Some of Nickelodeon’s spookiest Are You Afraid Of The Dark? episodes have been haunting 90’s kids well into adulthood, which is why we’ve been excitedly rubbing our hands for Paramounts upcoming horror film of the same name.
However, with the film we can expect something a little different. In an interview with Slash Film, writer Gary Dauberman (It,The Nun) revealed that the adaptation won’t feature stories from the original Are You Afraid Of The Dark? series.
Dauberman said: “It is a completely original story I came up with, but it still has the Midnight Society and it still has the campfire, It’s still a story being told.
“That show is so important to me. I didn’t want to age it down too much because for it’s time, it had some really disturbing episodes and some really dark episodes. Not every story the Midnight Society told ended with happily ever after or a person learning their lesson and it will never happen again. I really embraced that side of things and I think it’s been a long time.
“I think fear is healthy for kids. I don’t think we have to always sand down the edges of things and that’s something I really wanted to do with Are You Afraid of the Dark. I think it is scary and I think kids will be scared watching it at times, and also they’ll laugh at times. I think it’s got a great message. I think it’s got a great heart to it but it is still scary. I think that’s great. I think it’s going to open it up to a wider audience.”
The original Are You Afraid Of The Dark? TV series was created by DJ MacHale and Ned Kandel, and aired on Nickelodeon from 1990 to 2000.
Are You Afraid Of The Dark? will be in cinemas from 11 October 2019. Get all the latest horror news with every issue of SciFiNow.