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u/foskco 1d ago
I’m 40 and I still can’t to this day. I hear that little kid say “I’m cold” in my nightmares.
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u/henkmanz 1d ago
I can still see him standing outside the window. That shit scarred me man
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u/Thefattestbeagle 1d ago
It this the little fucker than died in a bike accident and starts haunting his friend? That one is burned in my memory
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u/BigRigButters2 1d ago
Pennywise walked so Zeebo could run. Change my mind. 🤣
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u/Quick_Razzmatazz1862 1d ago
No doubt
Those two are the reason for my dislike of clowns as a kid.
Zeebo with his big ol cheesy smile was creepy fo sho.
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u/Leeno234 1d ago
I got a ban from watching the program because of this exact episode 🤣🤣 I ran out of the room screaming and my mum decided enough was enough
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u/BigRigButters2 1d ago
For me it was The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors. My cousin scared me while I was deeply focused on the episode and it led to a lot of screaming lol
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u/Jaded-Addition-3068 23h ago
Eh, I watched that epiosde. It was not THAT scary. I am not afraid of clowns.
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u/Clubdub66 1d ago
The one that scared me the most was the kid that died by the water treatment plant 😱
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u/Vladishun 1d ago
Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society I call this story, The Tale of What the Actual Fuck This is a Kid's Show: With a Question Mark.
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u/polakbob 1d ago
This is like the participation trophy argument. We're the parents making wimpy kids too scared for Are You Afraid of the Dark? My daughter watches horror movies with me now, but she was definitely scared of the show when she was younger.
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u/Xokanuleaf 1d ago
My kids watched the entire series and loved it. If anything, it’s tame by today’s standards.
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u/ThistleDewRose 22h ago
Yeah but our parents let us watch it when we were 5.... Bet you're kids are older! Lol
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u/AmericanComplaint 20h ago
My 7 year old nephew loves the first Alien. Not everyone is soft, just like not everyone was tough. These posts are dumb.
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u/thewalruscandyman 1d ago
My guy, kids today live with AI data centers a new cold war and $8lb ground beef. And their television is behind a pay wall and still sucks. If anything we were soft.
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u/brookesaywhatx 1d ago edited 1d ago
The intro of this show still scares me to this day, into my 30s.
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u/bfrankiehankie 23h ago
My kids elementary school had to ban “red light green light” the year Squid Games came out. The 90’s cannot hold a candle to the gnarly shit these 8yo’s are watching in 2026.
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u/34HoldOn 21h ago
"Kids today could never" - Dude, give me a break. I assure you they're seeing much worse shit on their phones than we were at their age.
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u/wanderrslut 1d ago
Yeah, I don't think kids being "too soft" is the issue. Also, there have been three Are You Afraid of the Dark revivals that were received extremely well; especially the first season...you know that, right?
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u/Guardian-Boy 22h ago
My kids have not only watched all the episodes, my son who is 11 is a hardcore horror buff. Tests all my parenting skills trying to make sure he gets his horror fix without stepping over the line lol.
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u/here_kitkittkitty 16h ago
dude i'm 47 and there are still episodes i will not even entertain to watch(probably oddly though not the ones most people would suspect). that show was good but damn creepy.
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u/Total-Squirrel4634 12h ago
I don't know man, it seems like today kids are obsessed with scary movies. my niece was watching that penny worth or whatever I couldn't even do it
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u/MrBones_Gravestone 1d ago
My nieces are 7/8 and they watch this.
Kind of a boomer take, saying kids today are “too soft” :/
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u/TeenRacer6 21h ago
Been a lot of weird boomer style memes here, might be time to unsub soon unfortunately.
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u/Dave3087 1d ago
Just leave them be. They’ve based their entire personality around when they were born.
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u/MrBones_Gravestone 1d ago
We grew up hearing them trash talk millenials, and some decided “my turn!” rather than think “well that sucked, wouldn’t want to be responsible for it, too”
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u/RoastPork2017 23h ago
They are though
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u/Sumeriandawn 16h ago
How are you tough? Drinking out of the water hose? Riding a bicycle without a helmet?
😂Internet tough guy
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u/SwitchMuted7486 1d ago
Me and my 2 daughters still watch them as well as the og goosebumps and they love it. Biggest difference is now we can pause the commercials to go to the restroom.
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u/Ibushi-gun 1d ago
My brother's kids love them, and they're all younger than 10. I've seen a couple of the episodes so many times recently, lol
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u/Turtlesquirtzcody 1d ago
Loved the revival episodes The tale of the Silver Sight. Scared my 10 year old self stiff 😳🫣😥🎠
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u/RoastPork2017 23h ago
TGIF, this show and Goosebumps books? Sign me up again! I miss the 90s so much
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u/ThistleDewRose 22h ago
I legitimately still get full body shivers whenever I see that title page, let alone the music 🤣
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u/MH484 1d ago
Also, Unsolved Mysteries scared the s$&% out of me
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u/ReaperManX15 16h ago
“And that murdering cannibal was never caught. Goodnight kids.”
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u/Status-Lynx-3150 14h ago
I told my dad we had to go find a guy killing people because he’s still out there. He’s like wtf are you watching awwww 80s parents
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u/grumpy_bob 23h ago
I watch this shit to go to sleep. I don't think kids are soft, they just can't focus for longer than it takes to say the words Tik Tok.
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u/SirenMoonstar 1d ago
This was one of my go-tos when I was growing up. Hot take i honestly preferred this over goosebumps
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u/resinastral907 1d ago
Lol I'm 47 and just watched some w my kiddo and we watched 2 episodes. So classic. I was an only child in Alaska and winter had me Snicked out!
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u/Eveningstarburst0 1d ago
Everytime the short intro started I always changed the channel because it wasn't a cartoon. I wasn't till I realized about a decade what the show was actually about.
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u/yaddiyadda_ 1d ago
I am fairly sure I was watching this at 8/9/10/11 and I mean, I WAS scared but I kept watching it.
Now I have a 9yo and there is no way he would survive a single episode 😂
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u/CrissBliss 1d ago
The Haunting Hour was a pretty good scary show for kids, but nothing will ever beat AYAOTD.
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u/Financial-Plankton-9 1d ago
Tall of the Doll maker really messed me up. That porcelain hand won’t be forgotten.
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u/Significant-Egg-6297 23h ago
It was like 15 bucks on Apple I bought it again and it’s an extremely well made and thought out show. And fucking scary still lol
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u/nub_node 21h ago
My dad let me read his books growing up, so I discovered HP Lovecraft pretty young and AYAOTD seemed about as silly as Rocko's Modern Life.
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u/aGuyNamedScrunchie 18h ago
I once ate a bowl of Apple Jacks that had a bunch of stuff about Are you afraid of the dark. It was late at night, parents were asleep, I was only 8 years old or so.
Got so scared that I straight up puked.
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u/OwnTurn1146 1d ago
For time immemorial, older generations have denigrated younger ones.
We don't have to follow in those footsteps, people.
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u/toxicshocktaco 1d ago
I think op meant it as a tongue in cheek joke
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u/RockItGuyDC 1d ago
Thatay be true. But a lot of the "my generation is the best" posts are sincere. An odd tongue in cheek post here and there just gets lost in and ads to that sea of bullshit.
It's dumb, and it's lazy. Just say "I'm so glad I got to experience this show when I did!"
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u/RockItGuyDC 1d ago
Calling "kids today" "too soft" is some dumbass boomer shit.
Why can't I go to nostalgic subreddits anymore without some loser comparing things to other generations? We should be able to celebrate what we love without needing to compare it to other things.
Full on bullshit post, and I love ATAOTD.
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u/sangriya 8h ago
I hate going to generations/nostalgic/era subs bc of that
i just wanna see fun stuff getting posted and reminisce about it, if I ever experienced it, not this division shit and belittling stuff 😒
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u/Pigeon_Pilled 19h ago
“Kids these days are so soft” lmao dude give it a rest. There are still disturbing things that kids watch these days
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u/ToriiLink 12h ago
Yeah but what youre talking about doesnt happen on a massive scale like it did for kids growing up in the late 90s and 2000s. We had the rise and fall of shock sites that we had full access to regardless of being under 18. It was abundance, where today its a lot harder to find.
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u/Warhammer68x51 1d ago
My sister sent me a copy from my nieces school. Apparently she not allowed to read Gosebumps. It’s “emotional traumatizing” and “ psychologically damaging” to my niece and the other kids in the school according to my nieces school…these kids wouldn’t last 5 minutes in the 90’s.
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u/DunkeyColdMedina 1d ago
Kids today are facing actual apocalyptic conditions. What a weird generational flex.
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u/DANleDINOSAUR 22h ago
The whole series was “ok” levels of spooky for me growing up, but when I heard there was going to be an alien themed episode I wanted to watch (I had a fear of aliens as a kid, The X-Files didn’t help. But I, for some reason, wanted to see how Are You Afraid Of The Dark? could scare me…
The episode sucked.
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u/Disastrous_Still_232 9h ago
Can we just be nostalgic about the time we grew up without comparing to other generations?
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u/FunBattle5780 23h ago
Shit used to watch takes from the crypt with my grandma. There's also goosebumps or Erie Indiana
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u/diva0781 14h ago
I started getting my kids into this a few years ago and even when they were a little bit younger, they thought it was cheesy and I told him well that's the point. It wasn't really even scary when we were kids. It was just fun and made for kids.
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u/Darwinian_10 13h ago
The one where the girl was turning into a doll stuck in the dollhouse creeped me out and stuck with me.
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u/Ter-Lee-Comedy 13h ago
I miss SNICK. It used to be NICK or Treat right around this time of year, folks. I can hear this image. The show's intro was so dope.
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u/themorbidtuna 13h ago
In the 80s, they would play uncut R-rated horror films on Saturday afternoons on regular, non-cable TV.
I saw my first Friday the 13th film, (part 4), at the age of 12 one Saturday afternoon on Fox 29. It scared the crap out of me, and made me a lifelong Friday the 13th fan.
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u/Relevant_Problem1935 10h ago
Whole series is on mgm+ my kids watch a few each week. They are decent. Ryan gosling episode about the afterlife is pretty good.
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u/PotentialBite2678 9h ago
I literaly watched the first 2 episodes last night with my 8yr old. He handled them well enough... until I yelled out "boo!" and watched him jump 3ft.
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u/wands-chalice 9h ago
They hit you with an episode where the sister has actually been an alien the whole time. Watching this show with your sibling, who you don’t get along with, kinda fucks with you.
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u/Bigfatbanjo 6h ago
I just watched “The Tale of the Ghastly Grinner” the other night. That was the scariest one when I was a kid.
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u/ProfessionalCopy3750 1d ago
This had to be the softest show of all time!!! Watching R rated horror as a kid was always the best option.
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u/whitestar11 1d ago
My kid is afraid of the background music in alex mack. No way we're trying this 😂
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u/TheBigBackBeat We're Not Worthy! 23h ago
Come on you couldn't even find the original opening credits you had to make an AI version of it?
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u/RealKenny 1d ago
"So soft!!" - Me, who used to turn off the TV at exactly 930 on Saturday so that I wouldn't have to hear the theme song, which made me cry