Are You Afraid of the Dark? - The Tale of The Silver Sight

Last year I reviewed and sorted out some of my favorite episodes and films from one of my all time favorite childhood horror series, Goosebumps. It was a lot of fun and I was very proud of the outcome. This year I was planning on digging even deeper into the nostalgic pockets of my mind by searching for and reviewing my favorite Are You Afraid of the Dark? episodes. Unfortunately, as I started to dig and uncover what was going to be the ultimate blast-from-the-past trip-out of the last quarter century, I realized that I not only forgot many of the episodes, I also had not watched Are You Afraid of the Dark? since the last reruns stopped showing back in 2000. I did end up watching a lot of episodes, but I didn't feel it was appropriate to make any lists or "best of" posts. Plus, there are sites out there that already have the most obvious "best" episodes alongside the ones with Ryan Gosling, Melissa Joan Hart, Jay Baruchel, and other special guests you may not have known were in the show while growing up.

So, just as I was beginning to lose all hope, I managed to remind myself of one episode. It was a very different episode than the rest of the Are You Afraid of the Dark? series and I could only think of one part to help me search for it. So, I did a little research and actually came up with a result. What I discovered was more than your average episode of a Canadian kids fright show that aired almost 15 years ago; I discovered Are You Afraid of the Dark?'s greatest tale ever told, a 3 part episode called, The Tale of The Silver Sight!

The Tale of The Silver Sight was the first episode(s) of the last season, season 7, and is unlike any other Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode seen before (or after). A normal AYAOTD? episode starts with the Midnight Society getting together around the open fire in the deepest part of the woods with one of the members setting the mood for a story they were going to recite that night. In The Tale of The Silver Sight however, the episode does not start with the Midnight Society, or even someone telling a tale; it starts with Gary, the former president of the society who went off to college, having a nightmare and then getting a call of bad news from his grandmother. 

When Gary arrives at his grandmother's home, he learns that his grandfather passed away from an unexpected heart attack. Gary's grandmother then gives him something that his grandfather had left him; it's a broken piece of a record and a letter. As it turns out, Gary's grandfather was apart of the very first Midnight Society, where he and his friends conjured up a mystical artifact of some kind that helped them get anything they could ever ask for (because kids in the 30's had nothing better to do). The broken piece of the record is part of a guide that informs the listener just where this mystical object can be found and that the other pieces are with the original members who have not had unexpected heart attacks yet. 

Gary, after reading the note his grandfather left him with his piece of the record, shows his brother and new leader of the Midnight Society meetings, Tucker what he has just received and informs him that he'll be visiting the crew tonight for a very special meeting. As the episode rolls on, it is revealed that there is not a tale being told that night, but rather, the Midnight Society is in their own tale as Gary introduces them to the broken record, what the silver sight is, and why it needs to be destroyed. The current Midnight Society then split up like good mystery teams should and go on a search for the original members of the Midnight Society, the members' pieces of the record, and to destroy the silver sight once and for all. 

As Gary and his brother Tucker go on a search for a member of the original Midnight Society called "The General", Quinn has to go looking for "The Prom Queen" at the dump, and Megan, the team's residential preppy girl, finds herself in the sewers. Along the way, a young boy with raggedy old-timey clothes follows the Midnight Society around and seems to be helping them on their search for the broken record pieces... or so it seems.

Tucker is the first to find another piece of the record. Tucker retrieves the broken record piece when The General disappears from his home on Tucker's return to pick it up and instead has to play human chess like in the first Harry Potter book/movie. Then Quinn gets his piece of the record from the Prom Queen's unlucky true love (who now works at the city dump) by trading him a picture he made that The General stole way back in the day. This is the part where I should probably also mention that The General was the trader of the group and stole the Prom Queen from the dump guy but that's really not important in the end, so I'm just going to move on...

Then there is Megan, who had to go down in the sewer. Megan was looking for "The Tycoon" but instead discovers a family living there due to the silver sight causing them such misfortune. Megan even finds herself a nice sewer boy down there, but once she mentions the silver sight, the family kicks her out. Luckily, the boy knew where the piece was and told her to come back later to pick it up. When she goes to pick it up, the whole sewer home the family was living in is dismantled and some other shenanigans happens until Megan finally finds the record piece inside one of the boy's school books (even though he lives in a sewer).

Finally there's the scarred-y cat crew of Vange and Andy who must find the ring in the well - I mean record piece. Once they do though, the team just needs to put the record together and solve the riddle. Since the last piece is from the original member named "The Riddler", who happened to also own an amusement park, it was a safe bet to guess that the silver sight would be somewhere in the park. So, the team figures out that the silver sight must be located somewhere on the carousel (according to the riddle told from the record) and that's where they must go next.

Eventually the Midnight Society finds the damn thing. I'm not going to give that part away, but I will say that this part of the tale is what I remember most from watching The Tale of The Silver Sight a while back. The picture above is an example of the part permanently burned into my memory.

While this tale is about the Midnight Society themselves, it still follows a very similar theme that a lot of the tales told on Are You Afraid of the Dark? revolve around. The theme to most of the tales told have something to do with a spirit of a dead person, usually a kid, getting stuck in this life and needing the help of living people, usually kids, to get them to the other side/cross over to the afterlife by fulfilling some sort of task. This tale, while somewhat complex for such a simple kids show, was all about fulfilling what the original Midnight Society could not and that was destroying the silver sight for good. Once the silver sight was destroyed, the demon was vanquished and all the souls it had captured were set free. 

Anyways, enjoy this long forgotten gem. Your Halloween will be that much better!