Seven Are You Afraid of the Dark Episodes That Still Give Us Nightmares

For most ‘90s kids, Are You Afraid of the Dark was a show you watched behind the couch or through your fingers. The series was Twilight Zone for tweens, and it haunted our dreams for years after its cancellation. Sure, some episodes were a little goofy and light-hearted—but others had better production value and an extra scare factor that was hard for imaginative young minds to forget. Here’s a roundup of tales—all approved by the Midnight Society—that still creep us out.

Tale of the Frozen Ghost

A spoiled brat and his frazzled babysitter (played by a young Melissa Joan Hart) take a trip to the countryside, where they encounter the restless spirit of a young boy who froze to death. Although this episode has a happy ending, there’s something very unsettling about kids whispering.

Tale of the Ghastly Grinner

An aspiring artist gets his hands on a one-of-a-kind comic featuring the Ghastly Grinner, a villainous jester. Through a bizarre occurrence with a microwave, the comic book character comes to life, creating giggling, blue-slime-drooling zombies in its wake and leaving the artist to use his wits and artistic skills to save the day. Aren’t clowns already creepy enough?

The Tale of the Dead Man’s Float

A nerd agrees to help out a popular student in science in exchange for swimming lessons—but, as luck would have it, the school pool is built on a graveyard. Now there’s a restless (and squelchy) spirit roaming around, and the kids have to use science to beat it. This episode is particularly frightening because the big bad is gruesome and gory—think Hellraiser but for kiddos.

Tale of the Lonely Ghost

Amanda’s snobby cousin wants nothing to do with her and will only hang out with her if she completes a number of tasks—including spending the night in the abandoned house next door. But, like many abandoned houses with “HELP ME” scrawled on the walls, a restless spirit haunts the place, and when Amanda and her cousin go visit, the cousin is lured into a mirror world.

Tale of Laughing in the Dark

More creepy clowns? Eesh. This story follows a brazen tough-guy named Josh who steals the nose from a clown statue named Zeebo, who inhabits the town’s mysterious funhouse. But the funhouse is definitely haunted—and Zeebo really wants his nose back.

Tale of the Dollmaker

Melissa sometimes spends the weekend at her boring relatives’ countryside house—but luckily, she’s made friends with the neighbor-kid, Susan. When Susan mysteriously vanishes, Melissa heads next door to investigate. What she finds? Susan trapped in a possessed dollhouse, slowly transforming into a porcelain doll. The supremely spooky part of this episode is when Suzie’s porcelain hand falls off. Yikes.

Tale of Apartment 214

For most kids, the worst an elderly neighbor could do is scream at you to get off his lawn or commandeer a Frisbee that landed in her yard. That’s not the case for young Stacey, who moved into a new apartment with her mother. She befriends the older woman next door, and the pair begins to regularly meet—until Stacey misses a day, which makes the neighbor very, very unhappy.