Laughing in the Dark

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.