Star Sparkle Blog

It's Hallowe'en on Monday, so I'm doing a post on my favourite Hallowe'en/scary things, plus a round-up of spooky themed things on the blog. :) I tried to avoid spoilers but there are a couple. Books Trick or Treat by Richie Tankersly Cuisick This is a Point Horror book (the series was hugely popular in the 90s, ahhh nostalgia! lol) and the story is about Martha, a girl who moves to a new town after her dad gets married. She finds it hard adjusting to having a stepmum and isn't keen on her stepbrother, Conor but most of all she dislikes the creepy house. She learns that something terrible happened in the house and in the lead-up to Hallowe'en weird things keep happening, especially in Martha's room! I've had this for years and like to re-read it occasionally around Hallowe'en; I just started reading it again today. :) Halloween Night by R.L. Stine Another Point Horror, written by R.L. Stine who also wrote the Goosebumps series (see b...

This is another one of my favourite Are You Afraid of the Dark? episodes, The Tale of the Dream Machine. It's from the second series and is the story of teenage boy Sean Hackett ( Michael Hong ),who is passionate about writing and Jennifer Johnson ( Nicole Lyn ), a girl in his class. One day Sean and his best friend Billy ( Joel Gordon ) stumble upon an old typewriter in a secret room in Sean's house. He decides to use it to write a story for his English assignment.  But the typewriter is no ordinary machine- when Sean writes on it, the subjects of his stories dream about themselves in the very situations he creates. Jennifer is shocked when she dreams about herself as a victim of the vampire Sean at a school dance. But that's not all, when the story is read out loud, even stranger things happen!

Here's a clip from another of my favourite Are You Afraid of the Dark? episodes, Jake and the Leprechaun. It's from the first series. Jake (Benjamin Plener) stars in a play as a boy who gets turned into a changeling by a leprechaun, played by Erin (John Dunn-Hill). But the changes aren't just happening in the play, Jake is transforming in real life too! He enlists the help of garden centre worker (I think he works in some kind of garden centre!) and herb expert Sean O'Shaney (David Steinberg), to work out what's going on. Update 19/10/23: The original video is gone, so I've replaced it.  

Are You Afraid Of The Dark was a Canadian/American kids TV series that was made in the 90s (and a new series in 1999 and 2000). It was about a group of teenagers called the Midnight Club who would meet up at midnight and sit around a campfire (bonfire) telling each other scary stories. They each had a turn every week. I really liked that programme, it was good and creepier than Goosebumps (a similar show)! I've got the first 4 series on DVD, lol. The subjects of the stories included vampires, werewolves, ghosts, magic and evil clowns! Here are a couple of  clips from one of my favourite episodes. The Tale of Laughing in the Dark. Friends Weegee and Josh and Weegee's sister Kathy go to a fun fair. The boys make a bet that if Josh goes into the funhouse that is reportedly haunted by a clown called Zeebo and takes the nose from the Zeebo dummy, Weegee will have to wear it. Josh is successful but Zeebo isn't happy about the theft...       ...