It seems like the only thing a witch wants is to steal the souls of beautiful young girls. This episode instead takes a moral route about the dangers of prioritizing physical beauty above all else.
Mrs. Valenti, the aforementioned witch, runs a beauty salon, but her young employees frequently seem to turn up missing. The protagonist, Cindy, is the one to finally uncover her sinister plot. Mrs. Valenti lures girls in with the promise of being beautiful, and then, when they're under her control, she sacrifices them to stay gorgeous forever.
The Tale of the Vacant Lot
In this episode, a girl named Catherine isn't satisfied with herself. She wants to be faster, smarter, more beautiful. Lucky for her, she meets a mysterious masked woman in a vacant lot who can give her all this and more. Yet, the more Catherine takes, the colder she becomes and she notices disfiguring lesions on her skin when she looks in the mirror.
Eventually, the masked woman collects on the debt Catherine owes, passing on the curse of greed. In the end, Catherine manages to break the curse by selflessly saving her sister.
The Tale of Vampire Town
Adder Carballo, a spoiled goth boy obsessed with vampires, convinces his family to take a vacation in the town of Wisteria. He heard about a vampire attack in the area and wants to find out if they're real and maybe even hunt one down. He tries to think like his prey, which is why he dresses and acts the way he does.
However, Adder gets more than he bargained for when the great vampire Dreyfus does, in fact, turn out to be real. Adder realizes that it isn't a game anymore, and, with the help of his new friend Stanley and morgue owner Carl, manage to burn Dreyfus to a crisp.
The Tale of the Dead Man's Float
A favorite of many fans of the series, "The Tale of the Dead Man's Float" holds up to this day. The episode builds a real sense of suspense and danger leading up to the reveal of one of the most terrifying monsters in the entire show. But, just as important as the creature effects are the great characterization and acting, which were never guaranteed since the show featured a rotating cast of child actors.
The budding romance between Zeke and Clorice during their investigation of their school's abandoned swimming pool is perhaps the most believable relationship the show every crafted.
The Tale of the Dream Girl
This episode takes a turn from many of the show's tales because there's no monster or evil villain. Instead, viewers are giving a somber and bittersweet tale about love persisting even after death. The main character, Johnny, starts seeing a mysterious girl everywhere after he finds a ring he can't take off.
We don't want to spoil the ending of one of the most heartfelt episodes in the show's history, but, suffice it to say that some people speculate this might have secretly been an inspiration for M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense.
The Tale of the Night Shift
The number one ranked episode on IMDb also happens to be the finale of the original series before it was brought back with a new generation of Midnight Society members. It utilizes the classic horror setting of a hospital to maximize the creep factor. The villain is a vampire yet again, but a more unusual take on one. It's a shapeshifting monster slowly making its way through the hospital's patients, leaving them empty, zombie-like husks.
It's up to trainee nurse Amanda to discover what's going on and put a stop to it before she too falls into the vampire's clutches. It's a great closer to an era of the series that's sure to give you goosebumps.