Are You Afraid of the Dark: The Tale of the Super Specs

The Tale of the Super Specs is the first story narrated by Gary (Ross Hull), the leader of The Midnight Society. I honestly went into this episode roughly remembering the story, and expecting it to be more mediocre. Instead, this episode is outright horrifying, taking a pair of joke shop glasses, and using them to present a frightening scenario.

I like Gary a lot as a character. Before the story starts we’re shown him with Kristen (Rachel Blanchard) in his father’s magic shop. In the shop Gary picks up a pair of glasses like the ones in the story before going to the meeting. This gives us the impression that Gary may have made up this entire story on the fly, making him the definitive story-telling ace of a group that in other episodes discusses working on stories for extended periods of time.

This episode introduces us to the show’s second recurring character, Sardo (Richard Dumont), a magic store owner who somehow manages to constantly sell protagonists real, and very dangerous magic, which even he thinks is fake. As with Vink, Sardo was never intended to recur, and the episode ends with him trapped in limbo, so I can only assume later appearances take place in alternate universes.

The episode follows a boy named Weeds (Eugene Byrd) and his girlfriend Marybeth (Graidhne Lelieveld-Amiro), who come into Sardo’s shop, and buy dust made from monkey bones, and a pair of the glasses. The glasses themselves appear to be inert on their own, but playing around Weeds throws some of the dust on the glasses, enchanting them.

While it’s never really commented on, it bears noting that Weeds is black, Marybeth is white, and they are explicitly stated to be a couple multiple times, even though it’s not necessary for the story. Yay for progressive children’s media! They have good chemistry as a bickering couple.

Weeds is a prankster, but is portrayed positively for it. Marybeth, on the other hand, is the voice of reason. When she begins putting on the specs and seeing people veiled in all black, Weeds assumes it’s an April Fools joke. However, Marybeth continues to see strange things, and even subtle changes to the environment through the glasses (a kettle on the stove visible only through the glasses, and a fire in the fireplace). It’s tense.

And when she tries to get rid of the glasses they, predictably, reappear in her bag.

Weeds, meanwhile, plays pranks, and messes around with the dust, eventually assuming it doesn’t work because he’s turned the wrong way to see it’s effect.

Going to Sardo, Marybeth is told that she and Weeds have somehow opened a door to another dimension, and the two realities are fighting to exist (an explanation Sardo clearly makes up, but is proven to be correct). Getting the monkey dust back from Weeds just before he flushes it as useless, she forces her boyfriend to sit through a ritual with Sardo to close the door. We get creepy imagery, and a bunch of people in veils.

When Sardo attempts to finally seal the doorway, a woman’s voice loudly announces that two universes cannot co-exist, and we cut to a reality where the two leads are replaced by different actors (Paul Frappier and Tarah Anick). Then, the veiled woman (Rachelle Glait) reveals herself, and explains to the two that they’d opened a door to another universe, but she’d sealed it away to save theirs. We then see our three leads in a crystal ball, screaming.

I’m a bit confused by why the ending seems to imply that the woman in black was a villain, if she was saving her own universe, but her voice goes low-pitched so she’s evil. Also, no one but her seems to veil themselves in the alternate universe, so I’m not sure who the other figures were. Still, kind of a minor criticism.

We close out on Gary pranking the group by giving them specs, and having a veiled David (Nathaniel Moreau) step in front of them. The logistics of this prank I don’t understand, but they needed a closing.

When people say horror should focus on scary ideas over gore, this is what they mean.