Are You Afraid of the Dark: The Tale of the Dark Music

For this review I won’t pretend that I haven’t read the relevant wiki for this show: Jacob Tierney, the actor who plays Eric, left before the second season and Eric disappeared from the group without explanation. That makes this second story, told right after the first, his final chance to impress. It certainly out-performs his first attempt, and I’d say is overall one of the better, if not the best, episodes so far. However, I feel that it’s quality may almost be accidental.

Eleven episodes in and I’m finally starting to understand the show enough to level some real criticisms in it’s direction. While this will make two reviews in a row where I start by ranting away in a tangent, I’m going to just run with it, because I think it definitely relates to what makes this episodes so good.

I think with a show like this, the production staff must have sat down at some point and asked questions of tone. To what extent should the different stories have a consistent tone, and to what extent should they shake up the formula. I think that, for the most part, the episodes up until now have been more-or-less consistent in their tone. They shake it up a bit on their range between humor and horror, but both still have to be present. You can’t scare the kiddies too much, but you also can’t risk making an episode all laughs and having them worry they’re watching the wrong show.

I also noticed that The Tale of Laughing in the Dark is the only episode in which the horror might have a rational explanation. Technically that makes this show as much if not more a sci-fi/fantasy anthology, than a horror anthology. However, this is understandable as the kind of horrors humans usually visit on each other are hardly family friendly.

So, The Tale of the Dark Music gets points simply because it does vary quite a bit from the standard tone. It’s the closest I’ve ever seen to the show staying completely straight in horror, and it has some legitimately frightening visuals. Having the main character (Graham Selkirk) turn evil at the end doesn’t hurt either, and I suspect the host segment reassuring us that he doesn’t actually murder his sister (Jennie Levesque) may have been added in.

The host segments in general for this episode are quite weak. Apparently the theme of this episode is supposed to be fear of the dark. Frank (Jason Alisharan) is mad that Eric left him in the woods without a flashlight. The main story has nothing to do with the dark, except that the horror is in a dark basement, and since most bad things in this show happen in dark places that hardly helps.

Andy, our main character, moves into a new house his mother (Kathryn Graves) inherited from a great-uncle he had never met or heard of. The uncle was apparently a recluse, who somehow made a fortune without ever leaving his house. He was hated by the neighbors, and a boy named Koda (Leif Anderson) immediately attacks him for simply being related to the old man. I think we’re supposed to interpret Koda’s father (Ian MacDonald) as abusive, and feel some sympathy for him, but all Mr. Koda does is tell his son not to talk back, and that he will have to do chores to earn his allowance (apparently by scrubbing the front steps for hours, as we never see him do any other work), so on this count they fell down.

As Andy helps his mother around the house, he makes several trips into the basement, in which strange things begin to happen. Each time, something strange, comes from a closet to greet Andy and invite him to join it. Over the course of the episode we get a glowing set of red eyes, a giant doll, and a carnival barker (AJ Henderson) who turns into a skeleton.

Intermixed with the basement and Koda’s periodic attacks, we see Andy trying to be the ideal son. He delivers newspapers, helps his mother around the house, and tries to take care of his bratty little sister. His character is established well without the need for two much exposition: despite now living in a big house, he’s an underpriviledged kid who feels that his lot in life is unfair.

Two events come together to create the climax: Koda destroys Andy’s bike, and Andy realizes that the force in the closet is summoned by music (no explanation why, but we don’t really need one). In an effort to simply punish Koda for his bullying, Andy lures him into the basement, locks him in, and blasts the music. When he comes to see the cowed bully, he finds that Koda is gone, but has been replaced by a new bicycle.

The closet opens, and a voice tells Andy that it will give him anything he wants as long as he feeds the being in the closet, just as he did his uncle. Just then his sister comes home saying the famous last words “Mom says you have to make me dinner.” We then get the aforementioned cop-out on the ending.

I imagine that if this show had been lower on humor and heavier on pure horror, this episode probably wouldn’t have impressed me as much. That said, with the season we have, this episode stands above most of the previous offerings. Definitely one to check out.