Well it's that time of year again where ghosts, Ghouls, Spirits and everything else comes to haunt the world for one night out of the year. But before we get to trick or treating and the parties there is something to get out of the way. Kids enjoy a good scare every once in a while right? Well growing up we had a few shows that did just that in the nineties. But there are two that are most famous growing up. The two biggest ones for kids were Goosebumps and Are you Afraid of the Dark. But which is scarier and which had the better thrills as well as chills? Well that is what we are about to find out. So reader beware you're in for a scare as we take a look at Goosebumps first.


Goosebumps:




Starting out as a book series in July 1992 and then becoming a TV series on October 27th of 1995 and lasted until November 16th 1998. Goosebumps is a series that is supposed to give chills and goosebumps to the show's viewers. As a kid I saw a few episodes hoping that it would be like the books. But that wasn't the case with the show sadly. I wasn't really chilled from it or creeped out other than from a couple episodes. The good things that I'll say about it seeing it again as an adult is that I like seeing the stories that I used to read come to life and with the news of a Goosebumps movie in the works I'm interested with how that will turn out as it may take the direction as the show did with a more light hearted take on the horror genre. I like the special effects that are used for it which are very creative at times. Though I still feel like it isn't scary or chilling as it's silly looking at times. Is it bad? Not really it's good in it's own way with how it brought the books to the small screen. But for trying to actually scare it's viewers it's not that good. But worth the watch. Now it's time to see if you should be afraid of the dark or not.


Are You Afraid of the Dark?:



Are You Afraid of the Dark started on Halloween of 1990 and ended on April 20th 1996 with a revived run from February 6th 1999 to June 11th of 2000. It was about kids telling ghost stories around a campfire as we see the ghost story as it's being told. They call themselves "The Midnight Society". The stories and tone of the show is much darker and meant to scare. Most of the stories are about someone getting their comeuppance for being a bully, jerk or being mean. But what made it was that not all of the stories had happy endings. As an adult I like that the writers did that it shows that they weren't talking down to kids and knew that kids enjoy being scared.  Growing up this show capped off my snick viewing as well as my Saturday night. I was so scared of this show as a kid that I stayed up in fear of whatever monster they had in the show was gonna get me. Looking back as an adult even though it was silly I still felt as a kid it was justified since I didn't know better. The problems were at times the special effects were a bit cheesy or didn't feel like they belonged where they were and a few of the episodes weren't that scary. Though over all this show is well made and knew what direction to go in which was to scare and to make you remember it for giving you nightmares.

While good on their own, one holds up better than the other. Are You Afraid of the Dark wins out in this. The reason is while Goosebumps already had a fan base due to the books and it sounded like a good idea at first and if Are You Afraid of the Dark wasn't around at the time Goosebumps probably would have done better and lasted longer. However it's downfall is not only silly looking visuals with the show. But it's also not being it's own thing and only sticking to the books which was both good and bad since they didn't need to spend a lot of time writing a script though at the same time there wasn't a lot of freedom outside of visuals. Are You Afraid of the Dark has both visual freedom as well as writing freedom that gave it the advantage. I would recommend both shows for their own reasons since they have their own charm. But in this case I see Are You Afraid of the Dark the better show. With that I call this 90's Vs to a close. Have a great Halloween everyone and remember Live Life and Live Nostalgic.



As a bit of a bonus treat for you all I'll leave you all with this.