New Details Revealed About The 'Are You Afraid Of The Dark' Movie, And We're So Ready
Watching Are You Afraid Of The Dark when we were kids was probably the most thrilling part of our days. We would watch it every single time it was on, whether or not we had already seen the episode, and get completely freaked out each time.
It didn't matter if it was the first time were were hearing the stories told by the Midnight Society or the tenth, because they were super spooky every time.
Of all the scary shows, it was definitely the best. When they announced that they were making a movie based on the classic, we were all a little skeptical. We've all seen some bad remakes, but we didn't have a lot of information to go on just yet.
Now, the writer of the movie, Gary Dauberman, has updated us to let us all know what he's got in store for us when the Midnight Society gets back together.
Don't worry, he's not planning on watering down your spooky favorite. According to the man himself, he wants nothing more than to keep with the tone of the original, even if it means some kids will be scared.
He said that he's not going to worry too much about making it accessible to the really young viewers, because the original show didn't seem to worry about babying us when we were kids.
"[Are You Afraid Of The Dark] is so important to me. I didn’t want to age it down too much because for it’s time, it had some really disturbing episodes and some really dark episodes," Dauberman said in an interview with SlashFilm.
He knows a lot of things tend to "sand down the edges" to make it more "kid-friendly" but that wasn't his vision for the project.
"Not every story the Midnight Society told ended with happily ever after or a person learning their lesson and it will never happen again," he explained. "I really embraced that side of things and I think it’s been a long time. I think fear is healthy for kids. I don’t think we have to always sand down the edges of things and that’s something I really wanted to do with Are You Afraid Of The Dark.
But it's not all jump scares and screams, there is more to it than that.
"I think it is scary and I think kids will be scared watching it at times, and also they’ll laugh at times," Dauberman said. "I think it’s got a great message. I think it’s got a great heart to it but it is still scary. I think that’s great. I think it’s going to open it up to a wider audience."
He confirmed that the Midnight Society is still here, and the format isn't changing much.
"It is a completely original story I came up with, but it still has the Midnight Society and it still has the campfire. It’s still a story being told."
Dauberman is really pushing for that scare-factor though, and knows what kids can handle because he's a father himself.
"I have an eight-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter. It’s interesting watching them develop that sense of is it too scary for me or is it not? That’s a lesson that we need to apply to the real world," he explained. "If kids can’t learn that in the safety of their own homes trying to push the boundaries of what’s scary, what isn’t, what’s safe, what isn’t, then it’s a lot more difficult out there in the real world."
He doesn't want to get in the way of kids learning these boundaries on their own, and thinks other movies have been too cautious lately.
"I think there are those lessons that are taught by horror movies," Dauberman said. "I think we got a lot more of that when I was growing up. Somewhere along the lines it started to become a little too sanitized."
The movie comes out on October 11, 2019.
Source - SlashFilm / Bloody Disgusting