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Narm / Are You Afraid of the Dark?

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At its heart, Are You Afraid of the Dark? was a series that struggled to serve two masters. On one hand, they had a cast and crew who were legitimate fans of the horror genre and wanted to provide some compelling stories and legitimate scares to its young audience. On the other, they were constantly hindered by various production woes... low budgets, questionable performances from its young actors, and a lingering worry of impending Moral Guardians who would pressure them to not be too scary. While the show managed to walk this tightrope rather admirably for much of its run, when it stumbles, it lands right here.


  • Any time the Midnight Society is visibly shaken by a story has the potential to fall flat if the story isn't on the darker side. Notable examples include "The Tale of the Pinball Wizard," which has some of the goofiest imagery in the series, and "The Tale of the Final Wish" where the villain is played by Bobcat Goldthwait.
    • The latter is even told specifically by Kristen to show the darker side of fairy tales. While the kids describe some genuinely gruesome details of Grimm's Fairy Tales, nothing of the sort happens in the episode, making it seem like Kristen missed her own point.
  • While the shadow people in "The Tale of the Super Specs" are mostly prime Paranoia Fuel, at one point we're treated to the ominous sight of them... playing basketball.
  • While the other game characters in "The Tale of the Pinball Wizard" are all based off fantasy archetypes, the zombies are for some reason dressed as business men. Worse still, they're the first enemies encountered, making the fairy tale theme unclear until later.
    • Generally speaking, setting a fantasy story - let alone one based around pinball - in a shopping mall is quite creative, but not very scary.
  • "GOING... UP!"
    • From the same episode ("The Tale of the Renegade Virus"), there was also the Big Bad's evil laughter. The Big Bad was a silver little person who was constantly laughing.
      • In the same episode when the Big Bad little person enters through the front door on a bike the wind opens another door where we see a random person standing there in the background (likely an assistant or helper for the show that wasn't meant to be seen). Look for him in the door's reflection. Yellow Shirt.
  • Another moment was in "The Tale of the Closet Keepers" where a bunch of kids were kidnapped onto an alien spacecraft and forced to eat a horrible alien food product... which was clearly lime-flavoured jello in a bowl.
  • "The Tale of the Ghastly Grinner" has the protagonist's obnoxious and lazy parents claimed as the titular villain's first victims. This is shown by them acting almost exactly the same, except with sunken eyes and drooling slime. They're later seen greeting the neighbours, which is meant to imply they'll meet the same fate, but in context doesn't look that suspicious.
    • The climax is presented within the pages of a comic book where the protagonist has drawn himself as a particularly dorky looking superhero.
  • "The Tale of the Dangerous Soup" had the scene where the girl accidentally unleashed an evil spirit from the restaurant. It looks like she unleashed a badly animated CGI. Also the "cursed statue from a remote jungle tribe" in that episode is a mass-produced ceramic lawn ornament that's widely available in home and garden stores across Canada. (A little less threatening when you see it's only 12 inches tall.)
  • The vampire's death in the episode "The Tale of the Night Shift" was made hilarious because of his high-pitched girlish screaming and because the burning body falling off the side of the building was clearly a dummy.
  • "The Tale of the Bookish Babysitter" had the scene where the kid encountered the witch in the castle and the witch's subsequent death.
  • "The Tale of the Dark Music" features the bully's punches on Andy.
    • The skeleton also counts too, thanks to a combination of an incredibly silly sounding voice and the fact that skeletons generally aren't considered creepy anymore nowadays.
  • "The Tale of Many Faces": When the two girls simply grab Madame Visage and she makes no attempt to break free, and they easily defeat her while she pathetically screams. So the girls have been working as slaves for her all this time and all they needed to do was simply hold her?
  • Vicky in "The Tale of the Mystical Mirror" goes wild over a hat that's part of the new line of fashions for a beauty shop. The hat looks incredibly dated now and Vicky's delight over it comes across as Narm.
  • "The Tale of the Chameleons". The ending. In theory, it plays The Bad Guy Wins trope to offensive levels. But in reality, the already far-fetched plot premise was an obvious excuse to guest star the Mowry twins.
  • It's hard to take an episode titled "The Tale of Jake the Snake" seriously. It sounds more like the title of an educational preschool cartoon rather than a scary story. That or an episode about and starring Jake "The Snake" Roberts, which smacks of missed opportunity. The Big Bad of said episode also looks ridiculous with his luminous teeth.
  • "The Tale of the Final Wish" has Jill's mother getting annoyed about making herself late for school and mother for work...so she stops her in the hall to give her a big lecture about it. Skewed Priorities much?
  • The incredibly bad kid-acting in Episode 408, "The Tale of the Room For Rent", really undermines the dramatic Love-Conquers-All thing they had in mind...
  • Overall the show's bizarre names for some of the characters make the episodes unintentionally hilarious - Bostick, Dayday, Jam, Perch, Weegee etc. - especially when they're alongside more normal names like Greg, Kathy, Emma etc.
  • Dr. Vink's accent. Clearly meant to establish him as an eccentric foreigner, it's obviously fake and can come off as obnoxious to viewers - especially if they recognize the actor from his other roles in the series, namely the first season episode "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark," where he was legitimately creepy.
  • As good as "The Tale of the Dead Man's Float" is, it's a little hard to take the name "Clorice" seriously. Made worse by the fact that the character is a swimmer, meaning her name being so similar to the pool-cleaning chemical "chlorine" comes across just a little too cutesy.
  • Meggie in "The Tale Of The Secret Admirer" is supposed to be plain-looking but aside from the sweaters/shirts she wears she's anything but.

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