First Are You Afraid of the Dark? Clip Takes You to the Carnival of Doom

Nickelodeon has released the first official clip from Are You Afraid of the Dark?, writer/producer BenDavid Grabinski’s upcoming miniseries revival of the cult ’90s favorite. The series is having a world premiere screening event today, which will be followed by a full-on release of the miniseries airing weekly beginning on Friday, October 11. 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 cast will include Sam Ashe Arnold (Best.Worst.Weekend.Ever.), Miya Cech (Rim of the World), Tamara Smart (Artemis Fowl), Jeremy Taylor (It), Lyliana Wray (Black-ish), and 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 (like myself) were back in the heyday of the original series.

When the news of the minseries first hit, the press release included a statement to the effect that the miniseries was to tie in with a theatrical feature that was to be released on October 4. Obviously that did not happen, and updated on the status of the movie stopped months ago when it was quietly pulled from the release schedule over at Paramount. There are still some reports that the movie has just been moved out of its October 11 release date and is expected to debut later, following some behind-the-scene changes, but the nature of those changes is unclear and the future of the film — if there is one — may at this point rest on the performance of the miniseries. Filmmaker Gary Dauberman recently 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 on Friday. Are you excited for the return of the Midnight Society? Chime in below.