10 Are You Afraid Of The Dark Moments That Are Genuinely Scary For Adults

Summary

• Some moments in
  Are You Afraid of the Dark?
  are scary to viewers of all ages, despite 90s effects.
• Top-notch makeup effects and memorable performances combined to create many moments of terror that even adults will find scary.
• Jump scares, creature work, and the exploration of primal fears were all used to create terror during the original iteration of the beloved kids show.

Perhaps no Nickelodeon show is more iconic to kids who grew up in the 1990s than Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and some moments from the children’s horror show were so legitimately scary that they stuck with the show’s viewers well into adulthood. The original version of the Are You Afraid of the Dark? anthology series ran for five seasons from 1992-1996, and over the course of 13 episodes, each season brought new, genuinely unsettling stories to its viewers. Some episodes are more famous than others, however.

Many of the show’s best episodes are marked by the villain; Are You Afraid of the Dark? has a rogues’ gallery of monsters, ghosts, and ghouls that are up there with any horror franchise despite the 1990s network TV-level effects. While not every episode was predicated on jump scares or terrifying creatures, many of the most impactful episodes have specific moments that still give people the shivers. No matter if it’s a child from the 1990s or an adult from the 2020s watching, some moments from Are You Afraid of the Dark? are just downright scary.

10 Reed’s Dead Uncle Stalks From His Coffin – “The Tale Of The Dangerous Soup”

Season 3, episode 13

Not all the scariest moments in Are You Afraid of the Dark? involve a monster. Sometimes the show reached into the basest fears that people share to conjure a particularly spine-chilling moment, and the episode “The Tale of the Dangerous Soup” is a perfect example. The episode features the infamous Dr. Vink (“with a va-va-VA”) as a restauranteur whose eatery is known for serving a delicious soup; it’s revealed that the secret ingredient in the soup that makes it so delicious is literally fear, which is extracted from victims by an enchanted statue and distilled into a liquid.

Two of the restaurant’s employees (including Neve Campbell in a guest spot) accidentally unleash the statue, leaving it free to torment people at will. It sets upon the employee Reed, and shows him his deepest fear: the stern uncle he grew up with who died when he was young. The illusory uncle’s coffin is standing upright, and Reed’s ghostly uncle stalks out of the coffin towards him with dead eyes. It’s a disturbing moment that resonates for anyone who is uncomfortable around coffins or bodies, especially if it’s a fear carried over from a traumatic childhood experience.

9 Badge Impersonates Gwen’s Grandmother – “The Tale Of Badge”

Season 5, episode 13

While preying upon childhood trauma was certainly one of its greatest tools, Are You Afraid of the Dark? was more than capable of more traditional horror elements, as was the case in “The Tale of Badge.” The episode features a young woman, Gwen, who learns that her family is responsible for keeping a rat-faced goblin named Badge at bay, and she unwittingly lets him loose upon her home while her grandmother is gone.

Badge’s appearance is some of the best makeup work that the crew of
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
managed in the first version of the show.

The scariest moment occurs when Badge is first revealed. Gwen hears a knock at the front door, and it’s her grandmother claiming she forgot her keys; relieved, Gwen rushes to open the door, only for Badge to burst in and terrify her and her brother, who he subsequently kidnaps. Badge’s appearance is some of the best makeup work that the crew of Are You Afraid of the Dark? managed in the first version of the show, and the bait-and-switch with Gwen’s grandmother made for a great jump scare.

8 The Poltergeist Emerges From The Wall – “The Tale Of The Quicksilver”

Season 3, episode 11

“The Tale of the Quicksilver” throws a fastball with its villain, providing a simple yet extremely creepy character in an episode that clearly has some Poltergeist influence to it. The walls of a house are possessed by an evil entity that appears in the form of a shadow, and when it’s conjured via ceremony, it’s capable of physically manipulating the world around the individuals it haunts. Its appearance can disturb any adult who isn’t a horror buff, with its sallow skin, sunken eyes, and unsettling smile. His first appearance at the beginning of the episode will stick with anyone.

7 The Lonely Ghost Appears In The Mirror – “The Tale Of The Lonely Ghost”

Season 1, episode 3

“The Tale of the Lonely Ghost” is one of the rare episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark? that might actually get scarier the older a person gets. The episode follows the teenager Amanda, who spends the night in a haunted house to win the approval of her bratty cousin and her friends. Amanda was told that the house used to belong to a young girl who was constantly bullied for being unable to speak. The girl went to the house to live with her grandmother.

The cruelty and tragedy behind the story of the Lonely Ghost makes it much harder to stomach as an adult.

While there, she was chased into her room by some bullies who locked her in long enough that she died (either from thirst or hunger, as it’s implied). The girl’s first appearance in the blackness of the mirror that Amanda sees her in is terrifying given her unsettling appearance, but the tragedy behind her story makes it much harder to stomach as an adult. Adults understand the consequences of bullying, and understand the fear and pain the girl must have endured at her death. It’s a truly upsetting episode, and the little girl’s first appearance is the exclamation point.

6 The Computer Virus Chair Swivel – “The Tale Of The Renegade Virus”

Season 4, episode 1

The concept at play in “The Tale of the Renegade Virus” is far less entertaining nowadays, but at the time it was exploring the then-barely-scratched surface of virtual reality and computer engineering. A renegade computer virus can cripple businesses, the economy, and literally cost lives, given how reliant upon computer technology our modern society is. Therefore, seeing a computer virus as a terrifying sentient being isn’t that far a stretch.

What really elevates the idea is the actual appearance of the virus in the episode. Once again the Are You Afraid of the Dark? makeup crew was on their A-game, as the red-eyed, silver-skinned creature with an exposed brain and deep, crackling voice is up there with any creature the show produced. They use the bait-and-switch vocal trick again here to great effect, with the main character Evan approaching his dad’s office desk chair only to have the chair swivel and reveal the gruesome virus impersonating his father.

5 Nosferatu Traps Katie In The Projection Room – “The Tale Of The Midnight Madness”

Season 2, episode 2

“The Tale of the Midnight Madness” is buoyed by a tremendous performance from the iconic actor Christopher Heyerdahl, who portrays the real-world version of Count Orlok from Nosferatu. Dr. Vink is once again in the mix, this time as a moviemaker peddling his movies to a local theater on its last legs. He promises his film (which is revealed to be a version of the classic vampire film Nosferatu) will reinvigorate the theater, which it of course does. However, the horror on the screen doesn’t end when the lights go up.

Christopher Heyerdahl also played Leonid, the extraterrestrial from the season 2 episode “The Tale of the Thirteenth Floor.”

Nosferatu is able to leave the screen and enter the real world once the theater is empty, and the two employees discover it only after Nosferatu attacks their boss. As he pursues them around the theater, he manages to trap one of them, Katie, in the projection room above the main theater. The moment when the door opens and he is fully revealed, complete with grotesquely-veined white skin and unsettlingly long fingers, is the stuff of nightmares, and the fact that Katie is trapped in a small room with her assailant elevates the scare even more.

4 The Real Zeebo Laughs In The Dark – “The Tale Of Laughing In The Dark”

Season 1, episode 2

For most of the appearances that Zeebo the Clown makes in “The Tale of Laughing in the Dark”, he’s an oversized carnival ride decoration–creepy, but not the stuff of nightmares. However, when Josh goes into the funhouse to prove that it isn’t haunted by an actual cigar-smoking specter of a carnival clown, he encounters more than just a carnival decoration. For the briefest of scenes, Josh looks into a funhouse mirror and is greeted by the sight of the real version of the deranged clown that Zeebo is based on. Coulrophobics unite, because it doesn’t get scarier than this.

3 The Vampire On The Roof – “The Tale Of The Night Shift”

Season 5, episode 11

In “The Tale of the Night Shift”, a nurse at a downtown hospital named Amanda (played by a young Emmanuelle Chriqui) gradually discovers that the hospital and all of its employees and patients are being slowly fed upon by a green-skinned vampire. The ancient evil disguises himself as different members of the hospital’s populace in order to lure his victims, which leads to plenty of creepy moments. However, nothing is quite as scary as the fear trifecta that the episode hits right at the end.

Amanda flees to the rooftop to escape the vampire, who follows her up and traps her on the ledge overlooking a certainly fatal fall. The creature dangles her over the ledge and threatens to drop her and “lick up what’s left”, which stands as one of the lines it’s hard to believe was permitted in a show rated TV-Y7. He is about to sink his teeth in when two other survivors push his coffin into the incinerator, which causes him to burst into flames and fall off the roof. Horrifying vampire? Check. Dizzying heights? Check. Body engulfed in flames? Check. That list gives plenty of adults the willies.

2 The Ghastly Grinner In The Comic Book Shop – “The Tale Of The Ghastly Grinner”

Season 4, episode 9

The Ghastly Grinner is widely regarded as the most memorable villain from Are You Afraid of the Dark? and for good reason. The blue-and-yellow jester is a comic book villain who manages to jump from the page to the real world thanks to a microwave (really), and while his appearance is certainly insane, it’s the aftermath of his encounters that turns up the terror. The Ghastly Grinner reduces everyone he comes across into a babbling, giggling, disheveled version of themselves, complete with bubbling blue drool to match his.

The Grinner doesn’t actually appear until roughly halfway through the episode, but when he does, he makes an impact. He looms over the main characters atop a comic book stand and grabs the employee/exposition machine by the throat, laughing evilly and spewing blue drool from his mouth. The Ghastly Grinner truly depicts the face of insanity, and gives off a vibe that’s uncomfortable and upsetting. The top-notch makeup and acting combine to create the series’ most fiendish phantom, and any fan of the series certainly remembers him in adulthood.

1 The Corpse Emerges From The Pool – “The Tale Of The Dead Man’s Float”

Season 5, episode 1

The Ghastly Grinner may be the “best” villain, but the scariest one has to be “The Corpse” from “The Tale of the Dead Man’s Float.” The episode features a secret pool in the basement of a high school, which was locked away for years after a young boy drowned in it. Once the pool is reopened, the reason for his drowning is unleashed: a rotten, blood-red monster that is a remnant of the ancient burial ground the pool was built upon.

The young boy who drowns at the beginning of the episode is actually a young Jay Baruchel (
This Is The End, She’s Out Of My League
), and he would go on to star in three episodes of the show’s revival in 1999.

The episode plays out almost as the inspiration for Blumhouse’s Night Swim, with the creature able to leave the water to hunt its victims. Its initial exit from the pool, where its full form is revealed, is one of the scariest moments in the entirety of Are You Afraid of the Dark?. The moment is especially scary considering that it taps into the primal fear of the water that is prolific in humanity. While some are more comfortable in water than others, the dark depths of any body of water could be hiding something that grabs at your ankles–even a high school pool.