Halloween 2K26 - Are You Afraid of the Dark Cassette Tapes
Halloween 🎃Growing up in the ’90s was wonderful. Horror was actively marketed toward us kids and teens, and we had all sorts of franchises like Goosebumps, Fear Street, and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark to fuel our love of the macabre. One of my personal favorites was Are You Afraid of the Dark?, an anthology series on Nickelodeon that aired from 1990-1996 and again from 1999-2000.
Each show began with a group of teens sitting around a campfire, and each week a different teen got to tell a story. The stories ranged in quality, like all anthology shows do, but for the most part, Are You Afraid of the Dark? was a great show. The scares were legit, and the atmosphere was wonderful. I honestly think the atmosphere is what truly made the show unique and such a fun watch.
Nickelodeon was a branding machine in the ’90s, and almost all of their shows got all sorts of merchandise tie-ins. Are You Afraid of the Dark? had books, VHS tapes, and a board game. They also had three cassette tapes released featuring new Are You Afraid of the Dark? stories.
I recently came across copies of all three tapes and decided to give these forgotten Are You Afraid of the Dark? stories a listen.
The first tape released was Are You Afraid of the Dark? Tales from the Midnight Society: Virtual Nightmare and Other Scary Stories. According to a Reddit post, this tape was given away as part of the Nick or Treat contest. I also remember it being sold in stores.
It came packaged with a forty-page flipbook and featured cast members from the television series, Ross Hull as Gary, Jodie Resther as Kiki, and Joanna Garcia as Sam reading the stories.
Four stories were included on the cassette tape, and they were described on the back of the package like this:
A Tale of the Virtual Nightmare
Mr. Fernandez knows Jay loves scary movies. So he’s saved Jay an especially frightening new one at his video store. But when Jay comes to pick it up, Mr. Fernandez is nowhere to be found. And what are those four deep scratches on the floor?
The Tale of the Lonely Doll
“Hi. I’m Talking Terry and I want to be your friend.”
Janine’s little sister Merrie has found a sweet little talking doll. But something in those staring eyes and eerie voice gives Janine the creeps. What is Talking Terry really trying to say?
The Tale of the Locked Door
In the midst of a blizzard, Dad has taken off into town for supplies. Lisa and Shawn are alone in the dusty Vermont cabin. Or they think they are, until those unearthly howls begin to come from the basement.
The Tale of the Mysterious Mall
There’s something weird and spooky about the eyes of those store mannequins. When Denny and his sister Liz decide to tell the store manager, she offers them no assistance. But she does give them some strangely powerful milk and cookies.
The stories were written by Susan Kim, who also wrote four episodes of the television series in 1994: “The Tale of the Jagged Sign,” “The Tale of the Quiet Librarian,” “The Tale of the Curious Camera,” and “The Tale of the Carved Stone.”
My Recaps and Thoughts
Tale of the Virtual Nightmare
This story starts off great and is very nostalgic. Jay, our young protagonist, is a huge horror movie fan. He loves renting tapes from his local video store and has even become friends with the owner, Mr. Fernandez.
One day, he shows up at the store to pick up a tape that Mr. Fernandez had pulled especially for him, but when he arrives, Mr. Fernandez is nowhere to be found. Instead, Jay sees four huge scratch marks on the floor. He finds the tape with a note on it saying, “For Jay,” so he takes the tape, heads home, and doesn’t bother calling 911 about his missing friend.
Some friend Jay is...
That night, Jay attempts to watch this “ultra-scary” horror movie, but all he sees on the tape is a giant dragon flying while clutching something in its claws. Bored with the lack of narrative, Jay turns the video off.
Before returning the tape, Jay decides to give the film one more shot. He pops the tape back into the VCR and notices the dragon seems to be closer to the screen this time. Suddenly, the dragon’s eyes notice Jay, and the creature begins flying toward the screen.
In a panic, Jay ejects the tape and decides to return it immediately.
On his way to the video store, he notices a series of TVs in a shop window, and one by one, they all change to an image of the dragon flying closer and closer to the screen.
Jay runs home in a panic and finds his father watching football. The TV is fine for a while, but then it suddenly flickers, and the dragon returns, flying closer and closer to the TV.
Jay screams, and his father asks why his son is acting like a freak. When Jay looks back at the TV, it’s just a regular old football game.
Jay runs upstairs to his room, hoping to avoid any and all TVs, but forgets he has a small one sitting in the corner.
Once in the room, he notices the dragon is now extremely close to the screen, and this is when Jay finally realizes that what the dragon is clutching in its claws is Mr. Fernandez.
The sound of the wings flapping is almost deafening, and in the midst of all the chaos, Jay hears a voice cry out, “Wake up, Jay... Wake up!”
Jay notices a glass of lemonade on his nightstand just as the dragon comes bursting through the TV. He thinks about throwing the lemonade at the dragon but knows it won’t do any good.
Right as the dragon is about to devour Jay, he takes the lemonade and pours it over his head.
He wakes up screaming and covered in sweat. His mother comes running into the room and chastises Jay for falling asleep while watching another horror movie, then asks him why he smells like lemons.
Jay waits for his mother to leave, then finally pulls down his covers to reveal his T-shirt, which now has four large claw marks torn through it.
Thoughts:
The story started off strong, but I don’t find dragons scary now, and I didn’t when I was a kid either.
Totally skippable.
Tale of the Lonely Doll
Janine’s little sister Merrie is playing in the backyard when she discovers a dirty, torn-up doll named Talking Terry. Talking Terry has the unique ability to speak and seemingly understand what is going on around her.
The doll immediately gives Janine the creeps, but she feels bad for Merrie. Merrie doesn’t have any friends, and Janine had spent the day playing video games, so Merrie went outside and found a toy to play with.
Throughout the night, Talking Terry continues to give Janine the creeps, and she begs her mom to get rid of the doll. Her mom says the doll belongs to Merrie and she’s allowed to keep it.
Before going to bed, Talking Terry is placed in the toy box.
Janine has a nightmare that Talking Terry is cutting up all her other dolls and proclaiming, “I’m your only doll now!”
Then she wakes up and finds the toy box in shambles. It looks like a bomb has gone off. When Janine’s mother comes into the room, she yells at Janine, who attempts to blame the mess on Talking Terry, only to get a stern talking-to in response.
Talking Terry starts threatening Janine, and Janine takes it upon herself to throw the doll out the window.
Merrie finds Talking Terry, and Janine only gets into even more trouble, but while being dressed down by her mother, Merrie begins to scream. Talking Terry has shoved a toy box on top of Merrie and trapped her in the dark.
Terry continues to torment Janine until Janine finally manages to rip her head off.
Fed up with the creepy doll terrorizing her family, Janine takes Terry outside and hovers around a neighbor’s yard where he is burning leaves. She waits for the neighbor to turn his back before tossing Terry into the fire, finally destroying her once and for all.
Our story ends with a young girl walking down a sidewalk when she stumbles across a black ball of some sort. She picks it up to throw it away when suddenly two bright blue eyes open, and Talking Terry asks to be her friend.
Thoughts:
Ever seen The Twilight Zone episode “Living Doll” with Talky Tina?
Yep. Well, this is basically the kids’ version.
The voice of Talking Terry was disturbing, but the story itself was weak. I don’t see this keeping anyone up at night, even if they are a child.
Tale of the Locked Door
Lisa and Shawn are snowed in during a blizzard. Their father has yet to return, which has Lisa quite worried. Shawn continues to reassure her, but Lisa isn’t put at ease easily.
Her father had told her the story of someone who lived in the house forty years earlier who got lost in a blizzard and died, and that story has weighed heavily on Lisa’s mind whenever it snows.
While discussing her fears with Shawn, Lisa notices a loud banging sound coming from the cellar door. This door always remains locked, and there is nothing in the cellar that should be banging on it.
Shawn dismisses it at first as her imagination, but the banging and growling soon grow too loud to ignore.
After a minute or two, the door finally bursts open and a large beast emerges, barking and snarling.
This epic beast is...
A St. Bernard.
The dog leads the kids out into the snow, barking and guiding them toward something in the distance. After walking a little ways, the barking stops and Lisa and Shawn find their father stranded in the snow with a sprained ankle.
Relieved and amazed that he was found by his children, their father asks how they were able to find him in the middle of the blinding snowstorm.
That’s when Lisa tells him about the dog, which by this point has magically disappeared.
Lisa manages to find the dog’s footprints in the snow, but they end right near where her father was found. It seems the dog has simply vanished.
Her father, despite freezing, decides to take a second to think about a story he once heard about the man who perished in the snow forty years earlier. Apparently, people had forgotten about his trusty St. Bernard, who had been locked in the cellar.
The dog starved to death, but apparently its spirit never left the home. Now, it was finally able to save someone lost in the snow since it had been unable to save its owner.
In the distance, the family hears a tragic howl.
Thoughts:
This was the simplest of the stories and the best.
It’s a very generic ghost story, but it actually worked. I felt like this was exactly the type of story you’d see on the show, and it could invoke some chills.
Loved it!
Tale of the Mysterious Mall
Denny and Liz are at the mall shopping when Liz starts getting creeped out by a store mannequin. The mannequin has lifelike blue eyes and seems to be watching them wherever they go.
Infatuated by the mannequins, the two children end up losing their parents and become lost in the department store.
So, like all resourceful young children, they head to the manager’s office.
The manager is very nice and offers them milk and cookies while she pages their parents. Liz enjoys the delicious milk and cookies, but Denny is bothered by the lack of urgency in the manager’s voice and only eats a couple of the cookies.
A few seconds later, everything goes black.
Denny wakes up and can’t find Liz.
He runs into another room, where he sees the store manager fixing up a young female mannequin. When the manager turns around, her face looks like that of a witch.
He’s startled, but even more startled by the mannequin, which has a single tear dripping from its bright blue eyes.
That’s when he realizes the mannequin is his sister Liz.
Upset, the store manager tells Denny he shouldn’t be awake yet and tries to get him to drink some milk. He decides to throw it onto the witch, who starts screaming as her skin turns milky white like that of a mannequin.
She becomes frozen in a pose of pain and agony, with fear and anger trapped in her bright blue eyes.
Suddenly, Denny is surrounded by children, including Liz, who were all released from the witch’s spell once the witch herself was turned into a mannequin.
Thoughts:
Ahh... I don’t know.
It was interesting and felt like one of the bad episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark?
So, I’ve gotta give it credit for feeling like a true Are You Afraid of the Dark? story, but it was pretty weak.
Definitely skippable.
The second cassette tape released was titled More Tales from the Midnight Society. This tape included a nineteen-page book of illustrations, and the same cast returned from the first tape.
This time around, Susan Kim wrote some of the stories along with Charles Platt.
The stories included on this cassette were:
The Tale of the Black Cat
The Tale of the New Kid
The Tale of the Strange Snowman
The Tale of the Strange Storybook
I haven’t been able to locate any images of the back of the packaging, so I don’t have official descriptions like I did for the first tape.
Sadly, Paramount has taken down all copies of this audio from the internet. I'm unable to share a working link for you to listen on your own.
The Tale of the New Kid
Hiram is the new kid at school, and he’s a little weird. He carries a small troll with him, which startles Pete, a good young man.
Dwayne is the school bully and tries to steal Hiram’s doll. Pete interferes, and Dwayne insists that he will get his revenge.
After school, Dwayne drags Pete to Hiram’s house, which they find abandoned except for the lifeless body of Hiram inside.
The troll attacks and touches Dwayne, while Pete manages to escape.
The next day, Dwayne shows up with the troll.
Thoughts:
This was a pretty solid story to begin with. It’s a classic setup, with a creepy doll running the show instead of the human like you expect.
All I could think about was Puppet Master while I listened to this, and that is not a bad thing.
The Tale of the Strange Storybook
Sherry is babysitting Alex when Alex cries out and tells her that there is something under the bed.
She knows this is ridiculous, but when she goes to check, she notices a large, creepy storybook sitting on the nightstand.
She opens it and discovers a picture of the house she is in.
Then the hallway.
The bedroom.
And finally, a little boy hiding under a bed.
She finds Alex under the bed clutching a piece of paper. She puts the paper in her pocket when she hears Alex’s parents coming home.
Later, she gets home and the paper opens up on its own, revealing a large, creepy monster underneath the bed.
Suddenly, Sherry hears a sound coming from beneath her own bed.
Thoughts:
Babysitter stories are often found in children’s and teenage horror because it’s something kids can relate to. Many young girls end up doing some sort of babysitting, so the thought of something going horribly wrong is an easy fear to tap into.
This story feels like something I’ve heard before, but that’s okay.
It was solid, and I loved the twist ending even though I saw it coming from a mile away.
The Tale of the Black Cat
Jane is not a fan of her family cat, Sooty. She always has a bad feeling about him and attempts to avoid the cat whenever possible.
She doesn’t feed him and shuts him out of the house. Then she begins finding books, tapes, and dresses torn up.
One morning, she wakes up feeling suffocated and finds Sooty sitting on her chest.
Then Sooty speaks.
Sooty tells her, “You’ve kicked me, forgotten to feed me, and locked me out of the house,” and says it’s time to get even.
Suddenly, Jane shrinks down and falls to the floor. She’s now the size of a mouse.
Sooty slaps her and threatens to eat her if she tries to run.
Just as Sooty is about to eat her, Jane wakes up.
Her little brother Gordon walks in, and Jane notices Sooty sitting on her chest. Just as Jane convinces herself it was only a nightmare, she watches Sooty stare her down, extend his claws, and destroy the rag doll he had stolen from Jane’s room.
Thoughts:
Probably my least favorite story of the group.
This was just weak.
The Tale of the Strange Snowman
Something is chasing Ben...
Then he wakes up to find his brother Eli jumping on his bed.
Overnight, it has snowed and the world is white, but school is still on. Ben and Eli begin shoveling the driveway, which quickly turns into a snowball fight.
In the midst of the snowball fight, Eli notices something watching them.
Eli runs after it, and Ben catches up and notices a six-foot-tall snowman standing in the middle of the road.
It’s odd that someone built it in the middle of the road, and even stranger that there is no disturbed snow anywhere around it.
It’s as if it simply appeared.
Eli has a little ESP and feels that the snowman wants something — or someone.
Eli suddenly snaps and begins smashing the snowman with a shovel, but Ben stops him. Their mother calls out to them, and soon Eli begins feeling ill.
When their mother takes his temperature, it’s four degrees lower than normal.
Eli crawls into bed beneath the covers while Ben goes to school.
When Ben gets home, the snowman is gone and Eli has gotten even sicker.
Their mother decides to go borrow a heater, and Ben thinks it would be a good idea to run Eli a hot bath.
Suddenly, Ben begins hearing the same sound he heard in his dreams.
A sloshing sound coming down the hallway.
When Ben opens the door, he notices a trail of water leading toward Eli’s room.
Ben opens the bedroom door and finds a cruel wind blowing through the room and the huge snowman heading toward Eli.
Ben hits it and runs to the bathroom.
He’s trapped, but just as the snowman is about to get him, he pulls the bathmat out from under it. The snowman falls into the bathtub and begins screaming as it melts.
Eli walks into the bathroom and asks what is happening.
He is no longer sick.
The only things remaining in the bathtub are two black stones, a carrot, and an old hat.
Thoughts:
This was a fun story, and a snow story as well!
I love winter horror!
I wrote the longest recap for this particular story because it seemed to have the most depth and was quite entertaining.
The final Are You Afraid of the Dark? cassette was different.
It wasn’t a collection of stories like the previous two. Instead, it was a choose-your-own-adventure-style story designed for the Tiger 2XL Robot.
The 2XL was an educational robot originally released in the late ’70s by the Mego Corporation and then re-released in the ’90s by Tiger Electronics. You could play trivia games with it, it told jokes, and it had a slew of pop-culture tie-in cassette tapes you could interact with.
You’d simply pop a cassette into the front of the robot, press play, and then interact by pressing one of four buttons on the front.
The buttons were labeled with options such as “Yes,” “No,” “True,” “False,” “A,” “B,” “C,” “1,” “2,” and “3.”
You’ve gotta give Mego and Tiger credit: they got a ton of mileage out of four buttons.
The buttons essentially acted as preset rewind and fast-forward controls. When you answered a question, the cassette tape would move to the next section corresponding with your response.
It’s actually an ingenious concept for an educational robot, and I’m not surprised they were so popular.
The Are You Afraid of the Dark? cassette was reminiscent of the Choose Your Own Adventure books that were extremely popular in the ’90s. You’d basically read a story and then decide at the end of a chapter how you wanted the character to proceed. The book would direct you to another chapter based on your decision, and the story would continue from there.
The cassette worked in a similar manner, with the story being told and the listener using the buttons to answer questions about how the story should proceed. The cassette would fast-forward or rewind, and the story would then continue based on the choice.
The story featured on this release was called “The Tale of the Phantom Manor” and was released in 1994.
Unfortunately, unless you have a 2XL Robot and a copy of the cassette, it’s quite difficult to listen to the story and experience all the different paths it can take.
Luckily for us, one YouTuber has uploaded a video of the 2XL reading off the story. At one point in time there were higher quality episodes available, but I guess Paramount had them all taken down.
