Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here and welcome to another episode analysis of Are You Afraid
of the Dark. Today’s choice is brought to you by the many people who suggested it. When
I look for a children’s horror show to discuss, I typically seek ones that strike a chord
with people, and that can be because it’s nostalgic, or it’s new and people are interested,
OR because it stands out as frightening.
Obviously when you’re working with a series, some episodes will stand out more than others,
and this one called “The Tale of the Dark Music” has definitely stuck with people
for its darker story. I enjoyed this episode because it felt a little more adult; in fact
I kept drawing parallels between this and other popular books and movies in the horror
genre. I always find going back and watching these shows interesting because there’s
not a lot that separates young adult horror from adult horror. The biggest changes are
what becomes of the characters, and the concept and permanence of death. And yes, obviously
any kind of gore would be toned down, but I’m talking more about the subject matter.
The fact that there are adolescents in shows like Are You Afraid of the Dark, Goosebumps,
and Eerie Indiana doesn’t speak for their maturity level; take books like It and Stand
by Me by Stephen King, which heavily featured children as the protagonists. The work of
King is a little more diabolical and has a sharp focus on problematic people, whereas
horror for children and pre-teens don’t dive deep into people’s interpersonal relationships.
The fear comes from the monsters, the dark, the fictional creation that the stories revolve
around. Those fears evolve as you get into adult horror, where the scariest things are
often the people who become the monsters. That being said, this episode takes a lot
from more adult themes so I am keen to discuss it.
As we begin we see the midnight society getting ready for their next tale. Frankie, the tough
guy of the group, is late because another member, Eric, left him behind to navigate
in the dark. This is a problem for Frankie as he is indeed, Afraid of the Dark. Apparently
the YOU in our interrogative show title is Frankie, and the answer to it is yes. Kiki:
“Sit down Frank, don’t be strange.”
Gary is busy staring at the flames of the fireplace like a goddamn pyromaniac and no
one seems to notice.
Eric decides to push Frankie’s buttons even further by telling a tale as old as time;
the fear of the dark. At least that’s what he says it’s about; I found this introduction
misleading as it’s not entirely about the dark as much as it’s about THE DARK MUSIC.
And by Dark music they clearly mean Bloodflowers by the Cure.
Eric begins telling his story, which centers around a young boy named Andy. Him, his mom,
and his sister have just moved into their deceased uncle’s house and AHHHH DAVE MUSTAINE.
This is Koda, the neighborhood punk. He does not appreciate being nearly run over by a
bike, and has an automatic dislike for Andy because his uncle was a weirdo. I love how
his hair flows in every shot. Koda: “Welcome to the neighborhood” Megadeth: “sweating
bulleeeeeeets!”
Andy’s mom haphazardly tries to put up some blinds but needs a ladder, so she sends Andy
to the basement to grab one. His sister mocks his apprehension. Sister: “What’s the
matter Andy? Afraid of the dark?” I’m not afraid of the dark as much as I am creaky
wooden stairs like this. Genuinely. When I see these, all I can think about is the wood
giving out and falling between the broken planks - I’d love a horror story just based
on stairs that might break at any given moment.
Andy loses sight of the goal of finding his mom a ladder about two seconds in and instead,
starts messing around with a radio. He plugs it in and it doesn’t work, so he shouts
at his mom to flip a switch. As the music comes on, a weird lookin’ door starts rattling.
Andy: “I heard that.” Door: Sorry. As soon as Andy turns the station to some heavy
metal, it opens up and two red eyes peer back at him. “Hello Andy, come on in.” Sounds
friendly, I’m in.
We check back in with the Midnight Society, and everyone is enjoying the story, except
Frankie, who is missing. Nobody seems to care due to Frankie being too strange. Kiki: “Don’t
be strange.”
Andy runs up to inform his mom what happened. Andy: It talked to me, it said “Come in
and I’ll suck your blood or something like that.” That is NOT what it said. “Hey
Andy, come on in.” He’s not a vampire, he’s an evil ghost monster entity. Geez
Andy, get your supernatural tropes straight.
Andy’s mom is pretty sure it’s just rats, even though rats can’t talk and are typically
friendly. His mom FLINGS open the door with reckless abandon, and… Mom: “Andy…”
it’s a buncha wine, yes! Mom: “honey come over here…” And a lifetime supply of pink
shirts for our Pink Shirt Cult…”
Nah, just an empty cellar. Mom takes this time to ridicule her son for seeing and hearing
things and keeps insisting it’s a rat. A single, talking rat.
Cut to Koda and his weird ass Dad, sporting this unfortunate ensemble. It’s a Beetlejuice,
Hulk Hogan Hybrid, run! Dad: “And don’t gimme no lip.” Did he just...start a conversation
with that? No hi or what’s up son, just “and don’t gimme no lip.” Next time
I see someone working on something I wanna walk up to them, shake a sandwich at them
and say that. Dad: “And don’t gimme no lip.”
As Andy is completing his paper route, he accidentally knocks over the cleaning bucket
Koda was using and it drenches him. He’s not pleased. *guitar riff* Hello me, meet
the REAL me…
Andy makes a run for his house. Wait… his address is 420? Blaze it.
He runs out back to the cellar and barrels on in. Now we get to see even more weird,
useless junk! His younger sister sneaks up behind him and antagonizes him a little, and…
are we just going to ignore the hand in the jar? How long has that been there?
That evening, Andy inquires about his uncle. Mom: “Oh he was a strange guy…” and
these are his ashes.
She also mentions that he died in the basement, realizes she might frighten her kids, then
stops and tells him to change the laundry. In the basement. Mom of the year.
Andy: “Oh mom…” Mom: “I’m filthy!” I’m Roses!
Andy listens to music while he sorts clothes, and this has nothing to do with the episode
but my Dad had this exact radio in gray when I was young and seeing it again reminded me
of him.
Meeeemories…
The music Andy listens to brings the monster out of hibernation and it takes the form of…
oh no. Doll: “Hi Andy, won’t you come play with me?” Nope. Nope. No no. Nope.
No. No. No...no. No no no. Fuck no. No.
The doll nearly persuades Andy to go with her, but his mom turns off the electricity,
the radio turns off, and she’s sucked into the Hell portal.
Andy was in such a trance that he couldn’t remember what happened, so he just keeps returning
to the basement. Again, he’s not afraid of the hand in the jar because…?
This time, the monster manifests as a shoddy green screen. Andy nearly makes it to the
door, the smell of funnel cares luring him in, when the illusion is shattered and a skeleton
hand shoots out to grab him. Oh dear. That skeleton looks preeeetty silly. I actually
like the close up shot in the carnival costume, it looks nice with the strong lighting. Then
when you pull back you see him just kind of vibrating around in a small empty area.
He pulls the radio plug from the wall and the door closes. And then… an epiphany.
Andy: “Music…” Missy Elliot Song: “make you lose control!”
Andy rushes to go find his mom, runs into Koda, and Holy shit! I know that looked really
fake, but I’ve never seen someone get flat out punched before on any children’s horror
show, it’s a little jarring. He does it again with a jaw cracking sound effect, and
I was honestly surprised.
Koda also throws his bike into the road and it gets squashed by a truck. Come on Andy,
think. You can get back at him. Remember?... the radio?... Andy: “Music!” Makes the
people! Come together!
Andy sets up what appears to be fake speakers and a highly advanced sound system, planning
his revenge. Ooooo, special delivery.
He bonks Koda on the head with the wooden block and leads him into the cellar. Andy
kicks on some heavy metal and the door glows red. Evil is powered by metal as my mom always
used to say.
We don’t see the monster, but Koda appears to be seeing it in its true form, and he’s
terrified. After some time has passed and the basement gets quiet, Andy goes back down
to find Koda, but only finds a brand new bike. The glow behind the door is now a calming
blue, and the voice coming from it is more docile. It tells Andy he can have anything
he wants but under one condition. Andy: “What’s that?” Door: “Feed me.”
As his sister comes home, Andy gives the viewer a fiendish look. Damn, Koda got EATEN ALIVE
- that’s a rough concept for anyone to fathom, let alone a kid. The midnight society starts
to pack up and leave, but Frankie is still missing. Eric says he’ll wait for him, and
then…”Payback is sweet.” Uh, no REVENGE is sweet. Payback is a bitch.
Right, final thoughts. When I was young, I felt like there were reruns of this show playing
constantly. In fact, I thought I could recall most of them, but I don’t remember this
one at all. It makes me wonder if it crossed some kind of line with the censors, because
it does seem a little more graphic than usual. You could argue that Are You Afraid of the
Dark never really shied away from grim endings, but there is something different about seeing
a person punch another person, fake as it was, and then witnessing them being eaten
alive by some off screen creature. This is more of a trope you see in something like
a Stephen King novel, as I mentioned earlier - it heavily reminded me of It, particularly
because the bully got his comeuppance in the form of a grisly death, which is something
that happens in a LOT King novels. King loves to write revenge on horrible people. Even
though Eric told the group that Andy did NOT feed his sister to the monster, it’s pretty
implied that he did. You don’t make this face and then follow it with something chaste.
I also got some heavy Little Shop of Horror vibes, with the whole “feed me to keep me
alive” thing, and the fact that whatever this being is prefers eating people. The music
is also particularly strange - even when Koda is not on the screen, there’s a lot of generic
metal music going on.
This episode feels REALLY different and a little more gruesome than usual, and I think
that’s why I enjoyed it. I do think it would work better as a story specifically for adults;
I can see the potential of expanding the plot to discuss how the uncle took care of the
monster until his death, and describing how Andy would continue to feed it. Though this
was still effective, even if it was all crammed into a 23 minute episode. It shocked me in
a good way - I was not expecting a death, I was not expecting any kind of physical violence...though
honestly that punch wasn’t very fitting so maybe that’s not a good example and I
certainly wasn’t expecting this. NOPE. Nope. Nope nope nope nope. Nope.
I do think in not showing the creature's true form, it tones down the horror just enough
for a young person. Obviously they didn’t show anything graphic in terms of gore, blood,
or body horror, so even though the plot is pretty dark, I think it’s just within the
lines of children’s horror; especially since it still has a lot of campy moments and questionable
acting. Though I can tell you, if I saw this episode as a kid I would have nightmares for
weeks. I was particularly fragile, which is now why I barrage myself with thrillers and
murder mysteries. I have made up for the fact that lil Roses couldn’t handle Are You Afraid
of the Dark. If you have an episode you are just dying to see me cover, go ahead and leave
a suggestion in the comments. Until then, stay spooky.
Hey everyone, thanks for watching my video on The Tale of the Dark music, I hope you
enjoyed it. I have more if you did, but first, I want to give a special thank you to all
my patrons because they make it possible for me to keep this channel going. Thank you,
my darklings. You rock. If you don’t want to donate to the show, no pressure - I appreciate
likes, comments, and shares.
If you wanna check out more of my videos, here’s a couple recommendations. On the
left I have a video on goosebumps, and on the right I have the previous video I did
on Are You Afraid of the Dark. I also have murder mystery reviews, and adventure game
retrospectives. Thanks again and as always, I’ll see you in the next one.