Nickelodeon released the reboot of its series Are You Afraid of the Dark? on Friday, which got me thinking about the original show and how much it fucked me up as a far too young child who spent hours watching it in re-runs.
The episode I think about most often is The Tale of the Dollmaker, where a girl named Melissa goes to visit her aunt and uncle and is upset to discover a friend of hers, Susan, no longer lives next door. For some reason, she decides to trespass in Susan’s old house and finds a creepy, innate dollhouse, which is extremely my shit. She eventually discovers her friend Susan is trapped in the dollhouse and has turned almost completely into a porcelain doll. Her hands can barely move because they’re made of porcelain and at one point even fall off.
Eventually, Melissa saves Susan from the evil dollhouse, but not without scarring me for life at the idea of being slowly turned into a doll. There are so many other great episodes, of course. The one where the dead girl is trapped in the mirror dimension? Holy shit. The art teacher who traps girls in paintings? I am now sensing a theme in my favorite episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark? I do enjoy my freedom!
What episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark? kept you up at night? Or were you a spineless child who stuck to the soft stuff and wouldn’t dare touch this show?