TV REVIEW--Are You Afraid of the Dark: S2.1

Five kids investigate the disappearance of their friend, the leader of The Midnight Society whose fate may be tied to a mysterious curse that haunts their seaside town.

So growing up in the 90s I watched Are You Afraid of the Dark a LOT! It was the perfect show for me, this is where my love of weird things started...though I will say that some episodes did terrify me! Lol. So last year Nickelodeon revived it with a mini series and this year they did it again but with a brand new cast, brand new Midnight Society, and a new chilling story, but still some old favorites.

Firstly, I have to say the writers did a MILLION times better with this story! Firstly, we have an appearance of The Ghastly Grinner! Omg, that episode was a creepy one, because clowns! Or clown like jesters that laugh up crazy blue goo! Weird. But omg, I was so tickled that this happened in the very beginning of the show.

This one is going to be soooo much spookier than last year's, as this time a member of the Midnight Society has gone missing! There's a creepy legend surrounding the woods and a monster that lives inside. If you're caught in the woods after sunset, you're cursed, the monster will haunt/follow you around until he takes you. This missing kid apparently was looking into something regarding this story and then he suddenly vanishes.

Now the Midnight Society crew is trying to find out what happened to him. His disappearance isn't going totally unnoticed, but since he's a ruly teen the adults aren't overly concerned yet, they don't think he's missing-missing. But his best friend thinks he is, and so they go into the woods...

But let me back up just a bit, they learn about how dangerous these mysterious woods are from the a magic shop owner by the name of Sardo, accent on the do! Once again, this had me grinning like a little 90s kid again! The famed magic shop owner Sardo appeared in more than one episode of the original series so when that happens, you notice as a kid! I like to think that this guy might have been the original Sardo's son! I mean the original show was in the 90s, so it's believable. I feel like this show even hinted at it a bit too, or I likely might have been seeing what I wanted to see! Lol. Totally possible too!

What was seriously creepy about this particular storyline was how creepy the ghost/monster was. OMG I was pretty freaked out since I was watching it after it aired and I had to watch some Simpsons episodes so I wasn't having nightmares afterwards! Lol. The ghost reminded me of the one from the episode Dead Man's Float; a creepy skeleton ghost. Except this dude had claws and such and wasn't water drenched. He was too shadowed to see if he was a bloody red color, I'm going to go with not though.

Needless to say this show had me hooked! I loved loved loved all the nods to the original series! This "season" definitely took more liberties to nod at the original series. Even when strolling through the woods, one of the boys points out a circle of tree logs and think this would be a cool spot for the Midnight Society gatherings...all that was missing was the stone storyteller's seat! I loved it! It was a little bit of a letdown that the Society met in some indoor cabin or whatever to tell their stories, but all the other hat tips to the original series had me not counting it against them!

This is definitely a show for fans of the original Are You Afraid of the Dark to check out! It's creeptacular and I love that the stories are more real! They're not telling ghost stories anymore, they're living them! I can't wait until next week!

 

Overall Rating 5/5 stars