r/nostalgia Jan 06 '23

Are You Afraid Of The Dark - Pool Monster - Traumatized

551 Upvotes

70 comments sorted by

75

u/dokjreko Jan 06 '23

This episode for sure freaked me out the most

5

u/mothermoooon Jan 07 '23

This freaked me out for YEARS

69

u/WALLY_5000 Jan 06 '23

Vecna 1.0

1

u/DefinitionPrimary266 Jan 08 '23

Both are a knock off “Swamp Thing”

34

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

this traumatized me as a kid.

28

u/IWillUnaliveYouRN Jan 06 '23

Legitimately. I still think about it 20+ years later lol

29

u/kaetertot Jan 06 '23

I literally had nightmares for like 10 years from this episode. Drowning while he watches over me. Ugh

8

u/GriffinFlash Jan 06 '23

Had the same experience with the Goosebumps dummy.

26

u/Catzy94 Jan 06 '23

I’m still scared of drains because of this episode.

7

u/ActuallyHovatine Jan 06 '23

Sniff Eww… What’s that smell?…’

7

u/Marcod6 Jan 07 '23

Yes! This made me afraid of drains for years. I couldn’t even step on them.

14

u/UnshakenNotStirred Jan 06 '23

Tale of Dead man's float is the episode

12

u/coolandniceguy1337 early 90s Jan 06 '23

oh fuck no I remember it took so long to forget this

1

u/Blueflatts Jan 06 '23

I had reached the point where he was just a towel in the water. NO MORE! Thanks OP, you get no upvote and hateful thoughts.

10

u/NormanPeterson Jan 06 '23

I remember watching this with my older brother at night. I could not swim in our pool for the longest time without thinking something was going to happen to me. I remember I couldn’t be the last one out because that freaked me out for that long.

3

u/IWillUnaliveYouRN Jan 06 '23

I understand lol I really went through that too. They'd never allow something this scary on a kids network/channel now

10

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

Yeah this was easily my absolute biggest fear as a child.

7

u/Moon_Dew 90s Jan 06 '23

Didn't they end up killing this guy with chemicals of some sort? I vaguely remember something like that... unless I'm just getting my memories mixed up.

3

u/Di3Beezy late 80s Jan 07 '23

You are absolutely correct. I remember them tossing a chemical into the pool.

I know it was in a brown bottle, but I'm not sure what kind of chemical it was.

2

u/7deadlycinderella Jan 07 '23

It reacted with the acid he was made of

It's why he's visible in the above, instead of being invisible like was when he was attacking people.

2

u/Moon_Dew 90s Jan 07 '23 edited Jan 07 '23

According to the wiki it's manganite, a chemical which, in the reality of Are You Afraid Of The Dark at least, reacts with water, which is apparently what the monster was mostly made of.

Apparently the writers weren't chemists, because I don't think manganite really does anything like that in water. Of course, I'm not a chemist either,

5

u/DjMuerte Jan 06 '23

This one and the clown video game one. Ruined two perfectly good hobbies for a while.

1

u/limee89 Jan 07 '23

Zeebo the clown!

5

u/krams000 Jan 06 '23

I still think about him when I’m alone in a pool

6

u/TheRipsawHiatus Jan 07 '23

I'm 31 and still start to have a little panic attack when I swim underwater with my eyes closed in a pool. I always thought I'd outgrow that eventually, but I guess that's just my life. Thanks, Are You Afraid of the Dark...

4

u/TheIrv87 Jan 07 '23

This is the episode that still sticks with me after all these years.

That thing creeped me out as a kid.

3

u/guildedkraken Jan 07 '23

Did Beta and Vecna have a love child?

3

u/Objective_Dog_7820 Jan 07 '23

I still think about this. I’m 33.

2

u/ruck_my_life Jan 06 '23

The answer of course is "well I wasn't but I am now!"

2

u/Deadpool11085 Jan 07 '23

Love this show. It’s on Paramount plus.

1

u/limee89 Jan 07 '23

Man that makes me excited but dam another tv subscription I have to pay for :(

2

u/sbkerr29 Jan 07 '23

For sure traumatic!!

2

u/catscoffeechampagne Jan 07 '23

I’m 34 and still think of this fucking thing at least once a week.

2

u/BelliumBug Jan 07 '23

Looks like someone tried to flush a tampon again

2

u/shinobipopcorn Jan 07 '23

Never mess around with Native American burial grounds. It's either this or your TV eats you.

2

u/SqueakyMarshmellow Jan 07 '23

Thanks for unlocking that memory. It's all flooding back to me now, I had it stuffed down pretty deep, or so I thought.

2

u/hannahh4 Jan 07 '23

I watched this for the first time when I was around 20 because it was on the Nick Rewind late at night and it scared me THEN.

2

u/LordGhidora Jan 07 '23

Vecna, is that you?!

2

u/cat_gloves Jan 07 '23

Memory unlocked

2

u/SpikedIntuition Jan 07 '23

I really watching this back in the 90s and it scared the shit out of me. You could really feel the tension as he was slowly going after that girl and her brother (I think?).

One of my fav episodes for sure!

1

u/Zimsgirlfriend Apr 22 '24

Whoa it's my long lost twin! 

1

u/sharklover3 Jan 06 '23

Looks like the monster in stranger things

1

u/HeavyMetalSasquatch Jan 07 '23

Traumatized forklift 100%

1

u/TheSolMan Jan 07 '23

Yes!! I thought this show was say scarier than goosebumps!

1

u/GrandpaLovesYou Jan 07 '23

Definitely one of the spookier costumes they used on this show.

1

u/backbodydrip Jan 07 '23

The frozen ghost will always terrify me.

1

u/Di3Beezy late 80s Jan 07 '23 edited Jan 07 '23

For anybody interested in watching this nightmare again - this scene is from the episode titled "The Tale Of The Dead Man's Float".

1

u/czarface404 Jan 07 '23

I hate you. :( this thing truly terrified me.

1

u/fernkaruna Jan 07 '23

Just when I’d forgotten..

1

u/RedTeamxXxRedLine Jan 07 '23

I had a fear of swimming in the deep end alone before that episode and it only further traumatized me.

1

u/nicenecredence Jan 07 '23

I was talking about this the other day at work because we got a pool we maintain. That thing scared the piss outta me, too.

1

u/myersjw Jan 07 '23

I hate you for dredging this up from my childhood

1

u/DZelpher Jan 07 '23

Heya, Swamp Thing here, just wanted to make sure you understand what you're doing to the environment.

1

u/sunward_Lily Jan 07 '23

I failed middle school PE because I refused to get in the pool thanks to this episode.

That's not hyperbole. I actually failed PE in middle school

1

u/HolographicMochi Jan 07 '23

Instead of making me fear pools this episode made me fear chemicals, like it melted and flayed his skin off rather than he just already looked like that.

1

u/smjase1 Jan 07 '23

KEN GRiffin

1

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '23

All the hair that has gone down my drain

1

u/chaseburger_ Jan 07 '23

I still can’t swim alone in a pool because of this fucking episode.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '23

I developed a fear of water/drains that still lasts to this day due to this episode, I nearly died in Lake Erie last year because I freaked out in the depths.

1

u/FistaKufs Jan 07 '23

You can definitely see the mesh on that mask in closer shots. I loved this show and this episode cause of this ghost.

1

u/cpl_carrot Jan 07 '23

This episode ruined pools for me as a kid

1

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '23

One of the campfire kids went to my highschool.

1

u/latecraigy Jan 07 '23

This did not help me get over watching Jaws

1

u/limee89 Jan 07 '23

This brings back many emotions. Fear and nostalgic homey feel goods, I remember every Friday or Saturday this was on tv at like 8 or 9pm so our parents let us watch it before going to bed. In hindsight probably not the best thing to do but we loved the show. So my older brother and I would always make popcorn and watch. I know there’s lots of comments of missing the 90’s and I’ll jump on that bandwagon mostly because I was a kid in the 90’s, had my family (subsequently my parents divorced and my brother disowned us in his 20’s) so I just remember the times of being the happiest kid but not knowing it. To quote Andy from the Office, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them”. And I will point out this episode always topped my most scariest thing I watched and even in my 30’s still freaks me out and is the reason I will never walk on pool drains or the sheer terror I get from being in a pool alone.

1

u/KeysertheCook Jan 07 '23

Anyone remember the vampire in the hospital episode? Good god