LogFAQs > #951971415

AYAOTD's campfire shit was generally lousy and took away time that could have gone to the episodes, although the framing occasionally worked for atmosphere and jump scares, as well making the narration feel more organic. The quality of the show itself varied greatly at times, where some episodes were on par with more popular, adult horror series, but you also had a lot of crap.

Goosebumps often wasn't as good as AYAOTD, but it was also geared towards a younger audience and was trying to adapt books. And given the nature of the original series, very few Goosebumps books ended badly for the protagonists, which meant that the stakes always felt lower. By contrast, things often turned out badly for the kids in AYAOTD stories even if most episodes had happy endings.

Ferarri619 posted...

why do these kids shows like Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of The Dark have better writing than most regular R/PG-13 rated horror films

They really don't, although the episodes can better than people expect. Although if you're comparing them to unrated shit quality films (where they didn't bother with the MPAA because they never went to theaters and, in many cases, never went to DVD), those usually don't have professional writers, actors, etc.

There are a lot of decent children's series and many of the people involved in adult horror were involved in those shows, including child actors who graduated to adult horror. Of course, the big downside to children's horror is often the hamfisted attempts to use them as morality tales (which AYAOTD sometimes did, but Goosebumps generally avoided) and occasional silliness.

On the adult side, while Tales from the Crypt is probably the most famous horror anthology, Monsters always struck me as being the best.

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There are precious few at ease / With moral ambiguities / So we act as though they don't exist.