If there’s one show that collectively traumatized a generation of millennials, it’s Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark. The Canadian-produced series originally aired from 1990 to 1996, with a reboot in 1999 for an additional season. It followed a group of friends who call themselves the Midnight Society; they gathered ’round a fire each week to tell a horror story. That story then played out for the audience, anthology-style. Each episode had a new, frightening thing to terrorize its young audience, from vampires to ghosts to aliens to ghouls.
Last year, keen to dip into the wells of nostalgia, Nickelodeon rebooted Are You Afraid of the Dark. And successfully, at that, because it’s coming back for a second season. According to The Wrap, the network announced the return of the series this week, despite the fact that its return was originally conceived as a miniseries. It was a ratings success, so it makes sense that it’d be back for more. But what will the second season look like?
The Are You Afraid of the Dark reboot was written by Ben David Grabinski and directed by Dean Israelite, and followed a new iteration of the Midnight Society. But in a meta twist, the events of one story–about something called the Carnival of Doom and its evil ringleader Mr. Tophat–start to bleed into reality. The Midnight Society bands together to do away with the encroaching evil.
But no matter how you best remember Are You Afraid of the Dark, we can all agree that it’s a classic that’s always fit for a new imagining. It’s the perfect format for a show that can prey on the next generation’s greatest fears. We’re excited that younger folks will be tormented the same way we were all those years ago.
Featured Image: Nickelodeon
