20 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?' Episodes That Scarred A Generation For Life
Vote up the ‘Are You Afraid of the Dark?’ episodes that still frighten you as an adult.
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The Tale Of The Shiny Red Bicycle
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Are You Afraid of the Dark? injects some real-world trauma into the mix in this episode. A kid named Mike is still recovering from a childhood accident five years earlier in which he tried and failed to save his friend from drowning in a river. When Mike’s old buddy and his bright red bike start appearing, he starts to unravel - either he's insane or there's something more.
- Original Airing: August 28, 1993
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 2
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 2
The Tale Of The Frozen Ghost
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On one hand, “The Tale of the Frozen Ghost” features some of the series’ most intense moments after a bratty rich kid and his poor babysitter are terrorized by the ghost of a shivering young kid. On the other hand, the little brat’s initial behavior makes you kind of root for the ghost while he and his babysitter are trying to figure out the reason behind the haunting.
- Original Airing: August 14, 1993
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 2
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 3
The Tale Of The Quicksilver
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Bad things happen when amateur witches try to ward off demons on their own. In "The Tale of the Quicksilver," one character’s twin already learned that lesson the hard way, while another is on the same path. Add a house that’s so infused with evil, it makes its residents sick, and you've got a creepy story.
- Original Airing: April 02, 1994
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 3
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 4
The Tale Of The Ghastly Grinner
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Kids dream about the heroes of their comic books being real, but what about the villains? Beware the Ghastly Grinner! Armed with the power to reduce people to drooling morons, the Ghastly Grinner escapes the confines of his unfinished comic book to terrorize the life of an aspiring artist named Ethan.
Just when you think you know where the plot is headed, someone gets their face erased.
Is this still scary? - 5
The Tale Of Watcher’s Woods
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Nothing stirs up genuine fright like stranding some kids in the woods - especially when those woods are supposedly haunted by something called the “Watcher,” a man linked to the disappearance of several campers years earlier.
Shades of Friday the 13th, with a heavy dollop of supernatural terror fuels this frantic episode.
Is this still scary? - 6
The Tale Of The Dark Music
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The new house that Andy moves into is haunting enough without sinister old-school music eerily playing at odd hours in the night. Even worse, it seems as though Andy’s uncle once shared the house with something really scary that lives in the basement - something that only comes out when the music is playing...
- Original Airing: October 24, 1992
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 1
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 7
The Tale Of The Water Demons
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When Shawn and his cousin visit a retired sailor, Shawn steals a trinket from the recovered treasure of a sunken yacht. Bad idea, as it turns out the treasure is cursed by the ghosts of the yacht’s victims who constantly harass the old man. These terrifying demons become dead set on recovering the stolen trinket, haunting Shawn and his cousin until it’s returned.
Is this still scary? - 8
The Tale of the Dead Man's Float
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Since Jaws made everyone afraid to go in the ocean, Are You Afraid of the Dark decided to make us all afraid of pools as well. The story starts in the 1950s, when a young boy drowns in the school pool. The lifeguard, Charlie, tries to save him, but something is pulling him underneath. Flash forward to present day, where students Zeke and Clorice discover the abandoned pool and convince the school to reopen it. Way to go, guys! Turns out that the pool was built over an old cemetery, and a spirit is still lurking below, ready to grab anyone who disturbs its sleep. It gets worse when we meet the spirit, in the form of a bloody, water-logged corpse monster.
- Original Airing: October 07, 1995
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 5
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 9
The Tale Of The Super Specs
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In a creepy version of the satirical film They Live, "The Tale of the Super Specs" features a teenager with the dubious nickname "Weeds," who buys a pair of magical glasses from a nefarious magic shop that would appear throughout the show’s run. When Weeds’ lady friend Mary Beth puts the glasses on, she discovers an entire race of beings cloaked in black who have been living among the populace in secret.
- Original Airing: September 19, 1992
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 1
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 10
The Tale Of The Silent Servant
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Three words: giant mute scarecrow. Sure, it might seem like an Oz dream-come-true to use a magic spell to bring the farm’s scarecrow to life, but you have to be really careful with how you word your instructions. After all, it’s entirely possible that the menacing sentinel will think you want it to murder someone close to you.
- Original Airing: November 12, 1994
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 4
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 11
The Tale of Many Faces
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- Are You Afraid of the Dark
- Nickelodeon
In this nightmare of an episode, a hopeful model named Emma meets a beautiful girl at a photo shoot audition. The girl introduces her to Madame Visage, who gives Emma a mysterious face powder that will make her beautiful. Nevermind that Madame Visage is surrounded by masked girls wearing robes and referred to as numbers, Emma is sold. Emma starts using the powder and finds that it works as advertised. Madame Visage ominously announces that she's ready, and pulls out her book of faces. She steals Emma's face for her book, and Emma becomes one of the many faceless masked girls whose identities have been stolen by Madame Visage. Turns out, Madame Visage is hundreds of years old, but wears the faces of young girls, luring their friends and family in by impersonating them. Oh, and if that's not creepy enough, Madame Visage punishes those who try to disobey her by trapping them in her "punishment book" where they are lost forever.
- Original Airing: June 04, 2000
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 7
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - Photo:
- 12
The Tale Of The Phantom Cab
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The pilot episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? is also one of its most chilling. The first appearance of the sadistic Dr. Vink - who causes havoc throughout the rest of the series - begins with two brothers caught in the clutches of a riddle-obsessed lunatic who has been luring people to their deaths for 40 years. “What has no weight, can be seen by the naked eye, and if put in a barrel, will make the barrel lighter?” Figure out the answer and you might just survive the night.
(Don't worry - the answer is a hole).
- Original Airing: August 15, 1992
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 1
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 13
The Tale Of The Thirteenth Floor
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There comes a time when siblings suspect that their little brother or sister is from another planet. This serves as the basis for the story of Billy and his adopted sister, Karen. When the duo find that the abandoned thirteenth floor of their apartment building has been taken over by a group of toy makers, Billy harbors suspicions about the company’s motives and their intentions toward his sister.
- Original Airing: July 10, 1993
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 2
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 14
The Tale Of The Mystical Mirror
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Years before Danish film director Nicolas Winding Refn came up with his nutty Neon Demon, a suspiciously similar story was shared in "The Tale of the Mystical Mirror." In this episode, a young woman takes a job at a boutique shop overseen by the creep-tastic Ms. Valenti. When Cindy follows up on a series of disappearances at the shop, she discovers that Ms. Valenti is actually a witch who’s feeding on the souls of her youthful employees.
- Original Airing: November 11, 1995
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 5
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 15
The Tale Of The Dangerous Soup
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In one of the rare episodes that ends poorly for The Midnight Society, "The Tale of the Dangerous Soup" features the return of Dr. Vink as the proprietor of the most famous restaurant in town, The Wild Boar. Whenever people visit, their only order is the restaurant’s famous soup, which has strict rules on consumption. It’s $100 a bowl and customers are only allowed to have one.
As it so happens, Dr. Vink had been using his employees’ fear as the secret ingredient, aided by a beastly creature who could manifest the fear as an actual thing.
- Original Airing: April 16, 1994
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 3
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 16
The Tale Of The Nightly Neighbors
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What’s creepier than a vampire neighbor a la Fright Night? How about an entire family of black-donned bloodsuckers who descend on a small town? As friends and neighbors begin to succumb to a mysterious illness, a young woman named Emma and her brother set out to find a way to stop the invaders.
- Original Airing: October 03, 1992
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 1
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 17
The Tale Of The Hatching
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While their parents are away, two kids are dumped at an old boarding school. The headmaster’s insistence on using only calm tones and the odd food that’s served lead the children to investigate. To their horror, they discover that lizard people are cultivating an invading army at their school. Bonus points to the show for using semi-big-budget effects for the show’s final monster, the Lizard Master.
- Original Airing: September 25, 1993
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 2
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 18
The Tale Of The Closet Keepers
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Inspired by Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, “The Tale of the Closet Keepers” follows a young, deaf girl who is tossed in a cell on an alien planet that’s totally not Tralfamadore. This claustrophobic episode is filled with twists and turns and, though it’s been done before, the execution is masterful.
- Original Airing: January 07, 1995
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 4
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 19
The Tale Of The Renegade Virus
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Who needs enemies when you’ve got friends, right? At least, that’s what one kid learns when his buddy tricks him into putting on a VR headset that traps him in a realistic world run by an ill-tempered computer virus. What's terrifying is that the virus is intent on taking over the kid's mind in order to head out into the real world.
- Original Airing: October 01, 1994
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 4
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary? - 20
The Tale Of The Phone Police
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The premise of “The Tale of the Phone Police” is admittedly silly, but for anyone who’s ever trembled in terror after making a prank phone call, it hits home. When two pranksters use the phone as a toy, they’re trailed by the Phone Police, a squad of intimidating adults who have the ability to erase your very existence.
- Original Airing: January 29, 1994
- Season: Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 3
- Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is this still scary?
