My Top 10 Favorite "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" Episodes

The final vampire episode on this list also happens to be my favorite episode of them all. A vampire takes up residence in the basement of a hospital and begins feeding on all the patients. Concept alone, this episode is terrifying. Throw in the vampire itself, which will make any kid crap themselves, and you've got instant nightmare fuel. It doesn't help matters either that the vampire threatens the leading lady with an utterly gruesome death. All these episodes showed great examples of how to scare their audience, but this episode, which also has the distinction of being the final episode aired of the show's original run, did it the best, top to bottom.

The only clown-related episode on this list is, to many people, the best. And can you blame them? A carnival funhouse attraction featuring the dummy of a notorious clown criminal, who may or may not be alive. Sounds like a recipe for spooks and scares! Just ask the main character himself, who believes he's so tough that he can steal the dummy's nose. Well, he does, only for the clown to come after him. The scenes inside the funhouse are creepy enough, but then add the scenes at the main character's house, which have some pretty decent tension to them, and there's no doubt why this episode is a favorite. And it is...but my favorite just happens to be another...

The next vampire story is a definite-goody, with an excellent location. An old style movie theatre begins showing a strange man's silent film about a killer vampire, only for the vampire to escape the film and run amok in the theatre house. The vampire's design is truly striking, calling back to cinema's first vampire in Nosferatu. Most kids wouldn't have seen that film, but that doesn't mean they won't lose it when they get a load of this guy. Great setting and concept, mixed with a great villain, and you've got an episode that'll have kids hiding behind their hands.

This episode is initially built around the death of the main character's mysterious uncle & their subsequent purchase of his house, but it's what lies in the basement that holds all the answers. Anything to do with the basement in the episode freaked me out as a kid. It was surreal, it was grotesque, it was inexplicable, and even when the main character gets his revenge on the neighborhood bully, you can't help but feel it came at a steep price. His smile at the end tells the whole story here...

This is the first vampire episode on the list, but let's face it: if this show got one thing right it was vampires, and the atmospheres surrounding each episode were perfect. This is the more "stable" of the vampire episodes. A new family moves in next door. No one sees them except for at night, even their son, and in the morning fresh townspeople keep popping up with fresh wounds on their neck. Our kid heroes become convinced they're really vampires. The idea that they might be vampires is more scary than what the episode physically gives us, but the ending is perfect, especially for kids, who's significance is typically undermined in a number of shows. I know as a kid I didn't see the end coming, and that made it all the scarier to me.

An invisible demon who haunts a pool that was built over his grave? If you think that's spooky, just wait till you get a look at the guy out of the water. It's a slow build to the eventual reveal, mainly in dealing with one of the character's fears of swimming, but it's one I never forgot as a kid. It really is the stuff nightmares are made of.

An innocent game of hide and seek in a grave yard? What could go wrong? Really? I actually won't comment on the twist, because the episode did a nice job of covering it up for me when I first saw it. But seriously, it's bad enough that you have a graveyard and a spooky gravedigger who MAY be dead himself in the mix, now add in the twist on top, and any child is guaranteed to get chills.

An old man must stay awake or the ghosts of dead sailors whom he's stolen from will come for him. Add in a house in the middle of no where, and an eerie mist that companies the demon's arrivals, and you got one spooky ass setting. Not to mention the kids, who were just delivering some groceries to the old man, and all of a sudden they have to deal with this?! It's a creepy concept all around, and it's shot well, too. There isn't any glaring errors that take away from the atmosphere, and the lesson-to-be-learned figures nicely into the climax. It's spooky, just not as spooky as the others ahead of it....

The kids in this episode are annoying. You think that wouldn't make a difference, but it actually kinda does. Good thing is the episode has a fantastic setting. A large, maze-like public library, in the dead of night, and the ghost of the library's overbearing librarian chasing down kids who make noise, and imprisoning them. Bonus points for the actress as the librarian, who looks like someone who would give you chills whether you knew she was a ghost or not. The only down side to this episode, besides the kids, is that the librarian speaks. It's a small gripe, but it did stick out. But still, very creepy concept that's almost perfectly executed.

This episode is all about the villain. In the opening scene, the demon spirit appears before a young girl, and essentially locks her in a burning room with him, killing her. That girl turns out to be the sister of the lead character, which is the emotional arc of the story. No doubt, it is sad, but in between encounters with the spirit, not a whole lot goes on. In fact, a lot of this episode was a drag to me, but the spirit is creepy, and the tone set when he appears in the room (with his shadow casting on the wall) is excellent. That alone makes this episode worth the watch. There's probably better examples out there, but this was definitely a villain who creeped me out big-time as a kid.

*HONOURABLE MENTION*

For the most part, this was an episode that wasn't terribly scary. If anything it was weird and a bit creepy for the most part. But once the kids enlist Sardo to close the window between dimensions, the episode gets good. In fact, I think it's one of the better endings to any episode of the series, and complete with a good twist; not the kind of twist that makes you groan, but the kind that makes you think "You know what? That was actually pretty good."