I was a little worried going into Are You Afraid of the Dark.
I’d been disappointed by the first season of Goosebumps, and was afraid this show would prove equally
disappointing. I’d re-watched a few
episodes sporadically in the last few years, however, and was hopeful. Still, I wasn’t completely convinced that I
hadn’t simply caught the better ones.
That said, I was quite happy with what I got in this first
episode. While there are still issues
with the child actors, there’s plenty else to make up for it. The story, unlike most Goosebumps episodes, was clearly written to be easy to tell in a
30-minute children’s show with a limited budget, with only the most basic
special effects. The music is awesome,
and the story seems like something kids would tell scare each other, if dragged
out a bit longer than the scary stories other kids told me as a child.
The premise, for anyone who wasn’t a 90s kid, is that a group
of kids called “The Midnight Society” hold meetings out in the woods where they
tell scary stories. This first episode
shows the initiation of a new member, Frank (Jason Alisharan), who must tell a
story good enough to earn a unanimous vote, before he will be allowed to join.
Even in the frame story, this is one of those shows that
pretends kids have some great freedom of movement. Frank was brought to the middle of the woods
blindfolded, because he can’t be allowed to know where they meet until he’s a
member. If they’re far enough out to be
hidden, I seriously doubt any of these kids are old enough to get there without
being driven by parents.
I don’t say this as a negative. I know one of the major appeals of this show
to lonely kids was the idea of a group of friends, who spend time together consistently,
and who I had a secret place to meet.
You could probably explain away Frank’s situation by saying that his
sponsor’s Mom drove them together, rolling her eyes at the blindfold the whole
way, but that’s not the point. This show
is fantasies within a fantasy.
Appropriately for Frank’s initiation, he tells story about
proving yourself. The story we get is
about two brothers named Buzz and Denny (Sean Ryan and Jason Tremblay) who go
for a hike. Buzz is hoping to use the
trip as a chance to impress his older brother.
The two actors are both the weakest part of this episode, and I get the
distinct feeling the people who did the casting decided to keep the kids who
were able to avoid telegraphing every line for the ongoing frame-story, and
stick whoever else they could find in as the one-off characters.
The two brother send up lost in the woods because Buzz was
trusted with the compass, and repeatedly held it too close to his metal
belt-buckle. I’m not sure if a random
piece of unmagnetized metal would affect a compass that easily, but it does
seem like the kind of “lost in the woods” idea a kid excited to apply the
knowledge he gained studying for his Science test to story-telling would come
up with.
As it starts to get dark and cold the two meet a friendly man
named Flynn (Brian Dooley). The man
gives evasive answers to every question they ask, refusing to directly say if
he’s lost, why he’s in the woods, or if he’ll help them. Instead he says only that he’ll take them to
“someone who can help them” who he refers to as “the Good Doctor.”
The Doctor is Doctor Vink (Aron Tager), a recurring character
featured in Frank’s later stories. In
this story, he lives in a small cottage in the middle of the woods, and upon
their arrival Flynn mysteriously disappears, giving the brothers no choice but
to approach the house, and the Doctor emerges to seduce them inside.
There’s a good reason Vink kept appearing in this show: he’s
an awesome character. He’s theoretically
a scientist, but much of what he does seems outright magical. Personally, I’m inclined to put him into the
category of an alchemist, mixed with a good portion of a classic trickster. He’s an old man, but constantly full of
energy and spirit. I feel almost like I should
justify not calling him a pedophile, when he lures kids into a cabin and offers
them tea while getting up close and personal, but I almost feel like Vink is
too insane for such desires to even register for him. He seems far more interested in gaining
“specimens” for his experiments.
Also, he doesn’t like being called a “nutbag.”
Being on cable had the added advantage of letting the show
get away with far more than Goosebumps
ever could, and Vink happily shows the kids the brain of a boar (which is
obviously just raw chicken, but let’s pretend), and a human hand preserved in
formaldehyde. Denny, as the practical
brother, is absolutely repelled by the Doctor, while Buzz seems to be at least
somewhat fascinated.
Vink, seemingly disinterested in their problems, starts a
game of riddles with Buzz in exchange for access to his phone (which he’s
prepared to disable with a pair of hedge clippers). The riddles are old, but this was the 90s,
before a quick Google search would have given the writers all the brain-busters
they could ever want.
The riddle that stumps Buzz is “What is it that has no
weight, can be seen by the naked eye, and if you put it in a barrel it will
make the barrel lighter?” (I’m sure all
the kids at home who got it were proud when we cut back to the Midnight Society
debating if the riddle was solvable.)
Losing the game, the two must leave.
However, the Doctor helpfully informs them that a cab drives through the
woods every night, and will be by shortly.
The brothers are incredulous, but decide to wait anyway, having no other
options.
Naturally, the cab shows up, old and worn and driven by
Flynn. At this point the episode goes
from simply being creepy to being downright terrifying, as we go into the
territory of urban horror stories. Once
inside the cab the boys find that Flynn is no longer as evasive as he had
been. Forty years ago, Vink offered
Flynn a big tip if he could solve a riddle, and Flynn failed. After losing, Flynn died in a crash (not
stated, but implied to be caused by Vink), and is not forced to relive the crash
over and over again with those who can’t answer Vink’s riddles. Before the crash, Flynn gives them one more
chance to answer the riddle.
I’m not quite sure how to interpret Flynn. Despite telling them that he wants them to
succeed and break his curse, he remains chipper throughout, even talking about
the car exploding like it’s a fascinating event they need to see. Perhaps as a ghost he maintains the happy
demeanor of a cab driver providing a service, perhaps Vink forces him to act in
such a manner, or maybe he’s just jaded after forty years and trying to stay
positive.
Naturally, Buzz figures it out in the nick of time, the cab
disappears, and the two are picked up by a park ranger (Tedd Dillon). We’re told in voice-over that all that could
be found of the cabin was a stone foundation, planting that hint that some time
travel was involved. Frank is voted in,
and the credits roll.
This episode gives you pretty much exactly what you’d want: a
ghost story about kids, tailor made for its format, and with a memorable
villain. Honestly, going through this
show, I can only hope this quality is maintained.
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