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90's Vs: Goosebumps vs Are You Afraid of the Dark





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.


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RetroOtaku620 Posted on Sep 03, 2023 at 11:55 AM

Personally, I liked Goosebumps better than Are You Afraid of the Dark. The latter was a bit too scary for me at the time.

Also, I liked it when Goosebumps aired on Cartoon Network at one point. It was a good thing to watch Halloween.

One more thing: I don't know if you know about this already or not, but there's going to be a Goosebumps reboot on Disney Plus this year, I think.

Mr Magic Posted on Sep 23, 2014 at 05:49 PM

Cool.

ThatDudeintheHoodie Posted on Sep 22, 2014 at 05:47 PM

I wanted to be outside of the norm for Halloween/ spooky video for Halloween.

Mr Magic Posted on Sep 22, 2014 at 02:14 AM

What's with the Backstreet Boys video?

ThatDudeintheHoodie Posted on Sep 22, 2014 at 01:04 AM

November's article is a list. But one that I've been thinking of doing for a while.

comic_book_fan Posted on Sep 21, 2014 at 03:10 PM

i agreed with you on both videos so far keep these coming.

Mr Magic Posted on Sep 20, 2014 at 02:17 PM

It should be a good one.

ThatDudeintheHoodie Posted on Sep 18, 2014 at 04:19 PM

I'm definitely checking out the movie.

Mr Magic Posted on Sep 18, 2014 at 03:13 PM

Coming next summer, a Goosebumps movie!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goosebumps_(film)

ThatDudeintheHoodie Posted on Sep 18, 2014 at 03:04 PM

I saw a few episodes of goosebumps when I was a kid during it's regular run. But I saw the whole series when I was much older when Cartoon Network started airing them throughout October. Though The Haunting Hour is pretty good. If you liked Goosebumps I recommend The Haunting Hour.

Fulton4V Posted on Sep 18, 2014 at 02:17 PM

Goosebumps was my favorite of these shows, probably because I had read some of the books after my aunt had purchased them for me.

Mr Magic Posted on Sep 16, 2014 at 11:13 PM

Are You Afraid of the Dark revolves around ghost stories, while Goosebumps revolves around living ventriloquist dummies and things like that.

vkimo Posted on Sep 16, 2014 at 11:08 PM

I have to agree as well. As much as I liked Goosebumps, AYAOTD was better executed. One of the major differences between the story lines is that AYAOTD usually had a "happy" ending where as Goosebumps always had a twist at the end.

Both shows are enjoyable though because I was the same age as the kids when the shows came out so the look and feel hits home.

Hoju Koolander Posted on Sep 16, 2014 at 04:11 PM

I think what really gave Are You Afraid of the Dark the edge over Goosebumps aside from its more cerebral scares, was it's time slot. The placement at the end of SNICK programming on a Friday night around 9:30pm was perfect for that "late night" ghost story feel, while Goosebumps was on at 4pm in the afternoon. Hard to get scared when the sun is out and birds are chirping just outside your window.

Mr Magic Posted on Sep 16, 2014 at 03:29 PM

I think a lot of us can agree that the intro to Are You Afraid of the Dark is far more scarier than Goosebumps was.

Nice article.

Vaporman87 Posted on Sep 16, 2014 at 02:29 PM

I never really got into either show. By the time these shows were on the air, I was at an age where Tales From The Crypt and Freddy's Nighmares and the like were more my thing.

For those of us not familiar with the shows, we might automatically assume Goosebumps was the better pick, only because the brand was more "out there" in your face, with books and toys and other merchandising.

So thanks for giving folks like me a little clarity on the both of them.

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