Editorials
The 10 Creepiest Episodes of “Are You Afraid of the Dark?”
“Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society…”
Those words remain etched in the memory of anyone who grew up watching Nickelodeon in the ‘90s. Airing from 1990-1996 and 1999-2000 (a revival run) for 91 episodes, spooky anthology series Are You Afraid of the Dark? delivered chills and thrills to the younger horror fan. Every episode, a member of the Midnight Society would present a tale of terror to their fellow members gathered around a campfire in the woods, beginning with the aforementioned catchphrase that was initially conceived as a tip of the hat to Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone.
With a new three-episode miniseries poised to revive the Midnight Society once more on October 11th, we look back at 10 of the creepiest, most nightmare-inducing episodes!
The Tale of the Shiny Red Bicycle
Told by David, the 10th episode of season 2 is as eerie as it is tragic. As a teen, Mike still suffers night terrors about the fateful day 5 years prior when he failed to save his best friend Ricky, who slipped and fell to his death in the river below. First, he begins seeing Ricky’s red bicycle everywhere, followed by the haunting whispers of his name. Then he sees Ricky’s ghost, though everyone thinks he’s losing his grip. Ricky is haunting Mike in earnest, which is effectively spine-chilling, but it turns out this ghost has a far more benevolent reason for returning; a warning to prevent another tragedy.
The Tale of the Super Specs
For the most part, the Midnight Society’s tales ended on a happy note. That wasn’t the case in this season 1, episode 6 story. Borrowing from They Live, Gary tells the group a story about an aspiring magician named Weeds who drags his unwitting girlfriend along with him to a magic shop. He buys a magic dust and accidentally spills some on a pair of glasses, which the shop owner Sardo then talks him into buying as well. When his girlfriend puts them on, she (and the viewer) is startled to spot all figures in all black lurking in plain sight. Though, they disappear when she removes the glasses. The more she uses them, the more the figures appear, until it reaches a not so happy conclusion.
The Tale of the Ghastly Grinner
This fourth season episode, told by Betty Ann, sees an aspiring comic book artist accidentally unleash his villainous Ghastly Grinner, a sinister Joker-like character that turns others into cackling, mindless zombies that drool blue ooze. The teen has to learn confidence in his artistic abilities if he has any hope to thwart this manic enemy. It’s more lighthearted and favors irony (and a happy ending), but the imagery of both the Ghastly Grinner and his victims makes for some spine-tingling moments.
The Tale of the Midnight Madness
This second season, episode 2 story is also told by Gary, and revolves around an alternate version of Nosferatu. An old theater is in danger of closing, and the mysterious Dr. Vink comes to the rescue by presenting a unique film to screen; “Nosferatu the Demon Vampire.” Business turns around, but the two teens at the center of the story start noticing strange things, like bite marks on their fellow theater workers’ necks. Turns out, the creepy Count Orlock in the film is able to escape into the real world. And that door works both ways. It’s a cool concept, not unlike Demons 2, with one unnerving foe.
The Tale of the Water Demons
The moral of this season 4 episode is simply, don’t steal. Tucker tells the Midnight Society of a teen who got more than they bargained for when they steal an object from a former sea captain. An object that happens to be cursed. Every time the teen falls asleep, he’s tormented by the watery demons trying to track his location to reclaim what’s been stolen. When they find him in his waking life, it’s terrifying. Water is everywhere, and these water demons are not to be messed with. If the teen learns his lesson on stealing, maybe all isn’t lost.
The Tale of the Lonely Ghost
In episode 3 of the inaugural season, David tells the group of a girl who wants to fit in with her cousin so badly she agrees to spend the night alone in a haunted house. Of course, paranormal activity ensues. Taking it a step further, we find out just how dark this ghost’s origin is- in life this ghost was a deaf girl bullied so badly she died of starvation in her home while her mother was away tending to her sick husband. Bleak stuff. Luckily, it ends on an uplifting note, but what a doozy of a ghost story.
The Tale of the Frozen Ghost
Melissa Joan Hart stars in this season 2 tale, told by Kristen, of one seriously frightening ghost. Hart plays babysitter Daphne, who heads off with her spoiled ward to his aunt’s house in the country. Which happens to be haunted, naturally. The ghost itself is scary, with a frozen appearance reminiscent of Santi in The Devil’s Backbone, but the first-person perspective of the wind rushing though is a nice atmospheric touch.
The Tale of the Dollmaker
This season 3, episode 5 story by Betty Ann revolves around a dollhouse. For teen Melissa, she longs to reconnect with her old friend Susan when she visits her aunt and uncle. But Susan’s family have moved away after her strange disappearance. When Melissa finds a dollhouse in the attic that looks identical to Susan’s home, well, it gets trippy from there. It’s when she actually finds out what happened to Susan that the scares come in this episode.
The Tale of Laughing in the Dark
Midnight Society member Betty Ann gets it; clowns are creepy. In the second episode ever, a teen decides to prove his mettle by stealing the nose of Zeebo the Clown from a funhouse. Understandably, the clown wants it back. What makes this episode so freaky is that it bides its time showing Zeebo. You see his wafting cigar smoke, the footprint of his shoe, or even hear his laugh. Knowing that he’s lurking in the teen’s home unseen creates some seriously unsettling suspense.
The Tale of the Dead Man’s Float
This season 5 opener, which marked Midnight Society member Stig’s initiation, benefited from one fantastic creature design. When a pair of teens push to have a long-abandoned pool reopen, they soon discover the hard way why the pool was boarded up like a dark, dirty secret for 40 years. It’s a creepy water zombie haunting this particular pool, and the build-up of its appearance through Jaws-esque underwater shots as it hunts its victims enhances the fear. It’s one of the most menacing looking creatures to ever plague the Midnight Society bunch.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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