"Are You Afraid of the Dark?" The Tale of the Night Shift (1996)

Director:

D.J. MacHale

TV Series:

"Are You Afraid of the Dark?" (1991)

Original Air Date:

3 February 1996 (Season 5, Episode 11)

Genre:

Family | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Amanda works the night shift at a hospital where she sees that all the employees are acting strange and weak around her. |

Plot Keywords:

Hospital | Unrequited Love | Incinerator | Teenage Girl | Morgue

Cast

Emmanuelle Chriqui	...	Amanda
Oren Sofer	...	Colin
Jorge Vargas	...	Felix
Elisabeth Rosen	...	Margot (as Elizabeth Rosen)
Andreas Apergis	...	Vampire
Jennifer Engels	...	Nurse Laurette
Kathleen Fee	...	Nurse Hantin
Irene Contogiorgis	...	Beautiful Girl
Tyrone Benskin	...	Jack Palmer
David Siscoe	...	Security Guard
Richard Azimov	...	Bud
Elisha Cuthbert	...	Young Girl
Daniel DeSanto	...	Tucker
Joanna Garcia	...	Sam
Ross Hull	...	Gary

Trivia:

Jack calls Felix Zeebo when asking if he signed the chart (rather than "Bozo"), a reference to the clown from "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark". Sam was the first storyteller to make one of these references to him without having been around to hear his story.

Quotes:

Amanda: [of the phone] It's dead.
Colin: Just like Felix.

Vampires and Hostpitals, dinner by intensive care!

The Show's Original Era Shift Ends Here...Or should Have?

I don't know if this episode was exactly the final episode of the original era's run but it sure felt so, with the tieing together of the ongoing Gary/Sam angle and the pulling out all the stops for a far slightly edgier episode. I'd have expected the tank of ideas to be running extremely low indeed at this point, so it twas a nice surprise to see them seemingly ending on such a high point. Basically great premise and very engaging characters.

This show always cleverly took a page out of Stephen King's book, in the taking of everyday situations and places and putting them in a new context and this one was by far the last most interesting one they came up with.

Add to that the extra risks they took in how far the Villain (one of the most memorable make up jobs in the shows' history) could go, yes an actual semi-death toll the likes of which was rarely done as close to the line as this.

Along with another of the show's best genuinely grounded, endearing budding romances and you have quite the high note to seemingly end on. I see the actress who played the adorable workaholic, Amanda did rather well after it. The actor who played goof of goofs, Corny Colin was one of the most enthusiastic, animated, expressive and genuinely relatedly funny young male actors the show ever produced. He maybe even had a touch of Ashton Kutcher to him. His character's art of persistence was inspiring and well matched by his exaggerated comic timing, such delivery of lines like "Not anymore...he's like...really dead" must be seen to be believed. He is a true inspiration to geek empowerment.

All this stuff in the proverbial nut shell made for one of the last truly memorable episodes ever produced. This episode's shift will never be over in my heart. Hope You enjoyed the Hosp-bite-tilities!