Top 10 – Are You Afraid Of The Dark? Episodes (Part 2)

It’s time for the second round of my top 10 favourite Are You Afraid Of The Dark? Episodes. This time around we’re going to have a look at what I consider to be the 5 best episodes of the popular 90s TV program. It’s been brought to my attention that the show is celebrating its 24 year anniversary since it first aired on Nickelodeons SNICK on August 15^th 1992. This is something that I definitely knew when planning this article.

Number 05 – The Tale of a Door Unlocked (Season 5, Episode 12)

Justin visits Sardo’s Magic Mansion and buys a miniature door from Sardo that’s supposed to let him see the future. He sees an unfamiliar girl trapped in a fire. But soon a new girl, Ashley, arrives at school. She looks exactly like the girl that Justin saw in the fire. It’s up to him to save her from the future.

Sardo is involved in quite a few episodes in which he sells a magical item to an unsuspecting victim. It always made me laugh that these teenagers really seemed to believe that these objects would do the crazy things they were being advertised for doing. Obviously they would turn out to be those things but come on, these weren’t young children.

Number 04 – The Tale of the Dead Man’s Float (Season 5, Episode 1)

Zeke is good at chemistry, but not at girls. When he befriends one, she teaches him how to swim at the school pool. However, the pool is haunted by the ghost of a body that was previously buried underneath the school.

Be sure to never build a swimming pool on top of a graveyard, seems fairly obvious doesn’t it. This is definitely right up there for scariest episode of the series, the zombie that appears from the swimming pool would have scarred many and it’s not hard to see why as the effects used are tremendous for the time.

Number 03 – The Tale of the Night Shift (Season 5, Episode 11)

A new girl starts volunteering during the nightshift at the local hospital. But the hospital seems to have more than just a new volunteer. Someone or something is feeding on the hospital’s patients and employees, draining them of their blood and turning them into walking zombies.

A good example of just how far the show had come in terms of scale and budget, not exactly original but it’s executed brilliantly. The head vampire looks great and even dangles a child of a building in a 90s children’s show!

Number 02 – The Tale of the Midnight Madness (Season 2, Episode 2)

When a movie theatre is close to shutting down, Dr. Vink shows up with a movie that he claims will change the business’s luck. Sure enough, business improves, but at a very high price.

I can think of a number of horror movie characters that I wouldn’t want coming out of a movie screen, Nosferatu would be one of them.

I can see why this is one of the episodes many people name as one of their favourites, it’s a really interesting tale. Dr Vink (“with a Veh Veh Veh”) was another reoccurring character, as soon as you saw him appear you knew you were in for a good one. I liked how even though he & Sardo were great characters, they never overused them which could have easily happened.

I liked how in this episode Dr Vink isn’t presented as being completely unreasonable or evil. In fact, his simple request to show his other movies one night a week is very reasonable. It’s the owner of the theatre who becomes greedy at the money he’s making on the Nosferatu film.

Number 01 – The Tale of the Dream Girl (Season 3, Episode 10)

A teenager thinks he’s just met the girl of his dreams when he puts on a mysterious ring that won’t come off. Trouble begins when he learns that years ago she was killed in a car accident. He realizes she wants to lure him to an early grave.

Some of the best episodes of this show weren’t actually that scary at all and in my opinion. This episode alone is an example of its superiority over Goosebumps. This is a really well acted episode. Also, due to the subject matter it’s fairly dramatic as well as being very sad. The revelation at the end is a twist that you likely won’t see coming. It is one that some have speculated to have inspired a certain, unknown movie called “The Sixth Sense”.

There you have it, I missed out so many great episodes that a top 20 wouldn’t have been too difficult to put together. They just don’t make em like this anymore…..