Sunday, August 11, 2019

Nickelodeon USA Debuts First Footage from 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?' Revival

Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society...


Update (8/3) - Entertainment Weekly and TheWrap have debuted the first terrifying teaser trailer for the Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark? revival miniseries! The trailer features ominous music, lots of soundbites of screaming, Zombies, sinister teens with bad eye makeup, and, yep, a clown. Then it asks the time-worn question anew: “Are you afraid of the dark?”


As the trailer begins, a group of kids are around a campfire. One of them opens a metal box that contains a piece of paper, which a character reads. As the teaser plays, several frightening scenes flash before the viewer. As the teaser ends, an updated version of the iconic series title card (logo) appears and one of the characters says the show's name. The teaser ends with an image of an open window with the text "Coming Soon."




Nickelodeon USA will debut the first footage from the network's upcoming revival of their beloved '90s scary stories anthology series Are You Afraid of the Dark? on Saturday (August 3, 2019) during an special sing-along encore of the Henry Danger musical at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT), according to executive producer BenDavid Grabinski, who heads up the new series!


Per Nickelodeon, "The beloved anthology series will return this October as a brand-new miniseries and follow new members of the Midnight Society as they gather around a campfire in the woods to share scary stories," the cable network announced via press release. "The miniseries will coincide with the upcoming Are You Afraid of the Dark? theatrical movie from Paramount Pictures, Paramount Players’, and Nickelodeon Movies."

In Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark? revival, through three hour-long episodes, the new Midnight Society will tell a terrifying tale about the Carnival of Doom, only to have the events of the story come to life.

The new members of the Midnight Society are: Gavin, played by Sam Ashe Arnold (Best.Worst.Weekend.Ever.); Akiko, played by Miya Cech (Rim of the World, Always Be My Maybe); Louise, played by Tamara Smart (Artemis Fowl, The Worst Witch); Graham, played by Jeremy Taylor (It, Goosebumps 2:Haunted Halloween); and Rachel, played by Lyliana Wray (Top Gun: Maverick, Black-ish). The Carnival of Doom’s ringmaster, Mr. Tophat, is played by Rafael Casal (Blindspotting).

That's an ensemble of some pretty well-experienced fresh-faced actors, which gives this new Are You Afraid of the Dark? a major headstart in terms of performance potential. These kids definitely have the skills to thrill young audiences in the same way '90s kids were back in the heyday of the original series.

The Are You Afraid of the Dark? limited series is produced by ACE Entertainment (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, The Perfect Date) with ACE founder Matt Kaplan and Spencer Berman serving as executive producers. The series is written by BenDavid Grabinski (Skiptrace) and directed by Dean Israelite (Power Rangers movie, Project Almanac), both of whom will also executive produce.

Inspired by the classic art of storytelling, Nickelodeon’s original Are You Afraid of the Dark? (series ran from 1992-1996 and 1999-2000) broke the mold by exploring a whole new genre of entertainment. One of the net’s most iconic series from the ‘90s, Are You Afraid of the Dark? delivered riveting stories of horror to young audiences, all from a kid’s perspective. Are You Afraid of the Dark? was created by D.J. MacHale and Ned Kandel.

As mentioned in the synopsis above, there is supposed to also be a film adaptation of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, though that seems to have stalled in production. It was scheduled for release this October, but has since been pulled from the release schedule over at Paramount. Paramount and Nickelodeon are reportedly still planning to make a Are You Afraid of the Dark? movie, which will debut later following some behind-the-scene changes. Filmmaker Gary Dauberman later confirmed that he had parted ways with the production.

Grabinski is one of those up-and-coming Hollywood talents who has had a number of near-miss projects in the last few years, with Are You Afraid of the Dark? being the first to actually make it to air. Among other things, he was at one point attached to write the screenplay for a planned Archer & Armstrong movie from Sony and Valiant, although his hire was the last announcement made of the film so it seems likely that they never got it off the ground.

Are You Afraid of the Dark? is expected to premiere in October, 2019. Henry Danger: The Musical Sing-Along, which will host the first footage, airs on Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Nickelodeon USA.

Production for the Are You Afraid of the Dark? miniseries began in June in Vancouver, Canada.

“Are You Afraid of The Dark? was my introduction to the horror genre and made me a fan for life,” series writer BenDavid Grabinski tells EW. “I hope we’re lucky enough to have our series do the same. It’s going to be a fun and scary ride, and I’m honored to introduce the Midnight Society to a whole new generation of kids.”

More Nick: Nickelodeon Embarks on New Direction with its Biggest, Most Wide-Ranging Content Slate Ever!

Originally published: Friday, August 2, 2019 at 19:32 BST.

Original source: ComicBook (II); Additional sources: The A.V. Club, PopCrush, CBR.com.
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