An 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?' Film Will Test the Limit of '90s Nostalgia

Based on the success of Stranger Things and It, it seems that everyone loves horror that’s that focuses on a group of kids awash in ’80s nostalgia. What this latest reboot supposes is that everyone will also like the same formula except with … ’90s nostalgia instead. Why else would Hollywood be working on a big screen reboot of the old Nickelodeon kiddie horror anthology Are You Afraid of the Dark?

The Hollywood Reporter writes that Paramount Pictures has tasked Gary Dauberman, the writer responsible for It and Annabelle: Creation, to write a movie based on the old TV series.

‘90s kids remember that Are You Afraid of the Dark?, a Canadian series that Nickelodeon made seven seasons of over the course of a decade, was a sort of pre-teen Twilight Zone. Each episode was a standalone horror story as supposedly told by a group of teens known as the Midnight Society around a campfire. One of those teens grew up to be 24 star Elisha Cuthbert.

“The show is about the shared experience of telling stories — especially scary ones. We’re going to celebrate that with this movie and honor the darker, scarier tone of the show, which was really groundbreaking for Nickelodeon at the time. I hope the Midnight Society approves,” Dauberman told THR.

It’s unclear what an Are You Afraid of the Dark? movie would look like. Perhaps it’ll be an anthology of sorts, with a new Midnight Society telling a couple different stories. Or maybe it’ll be just one story, or perhaps a more meta-narrative about the Society itself. It’s unclear if the film would take place in the present day or in the ‘90s, to better fit with the original series. If that’s the case, though, we’ll see just how important those ‘80s vibes are to making a successful horror franchise nowadays. Can you have a scary movie set in the Tamagotchi era? Perhaps we’ll find out.

For what it’s worth, Are You Afraid of the Dark? did a clown episode, in case anyone involved really wanted to emulate It.