If you grew up in the nineties, that match being struck in the opening credits probably lives rent-free in your brain. You can almost smell the woodsmoke. For years, rumors have swirled about are you afraid of the dark the movie, and honestly, the history of this project is a total rollercoaster of high hopes and weird studio shifts. It’s one of those "what if" scenarios that haunts Nickelodeon fans more than the Zeebo the Clown ever could. People wanted it. The studio greenlit it. Then, silence.
Gary and the Midnight Society were the gatekeepers of gateway horror. They made us feel like we were part of an elite, secret club that met in the woods to talk about ghosts and vampires. It was spooky, sure, but it felt grounded in a way that Goosebumps sometimes didn't. So, when Paramount Pictures officially announced a feature-length film adaptation back in 2017, the internet basically had a collective meltdown of nostalgia.
The Gary Dauberman Era and the Vision That Was
The project started with a lot of weight behind it. Paramount tapped Gary Dauberman to write the script. If that name sounds familiar, it should. He’s the guy behind It, Annabelle, and The Nun. He knows how to make things jump out of the shadows. Having a heavy hitter from the modern horror scene attached to are you afraid of the dark the movie meant the studio wasn't just looking for a cheap cash-in. They wanted something that actually carried some teeth.
Dauberman spoke openly about his love for the original series. He wanted to honor the spirit of the campfire stories while elevating the scale for a theater audience. The plan was a 2019 release. October 11, to be exact. It was perfectly timed for the Halloween season, and fans were ready. But then, the gears started grinding.
Hollywood is a messy business. Scripts get stuck in "development hell," which is basically a polite way of saying people can't agree on a budget or a vision. In early 2019, Paramount suddenly pulled the movie from its release schedule. No explanation. No new date. Just gone.
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Why the Movie Became a Miniseries Instead
It’s kinda fascinating how these things pivot. When the movie hit a wall, Nickelodeon didn't just give up on the brand. Instead, they took the momentum and shifted it back to television. What was supposed to be are you afraid of the dark the movie essentially morphed into the 2019 revival miniseries.
Initially, this felt like a consolation prize. However, the revival—which followed a new Midnight Society dealing with a "Carnival of Doom"—actually worked. It captured that same vibe of kids being in actual danger. It wasn't the two-hour cinematic experience we were promised, but it was three hour-long episodes that felt like a cohesive film.
Some industry insiders suggested that the success of the It movies actually made a standalone are you afraid of the dark the movie harder to produce. Why? Because It did the "kids fighting a supernatural entity in a small town" trope so well that a Nickelodeon-branded version risked looking like a Diet version of Pennywise's story. Paramount likely looked at the numbers and realized that the brand might live better on the small screen where it started.
The Problem With Anthology Movies
Anthology horror is notoriously hard to sell to a mass audience in theaters. You have a few options when making a movie out of a show like this:
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- You tell one long story (like the 2019 revival did).
- You do a "frame story" where the kids tell three short stories.
- You do a "meta" movie where the campfire stories start coming to life in the real world.
The rumors at the time suggested the film was leaning toward a singular, cohesive narrative rather than a collection of short tales. This is always a gamble. Part of the charm of the original show was its variety. One week you’re watching a cursed camera story, the next it’s a terrifying ghost in a mirror. Condensing that into a single film narrative often loses the "flavor" that made the IP famous in the first place.
The Lost Script and What We Almost Saw
Details on Dauberman’s script are still mostly under wraps, but we know it intended to lean into the lore of the Midnight Society itself. In the original series, the kids were mostly just the narrators. We rarely saw their home lives or what they did outside the woods. The movie was supposedly going to bridge that gap, making the kids the protagonists of their own scary story rather than just the storytellers.
There’s a certain irony here. The 2015 Goosebumps movie with Jack Black did exactly that. It took the monsters and put them in the "real" world. If are you afraid of the dark the movie had followed that path, it might have felt derivative. If it had stayed too close to the anthology format, it might have felt like a TV special. It was a creative tightrope that the producers seemingly couldn't walk.
Is a Feature Film Still Possible?
Never say never in the world of reboots. We live in an era where everything old is eventually new again. With the success of the recent limited series seasons—Carnival of Doom, Curse of the Shadows, and Ghost Island—the brand is arguably healthier than it’s been since the mid-nineties.
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Paramount Global now has Paramount+, a hungry streaming service that needs "event" content. While a theatrical release for are you afraid of the dark the movie feels less likely today than it did in 2017, a "streaming original" movie is a very real possibility. It would allow for a higher budget than the TV seasons without the massive financial risk of a global theatrical rollout.
Honestly, the landscape has changed. We don't necessarily need a movie to get high-quality horror for kids anymore. Shows like Stranger Things have proven that long-form television is actually a better medium for this kind of storytelling. You get more time to know the kids. The scares can breathe.
What to Watch Instead
If you’re still craving that specific atmosphere and you're bummed that the movie never hit the big screen, you actually have a lot of options.
- The 2019-2022 Revivals: These are surprisingly dark. They don't talk down to the audience. They are basically the "movie" we never got, split into chapters.
- Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019): This film, produced by Guillermo del Toro, is the closest thing in existence to what a high-end Are You Afraid of the Dark movie would look like. It uses a frame story to connect various urban legends.
- Fear Street Trilogy (Netflix): This is for the older fans. It’s R-rated, but it captures that 90s horror aesthetic perfectly.
The legacy of the Midnight Society isn't tied to a single film. It’s tied to the idea that being scared can be fun, and that stories told in the dark have a power all their own. The movie might be a ghost of a project, but the fire is still burning.
Your Next Steps for a Midnight Society Marathon
If you're looking to revisit the world of the Midnight Society or dive into the horror that inspired the film rumors, start with these specific actions:
- Track down the "Ghost Island" season: This is the most recent iteration (2022) and features the most sophisticated production values of the entire franchise. It's the closest the brand has ever come to feeling like a modern blockbuster movie.
- Watch "The Tale of the Silver Sight": This was a three-part episode from the original series (Season 7) that functioned as a TV movie. It explores the history of the Midnight Society and their predecessors, providing the lore that the movie was intended to expand upon.
- Compare the 2019 Revival to Dauberman's "It": If you want to see what the movie might have been, watch the first season of the revival alongside Dauberman's It (2017). You’ll see the stylistic DNA—the "Losers Club" vibes—that likely influenced his unproduced script.
- Check Paramount+ regularly: Since the rights are held under the Paramount Global umbrella, any news of a feature-length project or a "special event" movie will break there first. Keep an eye on the "Kids" and "Horror" categories for surprise drops.
The are you afraid of the dark the movie project remains a fascinating footnote in horror history, a reminder that sometimes the stories we don't see are just as interesting as the ones we do.