I might have talked about this before, but I used to watch a lot of Nickelodeon and Disney when I was young.
I want to talk about one of my favorite episodes of this show that I used to love and watch and now.... well, I'll talk about that later.
Are You Afraid of the Dark is a show with kids talking about short stories around a campfire. Some of them can be scary and other times...interesting. The cast has changed within the years and by the end of the series, the original cast I remembered from the series were gone. Here are a few of my favorite episodes.
Lonely Ghost- Around the first season, there was this one story that involved a shy girl staying with her bitchy cousin for the summer. There's an abandoned house next door that has a dark story of a mute girl who died in there. Although the shy girl doesn't believe in it, it becomes true when she sees the ghost of the mute girl. There's also a darker story within it. The shy girl's snobby cousin has a nanny that is also the mother of the mute girl.
Locker 22- A new girl from France moves to a new school. She gets a locker that belongs to a girl who died in an explosion at the school. The new girl finds some beads from the 60's in the locker and travels back in time to the day of that deceased girl's death. The new girl befriends someone, and he saves her when she goes back in time. They even chance the course of history at the end where the girl that died...is now the new school principal.
Shiny Red Bicycle- This was one of the first episodes I saw in this show. It's about a boy who can't stop dreaming about his friend's tragic death which involved a shiny red bicycle. He keeps seeing his friend's ghost and he's not there to scare him but warn him. It seems the boy's brother is in danger and is about to die at the same place his friend died at.
Apartment 214- A divorced mother and her daughter move to an apartment for sale. There is another person living in another apartment that the girl befriends. However, she breaks the old woman's promise and finds out the truth about it. It seems the old woman the girl befriends was a ghost and it seems she has nowhere to go, even in the afterlife. So, she and her mother decide to move into her apartment that was cheaper.
The Watcher's Woods- This one is a story about two girls at camp that get lost in the woods and get captured by three witches. The witches are really three girls that got lost in the woods and died. They had these whistles that were at the camp and it's these whistles that can bring the young girls' souls to heaven. It takes all the strength and courage for the two girls not only get the whistles but end up being friends at the end.
Bookish babysitter- This was around the era before the internet exploded and Facebook, Instagram and even TikTok were the new norm. A boy doesn't want to read and play video games instead. A babysitter decides to read a book that takes them into the adventure. He fights witches, ghosts and eventually finishes the story with the king's ghost to go back to his crypt. It's an ok story, but looking at it now, I doubt this story would be made today.
Quicksilver- Tatiana Ali stars in a dule role as twins. Seems the first died in a fire and her sister doesn't want to relive it. Two boys move to her old house and find an old yearbook that has her photo in it with a huge Q on it. The boy's younger brother is sick and might be in danger. He and Tatiana do the same thing her dead sister did that would send a spirit from another world to their home. He is defeated and Tatiana's sister's spirit is at peace.
Cutter's Treasure- This was a two-part episode that involves two boys that find a treasure that belongs to an evil pirate named Cutter. His ghost returns for revenge kidnapping one of the boys. The older brother has to save him with the help of two men that usually are in some of these AYAOTD stories. This story wasn't one of my favorites, but I did enjoy the story even if I didn't watch it.
Dead man's Float- This episode had nightmare fuel when I was little. The actor that portrays the evil villain would scare anyone the way he was designed. The story takes place in a school pool where there is an evil that pulls kids under and drowns them. A boy and a girl find a way to not only to stop it, but to save everyone from drowning. This episode was ok, but when I was kid and saw that villain...I got nightmares. Now, it reminds me of the villain of Stranger Things.
Chameleons- Tia and Tamara Mowry guest starred in this episode where one girl eventually turns into a chameleon after getting bitten by a lizard in a pet store. Her friend notices the changes and wonders who she really is. Her friend tries to help and save her by eventually killing off the lizard.... or did she? At the end it seems Tia (or Tamara forget which) realizes they left one lizard in the well that was in the backyard of the girl's house.
Station 109.1- Ryan Gosling stars in this episode alongside the late Gilbert Gotfried in an episode that involves a young boy obsessed with death. Ryan Gosling plays his older brother, Jake. The boy hears a radio station about the afterlife while in a hearse. He decides to check it out and well...it gets worse for him. Gilbert thinks he is an old man that just died and decides to send the kid to the afterlife. Ryan Gosling ends up meeting the real ghost and they go to save his brother.
Those were some of the stories that I remembered from my childhood. There were others that I liked as well, but there are too many to list. Are You Afraid of the Dark came back but it was different. It seems the so-called 'Midnight Society' is in the story that either involves a ghost island or a creepy carnival. Do I like it? Not as much as I did the others. I guess the original kids that told the stories all grew up and changed drastically with new characters. It doesn't mean the stories are bad but...it's not great.
I'm a writer and I write stories that are similar to the AYAOTD stories that the kids tell around the campfire. I miss my childhood, but I'm glad Are You Afraid of the Dark is no longer on TV, but you can still see the older episodes on YouTube. I do. Are you afraid?
No comments:
Post a Comment