Foreverisacastironmess123 Review of Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990–2000)

"I call this story..." One hell of a kid's show, still awesome!

[10/10 · 7 January 2016]

I still love this series dearly, it's such a retro 90's dream to me. Like most fans I first ever saw it when I was a kid at school, and being a big fan of horror movies and stories and stuff like that I was immediately hooked and it made a big impression on me and really captured my young imagination. It was so cool and fun seeing a group of kids around a campfire in the dark sharing scary stories. My favourite group was from the first season, there's something especially special about those earliest episodes to me. There isn't any throughout the series that quite manage to shake that 'safe' feeling that children's programming provides, but there's certainly a brilliant variety to them. There's occasionally some real imagination behind the goofy veneer, and some of the directors were able to be very creative with what they were given and managed to make their episodes stand out. They go from genuinely creepy tales like "Dark Music", "Laughing in the Dark" and "The Dollmaker", to more poignant and moving yarns like "Apartment 214" "Shiny Red Bicycle" and "Dream Girl". There were also the odd seriously whacked-out episodes like "The Tale of the Ghastly Grinner." But man, when they were bad they weren't kidding, and there's a fair amount of lame episodes where the cheesiness positively oozes from every frame and the acting is so gloriously bad that it's liable to leave you feeling a bit light-headed! We were all children when we loved it the most, but there's still loads of fun to be had from the show to this day. Maybe to some not in the most flattering light, but I think it holds up just the same, it's the greatest children's anthology show there ever was. I try to take it as seriously as possible even if the episode sure isn't making it easy. I don't enjoy it purely as a goof, like I'm not only deriving enjoyment by laughing at it, I don't believe I'd be a true fan if that were the case. I feel a tremendous loyalty towards this show, watching the eerie intro sequence and hearing the theme tune always gives me a warm nostalgic feeling inside that makes me smile. It will always be classic and great to me. From the bottom of my heart I thank every one of the different directors, producers and all of the creative minds that gave life to Are You Afraid of the Dark, you people gave many a childhood an extra touch of spooky magic!