Are You Afraid of the Dark? (TV Series) The Tale of Apartment 214 (1994) User Reviews

Broken promises and lonesome ghosts. To me this is the most emotionally moving episode of the show.

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 9/10 · 25 January 2012]

"The Tale of Apartment 214" is just plain one of the best episodes of AYAOTD ever in my opinion. It's one of the rare ones where nothing bad really happens to anyone, although it doesn't seem that way at first. I thought both the mother and daughter weren't bad actors, which was nice because a lot of the time on this show the adult actors were often much worse than the child ones! I loved the minor character of the big blustery Russian manager, his accent was really funny. So this episode actually made me cry once, and I don't do that too often. Whenever I do get really upset at something on television it has to be something heart-wrenching, devastating. This really got to me, there's just something so deeply sad about the tragedy of old people dying cold and alone that it's really heartbreaking to think about, and the story of this one got to me in a big way, how the young girl and the old woman became so close, and then how the girl had an opportunity to make some friends her own age, and she rightly took it, and then gradually began to forget about her. But then, I think it was supposed to be a year later, Madeline returns and angrily revealed her ghostly nature while demanding to know why Stacy broke her promise, which was to stay with her on a certain day. But she calms down and understands why when she learns it was so that Stacy could make a new friend. I really like what Madeline says about how it is very important to make friends, which is so very true, as I believe it's friends that make life worth living... I really got upset when it gets to the final scenes. It was just, the "happy" and yet bittersweet tone of the ending. To me this episode is beautiful, it has a great emotional resonance to it and I love how I could get so much out of a mere 20-odd minutes, and I think it was a very nice and uplifting role for the actress Beth Amos, who sadly passed away in real life not too long after this, to leave behind. Your performance really touched my heart, thank you, rest in peace.

Masterpiece

[RealBlast3 · 10/10 · 29 March 2013]

This is quite possibly the greatest ever episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark I just watched it again and I think I cried more this time than before! It is brilliantly written and breaks your heart. Interestingly, I think, as the other reviewer so astutely noted, this isn't really one of the "terrifying" episodes of the show and yet it is quite possibly the best. The other episode that I often think is the best is also one of the more moving, emotional episodes and that is The Tale of the Lonely Ghost, from season 1. Episodes like that and The Tale of Apartment 214 are as good as television gets and will be remembered for decades - I never forgot them as a kid growing up, and they still resonate with me as an adult. Also, once again, the show has a great twist! This show really knew how to do ghost stories, just ask the writer/director of The Sixth Sense, who stole the idea for his movie from this show (not this episode). People might think this was some random basic cable show, but the quality in this series is every bit as good as say, The Twilight Zone.

actually scary. actually sad

[davidmalaimo · 10/10 · 3 April 2021]

Kiki came through with this eerie and sorrowful tale about loneliness. This episode is definitely one of the best so far in the series. The ending is interesting as well. I feel like it's the opposite of the kind of ending you'd get in your standard ghost affair, and is very characteristic of the fact that these tales are supposed to be kids telling scary tales as opposed to adults writing scary tales for kids (obviously it's adult writing scary tales through the eyes of kids but i think that they are particularly good at this).

Anyways, great episode. Although Tucker seems to be a nuisance.

This defined the series

[frankperkins-76225 · 10/10 · 9 March 2021]

When one thinks of this show this exact episode would resonate through your mind in overdrive. This, alongside The Tale of the Claw both are two of the most popular episodes in the series. They were used as inspirations for movies and series after. My friend shows this exact episode to her middle school Language Arts class as a treat on the Friday before Halloween. It shows such themes as alienation, isolation, and friendship. Most of the students are crying after watching it as they feel sad for the old lady. I think this episode is required for students. It will teach them about friendship and how to treat other people with kindness and compassion.

One of the best of the non scary episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark, but it's quite sad.

[opalpika1328 · 10/10 · 2 August 2022]

Yeah, this is more sad than scary, and one of the best of the non scary episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark. It's about a girl who meets this old lady in a apartment. The thing is, the old lady is a ghost that lives in the apartment. When the girl forgets about seeing the old lady on the day she wanted her to be with her and hangs out with friends her age, the old lady stalks the girl about breaking her promise, which was to visit her on that certain day. After the girl asks if since she's dead, if she can simply move on, the old lady reveals to the girl that even if she's dead, she still thinks of the apartment as hers and gets annoyed that strangers would go in her home, the girl asks her about what if the apartment does get rented out, the old lady responds that she has nowhere else to go, and that she doesn't want to leave. That was the sad part here, seeing the old lady say that she doesn't want to leave in this sad voice, it would almost make tears form in my eyes. Also when she starts crying with her apartment unit dark before appearing before the girl and saying, "Why did you break your promise?!" The girl had a great idea though so that she didn't have to leave, her and her mom bought out the apartment and lived there, which also was a lot bigger than the one they were going to be at, and because of that, the girl has a roommate in the old lady ghost, and she'll never be alone and lonely again. A very sad, but good story, and like I mentioned, one of the best of the non scary Are You Afraid of the Dark episodes. There is many that I enjoyed, this one being one of the top on my list.