Following on Part One of the 2019 Are You Afraid of the Dark reboot, Part Two immediately jumps back into the drama.

Having learned that both their classmate Adam is missing and that a seemingly-evil carnival has come to town, the Midnight Society have an emergency meeting. Our girl Rachel tries to convince the others to go to the carnival with her to look for Adam, but no one takes the bait.

It’s following the meeting that Rachel overhears that Akiko wants Rachel out of the group. Which is a pretty quick change of heart, if you ask me. Gary would never!

Realising that she’s on her own, Rachel begins to make missing posters for Adam. The rest of TMS feel sorry for her, and then agree to go with her to the Midnight Carnival.

On arriving at the carnival, the kids realise that everything looks exactly how they imagined it as Rachel was telling her story around the fire.

They go to the Big Tent where they see Mr Tophat himself. He tells the audience that whoever finds the golden coin that night gains access to a secret part of the carnival. During the show, Rachel suddenly spots Adam, who is looking a bit like a creep. When Louise also sees him, the girls realise they both see him going in different directions. The gang decide to split up and look for him.

Akiko and her friend watch back the footage they filmed of Mr Tophat’s performance, only to learn that the man doesn’t appear on the camera. A group of clowns and circus performers begin to chase them, wanting the phone and the footage.

Meanwhile, the other four TMS members go on rides to look for Adam. But while they’re searching, things begin to go incredibly wrong. Rachel fends off some Zombies in the Tunnel of Love while trying to get the golden coin. As soon as she gets it, everything seemingly goes back to harmless fun. It is all part of the show, right?

The following morning, Rachel is no closer to finding Adam. When she waits to be picked up by Gavin, his dad comes to the door looking for him. She soon discovers that her worst nightmare has come true (maybe for a second time) and no one remembers the Carnival of Doom.

No one, but her.

Part Two is another solid part to the story. Again, the carnival setting is really incredible at setting an eerie setting. I’m genuinely excited for Part Three, just to see how Rachel pulls this off. The kids are pretty good actors as well, and really make the magic happen on screen.

What I’ve really appreciated about both parts one and two is that they feel like standalone stories. You could walk in just watching the second episode, and it could be a story within itself. It’s certainly a good way of making the show feel more modern. Not sure how well the 30-minute anthology format would work these days. Though, hell, I’d love to see how that would go, too!

The twists at the end of both first parts are gleefully classic Are You Afraid of the Dark? Something fun of the gentle suffering of these children, mostly because it’s playful and we all know it’s going to end well for everyone bar the baddies. That said, there are still some genuinely creepy moments in this. It feels me with so much love that children get to enjoy this.