Everyone’s favorite 1990s Nickelodeon horror anthology Are You Afraid of the Dark? returns to television this month, with a three episode mini-series that reintroduces The Midnight Society – a secret cabal of teenaged horror authors – and pits them against a real-life nightmare. There’s a mysterious and wicked carnival coming to their town of Argento, Oregon… and yes, that is totally a reference to the master of ultraviolent Italian thrillers, Dario Argento.
And that’s just one of many references to horror classics, cult classics and even earlier episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark? that screenwriter BenDavid Grabinski (Skiptrace) says savvy audience members are going to find in the new limited series.
“The school is Herbert West Middle School,” Grabinski cites as another example, referring to the antihero of H.P. Lovecraft’s original short story Herbert West: Re-Animator, as well as the gory horror comedy trilogy starring Jeffrey Combs. “It’s all very, very deeply nerdy but in a way that if you don’t know the references you won’t know [they’re] references.”
Grabinski is quick to point out that the references are “mostly mainstream,” but the screenwriter’s definition of “mainstream” may not necessarily apply to everyone in the audience for the family-friendly scary mini-series.
“The kids’ names are Rachel Carpenter, Graham Raimi, Gavin Coscarelli, Louise Fulci and then Akiko Yamato, and then her brother is Officer Hideo Yamato, which is [referencing] Hideo Kojima,” Grabinski explains, adding the creator of the ”Metal Gear Solid” video games to that list of cinematic Masters of Horror.
“So a bunch of just deeply nerdy stuff,” Grabinski says. “There’s a bad guy in the show, you’ll find out his real last name is Cochran because I really like Halloween III.”
“It’s one of those things where it’s like, it passed the smell test. I have a thousand references in it and no one on set knew they were references, which to me is the magical level,” Grabinski says. “It’s like some movies where it’s like, here’s Officer Spielberg and Romero, and I’m like, ‘Well, that’s a little too much.’ We all have our own internal barometer over what is too much and what is corny or too obscure.”
“I mean look, I have a kid talking about how his favorite composer is Wang Chung, so I don’t know how many people made a show with ten-year-olds where someone must really like the To Live and Die in L.A. score, but I’m also probably a crazy person,” Grabinski admits.
The references won’t stop with horror movies and video games and Wang Chung. Fans of Are You Afraid of the Dark? will notice shout outs to the original series, which may raise questions over whether this new limited series is technically a reboot, or set in the same continuity as the beloved 1990s show.
“The way that I view this show is that anything that happened before [in the original Are You Afraid of the Dark?] could have or might have happened,” Grabinski explains. “I’m trying to be a little vague about that. But there’s a lot of homages and Easter eggs to the other things, in a way that makes it seem like this is just a continuation as opposed to a reboot, per se.”
“I revisit a lot in this in some ways, direct and non-direct. Mostly non-direct,” Grabinski concludes.
But if you’re expecting Ryan Gosling to return in a homage to his first acting gig, an Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode called “The Tale of Station 109.1,” you MIGHT be disappointed.
“Here’s the thing: if we had Gosling I’m pretty sure he’d be a significant part of our marketing,” Grabinski laughs. “Or, we’re just so confident that we’re doing the Vin Diesel in Tokyo Drift thing, and at the end Ryan Gosling is just going to come up as like a headless horsemen, and he’s like, ‘Come on, kids! We have an adventure!’ and then leave.”
“And honestly I’d watch that,” Grabinski jokes. “Just, I called him, and he just didn’t call me back. I get it. I think Blade Runner 2049 is a masterpiece. But I understand that he probably wouldn’t want to do a Nickelodeon show.”
The new Are You Afraid of the Dark limited series premieres on Nickelodeon on Friday, October 11, 2019!