Favorites: Top 10 Are You Afraid of the Dark Episodes (Part 1)

It’s 1991 and Nickelodeon has become a huge phenomenon with content. It’s October, right around Halloween time and there’s a new show coming…

Are You Afraid of the Dark is a Canadian tv show, directed towards a younger crowd into teens. AYAOTD has a group of friends, calling themselves The Midnight Society, meeting at a secret location in the woods and around a campfire, one tells a tale. Each member gets a chance to shine, showcasing how different their stories are and we, the audience, watches it on screen.

This show is a huge part of my childhood, a huge influence on horror, especially horror for kids and now exploring television on the blog, I picked this show first!

Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this post… my top 10 favorite episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark… Part 1. Number 10 to 6.

P.S., original run(s) of the show, not the reboot.

10. The Tale of the Chameleons
Season 5, Episode 5
“Bite you once, bite you twice, a little water, pay the price.” No one in history has EVER said this little rhyme but thinking about the episode, you would only say that if you are one of the chameleons? Like that boy in the pet shop? It’s a dark episode, basically someone stays dead and there’s no happy ending or ambiguous ending. This episode is narrated by Betty Ann and stars Tia and Tamera Mowry. One thing I don’t like or understand is using an iguana. Chameleons are a part of the iguana suborder so they are related and reptiles and do similar things but that is an IGUANA.

9. The Tale of the Vacant Lot
Season 5, Episode 8
Why did I pick this episode? I like the idea of preying on what we as humans want/desire. We want to be popular, be well liked, have money, have success and when you’re a shy teenager who thinks the world is gonna end because you don’t have these things or perhaps you like a boy and you know there’s no chance but someone offers you your dreams and you cannot refuse it, I love concepts like that. It digs deep into the core of what it is to be human. And using a teenage girl, the epitome of what is typically portrayed, it’s interesting to see how far she’s willing to go. How far is our lead girl going to go to get what she wants? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Also, Kiki narrates this episode.

8. The Tale of the Unfinished Painting
Season 4, Episode 12
I have a degree in art. I also have a degree in Museum Studies and I’ve studied graphic design in art school. This episode scares me on a level of someone stealing my work, stealing my artistic talents, my creativity, the betrayal of kind is huge. The plot is very simple. We are following a young girl, Cody (played by Jewel Staite) finds an opportunity to work at an art gallery and finish some unfinished work. There’s strangeness around the episode, this eerie feeling of something’s wrong throughout but you can’t pinpoint what is happening until it’s too late. Gary narrates this tale around the campfire.

7. The Tale of the Dangerous Soup
Season 3, Episode 13
I feel like this is one of the few episodes viewers remember or it’s locked in a part of your brain and it will randomly come at you in the middle of the night and you’ll go “why do I remember an episode about green soup?” This episode features a frequent antagonist in Frank’s stories: Mr. Vink. Vink with a v-v-v. Ironically Vink will show up again in another favorite episode. Neve Campbell (Party of Five, Scream franchise) guest stars as a waitress at Vink’s restaurant where the soup is the standout star on the menu. The problem is wondering where and how Vink is getting the soup… and all it takes is a little bit of fear.

6. The Tale of the Night Shift
Season 5, Episode 11
Y’all know I love vampires. And then one place I despise is a hospital. Shoutout to all of the health care providers who are doing their best during these troubled times. They are heroes in my book. Back to the episode, there are familiar faces in this one, Emmanelle Chiquri (mostly known from Entourage) and Jorge Vargas Jr (Power Rangers Ninja Storm, tv series Higher Ground) and Chiquri plays Amanda, a nurse working the late shift at hospital where a vampire is hiding in its midst. What I really like is the look of the vampire, which again fits what I like seeing in vampires. Also the idea of setting it in a hospital is just as creepy. When it’s an enclosed space like a hotel, hospital, school, or your car and you have nowhere to go or can’t really escape, it brings out the spooks. Sam tells this tale.

STAY TUNED FOR THE 2nd PART FEATURING #5-1 as well as HONORARY MENTIONS! What was your favorite episode(s) from Are You Afraid of the Dark? Let me know below!