History NightmareFuel / AreYouAfraidOfTheDark

* The intro. This troper was scared to death of it as a little kid.

* "The Tale Of The Phone Police" While the episode is pretty mundane compared to the other examples, there are still nightmare inducing factors. Imagine a secret origination that can take you away regardless of Law and Human Rights, erase all record of your existence and even go as far as to have members of your own family not remember you. To make matters worse you have to spend eternity inside a jail cell with nothing but a phone to call the outside world. And these guys do all that to people who abuse the phone (I.E. Prank Calls.) Makes excellent ParanoiaFuel on top of that.

* In "The Tale of the Dream Girl", Johnny hears Donna calling for her. He walked around the bowling alley to find her, but she disappeared. As he was leaving, we cut to a bowling ball rolling, and the sound of it becomes very loud like an approaching train. The ball hits the pins, and suddenly Johnny hears a girl screaming, he covers his ears and turns back to see a female bowler screamed because she made a strike. [[spoiler:We learn that both Johnny and Donna were run over by a train.]]

* The ending of "The Tale of the Chameleons" when is revealed that Sharon [[spoiler: didn't choose the right Janice.]] Yep that's right, she [[spoiler: ''turned her helpless best friend back into a chameleon and threw her into a well to drown.'' And the imposter Sharon is undetected and probably planning to do the same to her]].

** Simply put, the guy was basically TheJoker, except with hypnotism rather than gasses.

* ''The Tale of Old Man Corcoran''. You never find out how or why the leader of the group of Hide-And-Seekers keeps gathering more and more kids to play these games, yet once the old grave digger explains [[spoiler:that all those kids have been dead for years]], the FridgeHorror comes in buckets. First, the girl who tries to keep those boys out of the group [[spoiler:was just trying to make sure they didn't end up like her: a ghostly participant eternally bound to a game of Hide And Seek in the graveyard.]] Second, the leader of the group [[spoiler:who was trying to get the two boys to come into his open grave was likely just going to somehow kill them and bind them to said eternal game of Hide And Seek.]] Third, that's why you never see the Hide And Seek group ever change their clothes during the new day, and why they are always colored in blues and whites during the night sequences. [[spoiler:They are all dead.]]

* "The Tale of the Many Faces" - what the girls look like when Madame steals their faces. And they're forced to wear masks to cover themselves up, which is arguably creepier.

* That god damn Crimson Clown that would not go away until the younger brother vowed to be good.

* The aliens in "The Tale of the Thirteenth Floor". Their faces are featureless, stone-colored things with no eyes, mouth or anything. This on its own would be creepy enough, but what really sells it is the way they ''move''. The director had the rather brilliant idea that a creature with no face would have to communicate entirely through body language, and directed the actors playing them accordingly. As a result they all move in a very twisted, puppet-like manner because of all the information they need to convey to each other through their gestures. The way they're all wiggling their fingers at the end is especially bizarre. It might look silly on anything else, but considering how creepy the things are to begin with...

* "The tale of Dead Man's Float". Just like Tim Curry's portrayal of Pennywise, this episode ''will'' make you afraid of shower drains, not to mention swimming in the deep end of the public pool. It's considered one of the scariest episodes of the series.

* In "The Tale of the Twisted Claw," one non-supernatural scary moment is when the teenagers in creepy plain white masks surround the two kids who are trick-or-treating and circle them, teasing and threatening them. The ep also gives us a nice NothingIsScarier moment when the kid wishes for his grandfather to come, before remembering he's dead. And then they see his car...

* ''The Tale of Old Man Corcoran''. You never find out how or why the leader of the group of Hide-And-Seekers keeps gathering more and more kids to play these games, yet once the old grave digger explains that all those kids have been dead for years, the FridgeHorror comes in buckets. First, the girl who tries keep those boys out of the group was just trying to make sure they didn't end up like her: a ghostly participant eternally bound to a game of Hide And Seek in the graveyard. Second, the leader of the group who trying to get the two boys to come into his open grave was likely just going to somehow kill them and bind them to said eternal game of Hide And Seek. Third, that's why you never see the Hide And Seek group ever change their clothes during the new day, and why they are always colored in blues and whites during the night sequences. They are all dead.

* In "The Tale of the Twisted Claw," one non-supernatural scary moment is when the teenagers in creepy plain white masks surround the two kids who are trick-or-treating and circle them, teasing and threatening them. The ep also gives us a nice NothingIsScarier moment when the kid wishes for his grandfather to come, before remembering he's dead. And then they see his car...

** On the bright side, it was a nice aversion to the horror movie cliché of the token black guy in the group being the first one to die.

* The ''{{Nosferatu}}'' episode where none other then Orlok himself came out of the movie and started coming after the kids.
* Just about every episode with vampires, "The Tale of the Night Shift" for one.

* The ''Nosferatu'' episode where the vampire from the original film came out of the movie and started coming after the kids.

For a children's series that had to go light on the gore, ''Are You Afraid Of The Dark?'' had more than a few legitimate scares that hold up to this day. '''Please add only examples, not your own experiences.'''

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jitg-3xbmKU The opening sequence.]] For many a viewer, the channel was immediately changed upon hearing the ominous sound accompanying the picture of the empty rowboat.

** Especially how it was delivered. The protagonist asks the girl to help her move the furniture. The girl doesn't even change her facial expression, but simply pulls her hand out of the sleeve. Cue her friend giving an OhCrap expression and promising to work faster at escaping.

* "The tale of Dead Man's Float". Just like Tim Curry's portrayal of Pennywise, this episode can make you afraid of shower drains, not to mention swimming in the deep end of the public pool. It's considered one of the scariest episodes of the series.
* "The Tale of the Ghastly Grinner", with the idea that something evil can reduce absolutely anyone to a giggling, drooling imbecile simply by ''being there''.
* The Tale of The Twisted Claw where the kid wishes that his parents were gone, and then gets a phone call from the police saying his parents had been in a car accident... a sort of inverted AdultFear.
** From the same episode:
--->Kid 1: I wish Gramps was here; he'd know what to do. (The claw glows, and a car pulls up outside)
--->Kid 2: Dude... your grandfather is ''dead''... (cue knocking on the front door)
** The story is based on the incredibly creepy [[http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/mnkyspaw.htm "The Monkey's Paw", by W.W.Jacobs.]]
* ''The Tale of the Quicksilver'' opens with a little girl drawing a chalk doorway in the wall that a demon walks out of. She tries to get rid of it but can't. She knocks over the candles in her room and ends up burning to death.

** On the bright side, it was a nice aversion to the horror movie cliché of the token black male in the group being the first one to die.
* In the episode "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark" the character Josh is talking to his friend on the phone when the MonsterClown BigBad of the episode suddenly speaks up on the other line "If you don't give it back, I'll come up and get it!"

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jitg-3xbmKU The opening sequence.]]
** For many a viewer, the channel was immediately changed upon hearing the ominous sound accompanying the picture of the empty rowboat.

* An episode where the kids wind up getting in a taxi that shows up in the middle of the woods in order to find their way out. The taxi driver then shows his handless right arm. Later in the show, the kids wind up in what looks like a mad scientist's lab, and find the taxi driver's hand floating in formaldehyde.
** Later they run into the taxi driver again and he starts speeding up and cackling about what the explosion of the car will be like if they don't solve the riddle in time.

* One of the most disturbing quotes in known history comes from the vampire after he's caught the main character:

* Or any episode with a MonsterClown. The Ghastly Grinner, the Crimson Clown, Zeebo.
* "The tale of Dead Man's Float". Just like Tim Curry's portrayal of Pennywise, this episode can make you afraid of shower drains, not to mention swimming in the deep end of the public pool.
** No wonder it's usually voted among the top of the lists of scariest episodes of AYAOTD history

* The Tale of The Twisted Claw where the kid wishes that his parents were gone, and then gets a phonecall from the police saying his parents had been in a car accident... a sort of inverted AdultFear.

* Recently, [=ToplessRobot.com=] did their own [[http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/07/the_10_creepiest_are_you_afraid_of_the_dark_episod.php 10 Creepiest Are You Afraid Of The Dark episodes]], complete with full episode footage, courtesy of Website/YouTube. Enjoy!
* ''The Tale of the Quicksilver'' opens with a little girl drawing a chalk doorway in the wall that a demon walks out of. She tries to get rid of it but can't; we last see her knocking one of the candles over, the curtains catching fire. We later learn that the girl burned to death in her room.
* The ending to ''The Tale of the Dark Music'' just for the look on Andy's face where it's implied he's going to feed his sister to the monster.
** [[ItGotWorse It gets worse]]. In the ending scene around the campfire with the Midnight Society, the storyteller says that Andy didn't feed his sister to the monster but "he made she didn't bother him anymore". Exactly how he did that is left to our imaginations. [[NothingIsScarier God damn my imagination...]]
** Let's not forget when the skeleton comes out of the closet and how each time you put on music the door in the basement opens and out comes a monster trying to eat you, or how the monster is implied to have eaten the bully while the bully screams in terror. Or that creepy life-size doll.
* "I am cold..."
* ''The Tale of Many Faces'' where an old woman steals '''faces''' from young girls leaving them looking like mannequins. Also all the girls wearing those masks, *shudders*
* Not an ''episode'', but a ''commercial for the series.'' It showed a young girl in her bed, in the dark, unable to fall asleep. She keeps hearing creaking noises, seeing shadows on the wall, and finally she can't take it any more. She gets up, hearing a noise outside her bedroom door, and opens it... to see the family dog sitting outside. She breathes a sigh of relief --''and then the dog looks at her and says, in an ultra-deep voice, "Are you afraid of the dark?"''
* ''The Tale of Old Man Corcoran''. You never find out how or why the leader of the group of Hide-And-Seekers keeps gathering more and more kids to play these games, yet once the old grave digger explains that all those kids have been dead for years, the FridgeHorror comes in buckets. First, the girl who tries keep those boys out of the group was just trying to make sure they didn't end up like her; a ghostly participant eternally bound to a game of Hide And Seek in the graveyard. Second, the leader of the group who trying to get the two boys to come into his open grave was likely just going to somehow kill them and bind them to said eternal game of Hide And Seek. Third, that's why you never see the Hide And Seek group ever change their clothes during the new day, and why they are always colored in blues and whites during the night sequences. They are all dead.

** On the bright side, it was a nice aversion to the BlackDudeDiesFirst cliché.
* ''The Tale of The Chameleons'', with its infamous downer ending. The villain not only won but it left a very cruel fate to the protagonist of the episode.
* ''The Tale of The Virtual Pets''. Thank goodness it has a HappyEnding.
--> Feed me. '''FEED ME.'''
* "The Tale of the Lonely Ghost". That is all. "HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME" *shudder* I can sit through the most brutal of horror films without batting an eye, but that poor little girl...
* The serial port in Simon's hand in "The Tale Of The Renegade Virus". Also, the virus that attempts to enter Simon's brain via plugging in a serial port connector as his hand in the serial port embedded in Simon's hand. The DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything AttemptedRape parallels make it even scarier than it has to be.
* In the episode "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark" the character Josh is talking to his friend on the phone when the MonsterClown BigBad of the episode suddenly speaks up on the other line "If you don't give it back, I'll come up and get it!"
* The final 2 seasons are generally known for being inferior to the initial run, but "The Tale of the Zombie Dice" has a lot of creepiness combined with some DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything. Kids are being shrunk down when they lose a bet with the owner of the local hangout. Then they are locked in tiny cages and shipped overseas as "pets" to rich buyers. Some don't survive the journey.

* The final 2 seasons are generally known for being inferior to the initial run, "The Tale of the Zombie Dice" has a lot of creepiness combined with some AdultFear. Kids are being shrunk down when they lose a bet with the owner of the local hangout. Then they are locked in tiny cages and shipped overseas as "pets" to rich buyers. Some don't survive the journey.

* In the episode "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark" the character Josh is talking to his friend on the phone when the MonsterClown BigBad of the episode suddenly speaks up on the other line "If you don't give it back, I'll come up and get it!"

* An episode where the kids wind up getting in a taxi that shows up in the middle of the woods in order to find their way out. The taxi driver then shows his handless right arm. Later in the show, the kids wind up in what looks like a mad scientist's lab, and find the taxi driver's hand floating in formaldehyde.
** Later they run into the taxi driver again and he starts speeding up and cackling about what the explosion of the car will be like if they don't solve the riddle in time.
* The ''Nosferatu'' episode where the vampire from the original film came out of the movie and started coming after the kids.

* Recently, [=ToplessRobot.com=] did their own [[http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/07/the_10_creepiest_are_you_afraid_of_the_dark_episod.php 10 Creepiest Are You Afraid Of The Dark episodes]], complete with full episode footage, courtesy of YouTube. Enjoy!

* In the episode "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark" the character Josh is talking to his friend on the phone when the MonsterClown BigBad of the episode suddenly speaks up on the other line "If you don't give it back, I'll come up and get it!"

[[quoteright:400:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deadman2.png]]
[[caption-width-right:400:Wanna go for a swim?]]

* The serial port in Simon's hand in "The Tale Of The Renegade Virus". Also, the virus that attempts to enter Simon's brain via plugging in a serial port connector as his hand in the serial port embedded in Simon's hand. The DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything AttemptedRape parallels make it even scarier than it has to be.

--> "I should drop you and then lock up what's left!"