When Sony and Columbia decided to make a movie adaptation of Goosebumps, the fans who loved the books and TV shows were celebrating. Because I have never read even one book, and I have only watched one episode as a child, I didn't care much about it. But now, when Hollywood is doing the same thing on Are You Afraid of the Dark, another horror pop culture in my childhood, it's a huge deal! It's such a huge deal in my life right now that I am writing this article instead of working.
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| My Childhood Crew |
As a child, I always watch this right after I got home from school. As an adult, I have some favorite episodes that I rewatch countless times on Youtube. However, I'm frightened by how Hollywood can ruin childhood favorites by adding something to the canon.
So Hollywood, especially Paramount Players and writer Gary Dauberman, here are my demands -er- suggestions for the Are You Afraid of the Dark Movie. Number five is the most important.
1. LIFE LESSONS.
Are You Afraid of the Dark was a kids show in the 90s, thus it had to meet with the standards that all youth-oriented shows have to offer moral lessons and model characters. With all of these big movies catering to youths and having themes like friendships, love, faith, and the defeat of evil, then it won't be a problem to realize this.
2. DIVERSITY. From harmless ghosts needing help to malicious clowns that just want to scare kids, the human characters in the show are as diverse as their supernatural counterparts. As Gary said in the first episode, The Midnight Society consisted of kids that are different from each other. Geeks, tomboys, punks, girly-girls, and outsiders share tales with each other and are tolerant of one another, if not really close friends. And in their stories, there was an array of races and cultures portrayed.
With the status of Hollywood films and TV today, this demand can be realized.
3. NO BIG NAMES. I know how Hollywood gets but please resist hiring too familiar faces. AYAOTD definitely didn't hire famous actors to play their characters to garner viewership. It was all about creeping kids with stories and their wild imaginations, no matter who they hired to portray. So I don't want any Hollywood A-lister to play some villain or some adult character in the cast. It takes away the mystery of it. It didn't really work for me when Goosebumps hired the overrated Jack Black as R.L. Stine.
4. CAMEOS OR APPEARANCES BY THE ORIGINAL CAST. I'm thinking that Gary's lineage continues on in the movie. Make the main character of the movie either one of Gary or his little brother Tucker's kids (which makes sense since their grandfather did start the society). That means an appearance of at least one of them. Considering interviews from the major cast members, I'm sure they'd appreciate being called back to play their roles.
Plus, fans would definitely like appearances or callbacks to memorable characters such as Sardo (the store owner of a magic shop), the malicious Dr. Vink, Zeebo the Clown, and the Ghastly Grinner.
5. AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, DON'T DEPEND ON CGI. I know how you guys love your CGI so here's my demand, please don't depend so much on CGI. The animation is not as frightening as the real thing. Like the TV show, the movie should be mostly old-school with creepy music, dim lights, smokes, shadows, make-up, costumes, and etc. NO OR LESS JUMP SCARES. In AYAOTD, it was all about scaring kids with creepy atmosphere, build-up suspense, and running kids' wild imaginations.
The show was never horrifying for kids. None of them resulted in nightmares (at least in my part). It was the kids' imaginations thinking of something scary that will come out that made them hug their pillows or hide under their blankets. Matter of fact, make a movie that teaches viewers that old-school scary movie tactics still work. Not these nonsense about CGI and jump scares. Let the viewers imaginations run.
