The Best of Are You Afraid of the Dark Part One.

In honor of me just finding out that Are You Afraid of the Dark is finally on DVD I have compiled a list of some of my favorite episodes. We all have our favorites- but these are where the real nostalgia lays. I can remember everything about each of these episodes and so many of my fears today are in some way connected to these. There are a lot so you may have to sit through a few posts to get the whole list. Deep breath. These are also in no particular order.

1. The Tale of Laughing in the Dark

This is the first Are You Afraid of the Dark I ever saw. My mom yelled at my sister for watching while I was in the room, and I've been hooked ever since. The real kicker of why this one has always been scary to me is that it involves the unofficial mascot of the show- ZEEBO THE CLOWN. Hopefully you've realized by now that I hate clowns, so it should come as no surprise that I find this episode scary. Aside from the clown aspect it is a pretty scary episode. Being in a funhouse alone, the creepy pick a door scenario, being alone in your house and stalked by a scary clown....it's all a llittle jeering. Zeebo makes an appearance in at least 2 other episodes, usually as a character in a comic book or video game. And let me clarify that just because he isn't a "scary" looking clown he is still a clown and therefore scary.



2. The Tale of the Quiet Librarian

I'm still not sure why this one is scary, but I think it has to do with the overall atmosphere of a library- that and it will always remind me of the scary librarian in Ghostbusters. The premise is about a scary looking librarian who carries this box around that sucks up sound. She steals children's voice or souls or something and keeps them locked up in this hidden room in the library. The librarian only comes out at night and all she does is she stalk the library- alright so maybe it doesn't sound creepy, but let's see what happens when you break into a library at night and she comes after you!



3. The Tale of the Super Specs

This still freaks me out sometimes. Especially when I'm getting ready for a real wild night of wearing my super specs. In this one, some super specs are enchanted with magic dust and made to be the eyes to another dimension. Every time the main girl puts them on she sees these scary people covered completely in black. Everything in the alternate world is different and it just really scares me. Also this one like many of the episodes had an unhappy and hopeless ending and those just stress me out.



4. The Tale of the Doll Maker

Typically people's common fears have nothing to do with the fear of being turned into a doll- but if you've seen this episode then I'm sure you'd beg to differ. The main girl's friend in this has disappeared. Turns out she's just been turned into a doll after stepping through a special door and now resides inside the dollhouse that's in the attic. The part where she tries to rescue her friend and her friend is all creepy and "china" looking (as in porcelain not asian), and her hand falls off! Crazy shit.



5. The Tale of Locker 22

This episode although not really scary- was just incredibly awesome. The story, the mystery, the creepiness, and the ending are so smart and well done. I know I'm saying this about a Nickelodeon show but this episode is really original. A new student in school gets a locker in the basement of her new school. Inside the locker she finds a necklace. Whenever she puts on the necklace she gets transported to the the hippie era, and apparently takes the form of a student who was alive back then. She soon learns there was a tragic accident at the high school then that claimed the life of the hippie student. It's up to the main character to figure out what happened and change the past.



That's all for now. Don't forget you can watch all of these Are You Afraid of the Dark episodes on YouTube usually in 3 parts! No DVD buying necessary.