Top 13 Episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark?

If you were a child in the 90's and had cable television there is a good chance you watched Snick, aka Saturday Night Nickelodeon. While shows such as Clarissa Explains it All, The Secret Life of Alex Mack, Round House, All That, and Kenan and Kel were quite popular, the last show of the night, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, was the best.

Each episode began the members of the Midnight Society gathering in the woods to hear a scary story. The members each took turns each week telling a story, and sometimes scaring the other members with tricks at the end of the tale.

The show aired for 7 seasons (with 13 episodes in each season) from 1992-1996 and again in 1999 until 2000. I haven't seen episodes from the last two seasons, but I was a really big fan of the show for the 5 seasons I watched as a kid.

In honor of one of my all time favorite shows as a child, I've made a list of my personal favorite episodes. Since each season had 13 episodes and 13 is an unlucky number (which seems to fit this show), I've selected my top 13 favorites.

13. The Tale of the Prom Queen (Season 1; appearance by Rachel Blanchard)

A new girl in town becomes friends with two guys who tell her the legend of the Prom queen. In the 50's there was a girl who was killed on Prom night and every year on Prom night, the ghost of the girl comes back to wait for her boyfriend to pick her up and take her to the Prom. The three friends research the Prom queen and her boyfriend and hang out at the cemetery to wait for the ghost to show up. Lucky for the two boys the ghost of the boyfriend drives his car up to the cemetery and the Prom queen is there waiting. What the boys weren't expecting to happen was to see their new friend, DeeDee standing their in her 1950's Prom dress waiting to be picked up for the Prom by her boyfriend. DeeDee never knew why her boyfriend didn't pick her up, but thanks to her two new friends she can rest in peace and be with her boyfriend for all eternity.

This is one of my favorites because I didn't expect the Prom queen to be DeeDee. I knew they would see a ghost of the Prom queen, but I was shocked to find out it was DeeDee.

12. The Tale of the Captured Souls (Season 1; starring Barbara Eve Harris; appearance by Rachel Blanchard)

In this story a girl, Dannie, and her family go on vacation at a bed and breakfast type of place. While there Dannie befriends Peter, the son of the family who owns the bed and breakfast. Dannie wants to spend her vacation playing baseball and doing outdoor activities, but her parents aren't feeling up to it. All they want to do is sleep and stay inside. While her parents are feeling lethargic all the time, Dannie begins to have an acne problem. When Dannie plays baseball with Peter she stumbled upon some markers - one for adults, one for children, and one for pets. She's curious what they markers represent, but Peter doesn't seem to want to tell her anything about them. Dannie does some investigating into Peter and finds out that Peter is really an old man and that he is stealing energy from the visitors to the bed and breakfast. Peter is using mirrors to make Dannie and her parents age prematurely and use their youth on himself to stay young forever. Dannie is able to stop Peter from stealing the youth from her and parents and as a result Peter turns into an elderly man left to live a lonely life.

Another great episode from the first season. I actually watched this episode a few years ago with some friends from college. We found some old episodes online and spent a night watching them. In this episode there is a creepy line we missed as 6 and 7 year olds, but laughed about as 19 and 20 year olds. While Dannie's parents are sleeping she is in Peter's room saying she's bored. Peter, while laying on his bed with a mischievous look on his face says, "We can do anything you want to do."

11. The Tale of the Night Shift (Season 5; starring Emmanuelle Chriqui; apperances by Joanna Garcia and Elisha Cuthbert)

Amanda is a volunteer at the hospital during the night shift. She and the nurses on staff joke about finding time to sleep, but somehow Amanda manages to fit sleep into her hectic schedule of school, homework, and volunteering. Amanda is introduced to a new volunteer on the night shift. It may be the late hours, but the hospital is far from quiet. One of the patients is a boy Amdana knows from school who has been trying to convince her to go on a date. Shortly into Amanda's shift things start to become strange. Staff members and patients are missing and when they finally make an appearance in the hospital wing, something isn't quite right with them. They seem like zombies with their sluggish movement and inability to form multiple sentences. Amanda and her admirer decide to investigate what is going on, only to discover that one of the maintenance workers, Felix, is in the morgue and must have died during his shift at the hospital. Before they know it Felix has come back to life and is telling them that there is a vampire in the hospital who is killing everyone one by one. She made a mistake with Felix and he'll turn into a vampire soon as well. It's up to Felix to help Amanda destroy the vampire's coffin and and make everything normal once again. Amanda is in for a surprise when the vampire turns out to be the new volunteer on the night shift.

This episode was a favorite of mine when I was young because when you actually see the vampire he is ugly. Ugly to the point he is really scary. I also thought the zombies were scary and for some reason I thought that Felix as  a zombie was pretty darn scary too. Too bad when I watched this episode again I found it to be a lot more confusing than scary. The people that the vampire bit, why were they zombies and not dead or new vampires? The vampire tells Felix she made a mistake with him - was he supposed to be a zombie too? Or was he supposed to be a new vampire after all, but something went wrong in the process? Not much in this storyline made sense. Sure the people who were attacked had bite marks on their necks, but they were still alive, just very sluggish. Weak vampire story, but it was a favorite of mine as a child so I'm including it.

 10. The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors (Season 1)

In this vampire tale Dayday and Emma are brother and sister who live on a fairly normal street, until some new neighbors move in. The neighbors are only seen at night, they're ghostly pale, and they seem to have a fondness for black clothing. Dayday is willing to ignore the neighbors, but Emma insists of taking action and protecting everyone on their street, especially when neighbors start to become sick with an unusual illness. When the mailman gets sick he tells Emma it was after the new neighbors came to visit him that he was sick. Emma and Dayday sneak into the neighbors basement to do some investigating. While the neighbors were moving in they noticed a large box which Emma assumes is a coffin. They don't find any coffins in the basement, but they do find a large freezer with a padlock. Before Emma can crack the combination the neighbors return so she can't finish her snooping. On her way back home the neighbors stop Dayday and Emma and explain that they work the night shift at a hospital so they haven't been able to meet all their neighbors yet. Both Emma and Dayday decide to believe this excuse so they agree to have the neighbors son come over that night and play video games with Dayday. As soon as the neighbors go back to their house they unblood from the hospital into their freezer. No big deal, right? I mean they do work at a hospital. Well, they might, but that's not why they want that blood. After depositing the blood in the freezer they walk over to a coffin and inside is their son baring his fangs.

Now this was a favorite of mine because it was rare for episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark? to end with a less than happy ending. This particular tale leaves you to believe that later that night Emma, Dayday and their parents will be the next victims of the vampire.

9. The Tale of the Dark Music (Season 1; appearance by Rachel Blanchard)

In this tale a boy and his mother and brother move into his uncle's old house. Andy may be the older brother, but he's often made fun of by his younger brother because he's afraid of the basement. In this house, there is good reason to be afraid of the basement. The first time Andy goes downstairs he hears the closet door rattling so he runs back upstairs. Each time that Andy goes in the basement and turns his radio on, the closet door begins to make a lot of nose. Eventually the door opens up and a doll appears. Then it appears that there is a carnival inside the closet, but suddenly the carnival disappears and a skeleton shows up and begins laughing. What is going on in Andy's basement? Andy pieces together that music causes the closet to behave in mysterious ways, ways that scare him. So why not use this to his advantage as a way to torture the neighborhood bully who enjoys tormenting Andy? Andy ties a newspaper over a brick and throws it at the bully to provoke him to attack him. Andy tricks the bully into thinking he is hiding in the basement and locks him in. Once he's locked in, Andy turns on the music. At first he hears a lot of noise with the bully begging to be let out, but then suddenly everything is quiet. Andy is sure it's a trap, but decides to go and see what happens. There is no sign of the bully anywhere in the basement, but instead, is a brand new bike, a bike to replace the bike Andy had, but that the bully threw in the street right as a truck was coming. The door opens and reveals to Andy that as long as he feeds it, he will be rewarded with anything he wants. At this point we hear Andy's bratty younger brother yelling at him from upstairs. It is all too clear from Andy's smirk that his brother is about to become the next victim of the Dark Music.

A chilling tale that made you think about what you would do if you had power such as Andy. Would you allow a spooky old closet to eat people you didn't like? Or, would you stay as far as possible from the basement? A great episode where the kid decides to take the evil route instead of learning a lesson, unlike most Are You Afraid of the Dark? stories.

8. The Tale of the Fire Ghost (Season 4; appearance by Joanna Garcia)

Roxy and Jimmy are celebrating their father's birthday at the fire staion when their dad gets called to a large fire sending all the firemen to help extinguish it. They meet Jake who seems nice, but a bit odd. Jake tells them he keeps an eye on the fire house while all the firemen are away. Jimmy asks Jake what a fire ghost is. Jake explains that a fire never really dies. The spirit of the fire lives on and follows firemen back to the station. He warns that you should never look directly into a flame because it releases a fire ghost into reality. Naturally, Jimmy looked into a flame while hearing the story and now he and his sister have to get rid of the ghost with some help from Jake. It turns out that Jake is also a fire ghost, but wishes no harm to any of the firemen because he died in the line of duty putting out a fire and says that Roxy and Jimmy's father has always felt responsible for Jake's death. Together the three of them defeat the fire ghost and Jake says his work at the fire house is done for good now and he hopes Roxy and Jimmy will tell their dad about Jake and that he doesn't blame their father for his death.

Creative storyline that I hadn't heard of before such as the zombie and vampire storylines. Kind of lame, but still entertaining and makes you question yourself whenever you look directly into a flame.

 7. The Tale of Station 109.1 (Season 5; starring Gilbert Gottfried and Ryan Gosling; appearance by Joanna Garcia)

What do you do when you have a brother who is preoccupied with thoughts of death? Well, if you work at an auto shop and a hearse happens to come in for some work you lock your brother in the hearse in the hopes that spending some quality time in a place where multiple dead people have laid, will cause him to focus his thoughts on the real world he's living in and not the afterlife. While Chris is locked in the hearse that his brother Jame locked him in, the radio turns on all by itself. The radio changes to a frequeny that is broadcast specifically for the dead, station 109.1. After Jamie lets Chris out of the car Jamie locks up information on where station 109.1 is located and pays the station a visit. When he gets there he meets Roy, the man working at station 109.1. Roy tells him there is no talking allowed and that he should wait his turn. Chris tries to explain to Roy that there is a mistake, Chris isn't really dead, but Roy won't listen because he's heard it all before. To try to stop himself from passing to the afterlife before it's his time, Chris sneaks on the air and sends a message to Jamie on a different frequency to beg for his help. Jamie thinks it's a trick until a ghost shows up and tells him that he's the one who should be passing through death's gate, but instead Chris is there and will go in his place. Together Jamie and the ghost have to convince Roy that this is all a case of mistaken identity. Unfortunately Roy doesn't believe them. Unfortunately for Roy, someone knows he made a mistake and sends Chris back. Which means that Roy is probably going to be in some trouble. For Chris and Jamie life goes back to what most people consider normal. Chris no longer spends his days dreaming of death and trapping insects inside jars without air holes and instead focusing on playing sports with his brother. What a happy ending!

Writing about this episode makes me think it's a little lame, but I liked it a as kid. There were ghosts asking Chris to help them find the way home while he was at the radio station and loud mouth Roy was scary enough to scare you into wanting to do what he says. What if there was a station meant only for specific people and you found it? I thought it was a spooky story, but now the idea seems kind of funny. Although, as a child I had a bizarre respect for Gilbert Gottfried and enjoyed hearing him always yelling and bellowing out sentences. Maybe that is why I found this episode entertaining.

6. The Tale of the Quiet Librarian (Season 4)

Jace and Laurie are unwillingly paired together to work on a research report. Laurie is a perfect student and Jace is more relaxed and doesn't worry about school work. They meet at the library to do research, but Laurie doesn't want Jace's help. The only thing she trusts him with is to go in the basement and pull the books they need. Jace ends up getting spooked and leaving the basement in a hurry, leaving Laurie's notebook behind. It isn't until they are have left the library that Laurie realizes her notebook is gone. They agree to meet up later in the evening, after prior commitments are finished to get her notebook back. When they get to the library it's closed for the evening, but they find a way to sneak in through the window. Once inside they find the notebook, but that's not all they find. They also find the Quiet Librarian, an old and very scary looking librarian. She believes that silence is golden and traps all types of noise inside her special box that holds all sounds. She steals voices from children and any other type of sound they make. After she steals Jace's voice he uses his hand held video game to get her attention and keep her away from Laurie because she wants Laurie's voice next. Once the librarian steals your voice you stay in the silent reading room reading books for eternity. Jace and Laurie are able to break the box that locks in all sounds which not only gives voice back to those who have been silenced, and sound back to video games and other things it has been removed from, but the children are released from their prison in the silent reading room.

A very eerie story. Who hasn't been in a library they thought was spooky? Who hasn't heard about librarians who go around shushing people for making noise? What if there really is a librarian who goes around silencing those kids who don't listen to her and are then forced to read in silence for the rest of their lives? Now as a kid I loved books and loved going to the library, but I still found this creepy. If the story wasn't scary enough for my 9 year-old self, the librarian herself was enough to terrorize me.

5. The Tale of the Phone Police (Season 3)

Jake and Chris who are best friends who enjoy playing juvenile pranks on unsuspecting people who happen to answer their phone and fall victim to prank phone calls. Jake's older sister Annie decides to have some fun with the boys and tell them about the Phone Police who will arrest anyone caught making prank phone calls. She tells them Billy Baxter loved to make phone calls until the Phone Police got him. The boys don't buy into it until Jake looks Billy Baxter up in the phone book. He calls the number and reaches Billy Baxter, but the number is too short to be a real number. How can this be? Jake decides to go to the phone company and look into this peculiar phone number. Jake should have left the phone number alone because the Phone Police work at the phone company and know Jake is a prankster who abuses the phone. When the Phone Police arrest you, you're not just locked up in a cell, you're erased from existence. Chris witnesses his friend being whisked away to a prison cell so he runs to Jake's house to get help from Annie. Annie has no recollection of Chris and says she's never heard of the Phone Police, it sounds made up and she doesn't have time to talk to a strange boy. In the end, Jake and Chris learn their lesson and are able to go back to a normal life, but this time they don't abuse the telephone.

This episode never scared me, but I found it both hilarious and entertaining. When I think of my childhood I can remember most of my friends making prank phone calls. Most kids can relate to this story so it's a great to add a scary element to prank calls.

4. The Tale of Watcher's Woods (Season 3; starring Jewel Staite; appearance by Joanna Garcia)

Sarah is the new girl at camp which means she doesn't know any of the camp legends. Unfortunately for Sarah she instantly gets on the bad side of returning camper Kelly. Kelly tells Sarah the legend of Watcher's Woods. Many years ago three campers went into the woods and got lost. The girls were never seen again. All that was found of them were their safety whistles. Later Sarah and Kelly are paired up for a nature hike, but Kelly wants nothing to do with Sarah so she plans a scheme to ditch Sarah. The two girls become lost and find Watcher's Woods, the place Kelly has warned Sarah to never wander into. Kelly finds out that Watcher's Woods is more than just a camp story, but very real. In order to escape Watcher's Woods she'll have to depend on Sarah to save both their lives. The three girls who went missing are holding Kelly captive and they want their whistles. Sarah has to run back to camp to retrieve the whistles before she can begin to rescue Kelly. Once they have their whistles the lost campers disappear and Kelly and Sarah are able to find their way back to camp. On their way back they see three young girls, all dressed in old fashioned clothes getting into an old time car. They think the lost campers are finally finding their way home.

A typical storyline that ends with a happy ending, but the weird objects in Watcher's Woods are gross and creepy, enough to scare you as a little kid. Plus, this was the first episode I ever watched so it's only natural for it to hold a favorite position in my mind.

3. The Tale of the Thirteenth Floor (Season 2; starring Aaron Ashmore; appearance by Rachel Blanchard)

Karin and Billy live in an apartment building where the 13th floor is abandoned which is great because they can use the empty space to play different types of sports. One day on their way to the 13th floor they find out it's closed and has some new renters so they are unable to go up their anymore. Then, Karin gets an invitation to go attend a toy and game testing that is being held on the 13th floor. Billy is upset because he didn't get an invitation and Karin doesn't like toys or games, and to top it off, she's terrible at games. Karin says she's sure it will be fine if he comes with her. When the two go to the 13th game they find that they are the only two kids who are at the testing and the people in charge are less than thrilled that Karin invited her brother. They specially selected kids and Billy does not meet the criteria, but since Karin refuses to stay without her brother, they agree to allow him to participate. Fairly quickly some of the people start making the games easier for Karin and say she can advance farther because she has passed tests, but Billy has to stay behind. Eventually Karin is told she is different, she's not like Billy. The people who run the toy store are really aliens who come to Earth every few years. The last time they were on Earth they left Karin behind and this time they aren't leaving without her. The story ends with Karin transformed into her alien appearance.

A great episode because I didn't see it coming that Karin was an alien. Even though she is an alien and she's going home with her family, it was still creepy to see her face turn into the blank stone faces the rest of the aliens have. You think you're human, but then one day you find out you're not.

2. The Tale of the Super Specs (Season 1; starring Eugene Byrd; appearance by Rachel Blanchard)

Weeds and Mary Beth are boyfriend and girlfriend, but couldn't be more different. Weeds is really into magic while Mary Beth is very practical. While visiting Sardo's (no mister, accent on the do) Magic Shop, Weeds purchases some super specs and magic powder. The super specs are supposed to allow you to have x-ray vision and if you put the powder of different things it should give the object magical powders. Sardo (who appeared in 8 different stories on Are You Afraid of the Dark? and is a classic character to the show) tells Weeds how these tricks work, but he himself doesn't believe it, he just wants to make an easy sale. Mary Beth, ever the skeptic finds out that when she wears the super specs she can see people in black clothing. No one else can see these people and Mary Beth only sees them while wearing the specs. Weeds is sure this is a joke to get back at him since Mary Beth always calls him juvenile for believing in such nonsense. Afterall, when he wears the specs, he just sees what he sees without special super specs. After Mary Beth convinces Weeds she really can see people while wearing the super specs they go back to Sardo's Magic Shop, who of course, is suprised to find out that the super specs really work. Who knew? Certainly not Sardo. He finds a spell in one of his books that should help them. It turns out that Mary Beth can see into a different dimension. The people living in this dimension can also see Mary Beth and they don't like it. They want the window between the two dimensions closed and they want it closed now. It's a shame that Sardo isn't a true magician and only a sham, because the kids in the other dimension know someone with real powers. She can successfully close the window into the other dimension. Weeds, Mary Beth, and Sardo are left screaming as we see them get closed off into distance, almost like a crystal ball. Are they okay? They sure don't seem happy and they are screaming quite a bit.

I love this episode. It's one of the few that has a non-happy ending, which of course, makes the story scary and one of the best episodes. Who wants to look into another dimension and see people staring back at you? Even if you never wear the glasses again, you know that they are there. Creepy.

1. The Tale of Midnight Madness (Season 2; appearance by Rachel Blanchard)

Pete and Katie work at an old movie theatre that offers cheap movies and movie snacks, but business isn't going very well. If more people don't start coming to the theatre, it will have to close which Pete and Katie really don't want to see happen. One night a strange old man, Dr. Vink (who appeared in multiple episodes and was a classic character in multiple tales), shows up and makes an offer. He guarantees that if they show his movie, business will pick up. All he wants in return is one night a week to show his other films. As Dr. Vink predicts, tickets sales start going up and they no longer need to worry about being shut down. Unfortunately, the manger doesn't care to keep his end of the bargain with Dr. Vink. As revenge Dr. Vink (with a Va, Va, Va) does something to his film that causes the vampire from his silent vampire movie, Nosferatu, to jump out of the screen and come to life. Pete has to go into the movie and try to destroy Nosferatu's coffin to stop him from sucking the blood out of everyone. Pete just barely manages to defeat Nosferatu, Dr. Vink isn't finished yet. He now owns the deed to the movie theatre and will be showing his other films every single night of the week. He ensures them that his other films are far more terrifying than this one.

Without a doubt my favorite and the scariest episode of this show. So creepy that the vampire doesn't need to make any sound, just wiggle his fingers around the corner of doors and my friends and I would be covering our eyes and scared to go to sleep at night. Ah, I have nothing bad to say about this episode. Amazing. Spooky. Wonderful. It is because of this episode that my whole childhood I considered vampires the best, scariest, and most superior horror character.