“I’ve been saving this story for a long time,” The Midnight Society member Sam (JoAnna Garcia) declares during Are You Afraid of the Dark’s final gathering. It’s not hard to see why co-creator D.J. MacHale waited 65 episodes to recount “The Tale of the Night Shift.” Whereas the Nickelodeon anthology was largely designed to tentatively ease the younger generation into the horror world, its denouement was a go-for-broke affair with the capacity to put both kids and big kids off from ever entering a hospital ward again.
First airing 30 years ago this month, the bloodsucking yarn begins one evening at United Hospital, and specifically the chaotic children’s ward where overworked student Amanda (Emmanuelle Chriqui) is about to start her volunteering shift. “When do you sleep?” enquires Nurse Laurette (Jennifer Engels) after hearing about a schedule that would daunt even the most fervent “rise and grind” tech bros.
