Laughing in the Dark

This week it's Bryan's turn to tell the 9:30 Society all about the fifth episode of the second season of Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Tale of the Dream Machine. In this episode a nice young man who loves to write short stories about his friends comes upon a mysterious typewriter in a hidden room in his new house. When he uses it to write a story, he finds that that story influences the dreams of the people he's writing about. This is a pretty cool trick until he figures out that these stories come true, no matter who's reading it and it's a race against time to snatch a short story school assignment before his teacher accidentally dooms his best friend Billy. Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

It's Dave's turn to tell the 9:30 Society about the 4th episode of the second season of Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Tale of the Thirteenth Floor. In this episode brother and sister Karin and Billy find the thirteenth floor of their apartment building, an unoccupied floor that they play hockey in, suddenly taken over and made over by a New Wave band who may or may not be aliens. Under the disguise of a toy factory that manufactures the crappiest toys in the world they put Karin through a series of tests to help her get over the trauma of being adopted.  Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

It's Mikie's turn this week to tell the 9:30 Society all about the third episode of the second season of Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Tale of Locker 22. In this episode Julie has the grave misfortune of attending the worst high school in Canada. The walls are covered in spray paint and the halls are prowled by menacing bullies who have no problem cornering a teenage girl in a part of the school that doesn't see much foot traffic. If things weren't bad enough, Julie finds a tacky old necklace from the 60's which transports the wearer back in time to the 1960s where the ghost of a teenager killed in a lab accident is looking for someone, anyone, who can change the course of history so that she doesn't die at this horrible school. Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

It's Aileen's turn to tell the 9:30 Society all about the second episode of the second season of Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Tale of the Midnight Madness. In this episode a struggling movie theater gets a second chance when a certain riddle-loving pervert appears mysteriously with a silent horror film that's sure to put asses but this revival comes with a price. The horror turns up when the subject of the mysterious silent film, a very veiny vampire, steps out of the screen to terrorize the theater staff. Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

It's Bryan's turn to tell the 9:30 Society about the season 2 premier episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Tale of the Final Wish. In this episode a young girl on the edge of being a teenager must navigate the unforgiving real world, nasty boy crazy girls, a horrible older brother who is constantly sneaking into her room. Wouldn't it just be easier if she could just disappear into a fairy tale? When that happens, she finds herself face to face with The Sandman, played by Bobcat Goldthwait, who puts her at the center of her very own fairy tale. They're not all they're cracked up to be, it turns out. Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

It's Dave's turn to tell the 9:30 Society about the Are You Afraid of the Dark first season finale episode, The Tale of the Pinball Wizard, an episode about a teenage degenerate and his crippling addiction to pinball machines, or maybe it's a video game, we're honestly not sure and we're not confident that the show's writers know what a video game is, or pinball for that matter.  When Ross is too distracted by video games to notice that the shopping mall closed while he was busy playing games he finds himself the main character in a game where he has to, what else, save the princess. He'll face a bunch of weird obstacles on his way to victory. We have a real hard time staying focused on this one. Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

This week it's Mikie's turn to tell the 9:30 Society about the twelfth episode of the first season, The Tale of the Prom Queen. It's a familiar ghost story but filtered through the lens of Are You Afraid of the Dark. It's the story of two jerks who meet a pretty young girl in the cemetery, as one does, and then proceed to terrorize her and treat her like a jerk as they stumble their way through a local mystery of a tragic death on prom night back in the 60's. Nobody can just be normal on this show. Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

In this episode, Aileen guides The 9:30 Society through the 11th episode of the first season of Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Tale of the Dark Music. It's a tale of revenge, a family curse and, nominally, music.  Andy, his mother, and sister are moving into a house they mysteriously inherited from a distant uncle that nobody in the family seems to remember. There's work to be done in the basement so mom sends Andy, famously afraid of the dark, down into the dank, dark basement, a weird museum of old crap, to do laundry. It is there that he discovers a hidden door that reveals terrible secrets when music is played. Feed it bodies and the terrible beings from beyond promise Andy great things. So he becomes a serial killer. We can hardly believe it. Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

In this episode, Bryan tells The 9:30 Society about the 10th episode of the first season of Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Tale of Jake and the Leprechaun, in which a kid who just wants to fulfill his dream of acting in a play ends up groomed by a creature of Irish folklore (sort of) and gets magical help from another creature from Irish folklore. There's bad accents, a hideous subtext about a grown man and a young boy, and a super cringe portrayal of little people in this one. Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

In this episode Dave takes the 9:30 Society through the 9th episode of the first season of Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Tale of the Sorcerer's Apprentice in which a dorky loser named Dean falls under the wicked spell of an ancient wizard who promises him power, influence, and a cool leather jacket in exchange for his help in bringing him back from the great beyond. Lucky for Dean, his unshakeable friendship with a girl named Alix, will turn out to be strong enough to resist the pull of Cool Dean Magic. Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

This week, Mikie tells the 9:30 Society about the season 1 Are You Afraid of the Dark episode, The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors in which Emma and her brother Dayday witness the new neighbors moving into the house next door in the middle of night. When they next meet them they turn out to be a couple and their young son. They also have Eastern European accents and claim to be from "The Ukraine". Obviously this could only mean that they're vampires. Obsessed, Emma hatches a plan to hunt her neighbors and ropes her poor brother into ther nefarious plan.  Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

Aileen takes the 9:30 Society through The Tale of the Captured Souls, a movie that has us raising eyebrows at movies like Get Out and Weapons since they bare more than a passing resemblance to this episode, a resemblance so strong that Dave is outraged on behalf of the Are You Afraid of the Dark writers.  This week's episode pits our audience stand-in, Dani, at the worst Air BnB in Halifax where the only staff on site is a weird kid with anachronistic clothing, weird hair, and an even weirder personality. Instead of kicking it and putting her feet up, Dani and her family spend the whole vacation entertaining the weirdest latchley kid you've ever seen. Pretty soon, though, her parents start to age prematurely and the kid seems to be getting younger. What could possibly be going on here? Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

This week Bryan takes the 9:30 Society though the sixth episode of the first season of Are You Afraid of the Dark: The Tale of the Super Specs. In this episode the most annoying teenager in Canada, a. boy named Weeds, is so obsessed with pranks and practical jokes that he accidentally saddles his girlfriend with a pair of prank glasses that can see into a parallel dimension seemingly inhabited by spooky shadow people. They enlist the flamboyant owner of a magic shop to help them get rid of these cursed specs but things take an unexpected turn. Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

This week it's all about horse girls, generational trauma, and spiritual possession. Dogs come along eventually but the title is fairly misleading. End of the day, though, don't go climbing spectral staircases in the woods and definitely don't be honking your horn around horses. It's another classic Are You Afraid of the Dark set up as city girl meets country girl when two cousins spend the summer together. One of them ends up possessed by the spirit of an ancestor long ago trampled by horses and she is suddenly tasked with grim duty of feeding the hunting dogs. If she can't find the kibble, she might have to feed her cousin to the dogs.  Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

This week Mikie recounts the fourth episode of the first season of Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Tale of the Twisted Claw. In this episode a couple of thirteen year olds up to no good play an ill-advised prank on the local witch, causing her to break her own vase. Seeking ironic revenge on Halloween she gives them a dessicated animal claw instead of candy which is guaranteed to grant three wishes but none of their wishes work out quite the way they expect. This episode features home decor that offensive to Dave. Mikie is pretty sure his mom stole the idea for her own cottagecore aesthetic. Aileen sees her own future as the local witch living in a haunted house and it turns out that the mean streets of Winnipeg have a real bad gang problem. Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

Aileen walks The 9:30 Society through the third episode of the first season, The Tale of the Lonely Ghost. Are you a zeeb? Don't know? Brother, you don't want to be one. In this episode a bookish country girl, Amanda, is sent to the big city to spend the summer with her heinous cousin Beth and her clique of Heathers. Desperate to fit in and go to the pool party, Beth and her hyenas challenge Amanda to spend the night in the neighboring house, which is supposedly haunted. What she finds there will solve a decades-long mystery that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. This one has it all: weird nickname, horrible children, clueless adults in absolutely mind-bending fashion. You will hate Beth as much as we did. Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

Bryan walks us through the second episode of the first season, The Tale of Laughing in the Dark. In this episode three friends dare one another to go into the haunted house attraction at a local carnival. Only one is brave enough to take the trip and steal the nose off the clown in the house but later on he'll find out that the haunted house has a dark past and that the local legends about Zeebo the clown might be more true than he realizes. You get more radical 90's tween fashion, some positively weird nicknames, and The Riddle Pervert returns! Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

Dave walks us through the series premier of Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Tale of the Phantom Cab where a little kid and his tough-guy older brother are for some reason lost in the woods when they come upon a cab driver who also seems to be lost in the woods? Along the way they end up at a cottage belonging to a mad scientist who loves riddles and at some point a phantom cab is introduced.  Don't forget to listen to Bryan and Dave on Bring Me The Axe! and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen on Uy Que Horror! and Mikie on The Rewatcher!

Welcome to Laughing in the Dark, an Are You Afraid of the Dark rewatch podcast! For 90s kids, Are You Afraid of the Dark was appointment television every Saturday night—a spine-tingling horror anthology delivered gently, befitting its Canadian roots.   Each week you'll join the 9:30 Society by the fireside: Bryan and Dave White from Bring Me The Axe! Horror Podcast and 99 Cent Rental, Aileen Clark from Uy Que Horror!, and Mikie Sirois from The Rewatcher as they talk about each episode from this classic 90's SNICK TV show, the kids, the corny monsters, the aggressive 90's hair and fashion! It's all here on Laughing In The Dark.