Editorials
Horror Shows That Need a “Twin Peaks”-Style Comeback
With the explosion of streaming services and entertainment venues, along with a desire to get and hold the attention of the modern viewer, it’s no surprise that many of them have brought back popular and cult series years after their initial run ended. From Arrested Development to Prison Break to 24, networks and content producers embraced the power of recognition. However, unlike other shows like MacGyver and Hawaii 5-0, which rebooted their concepts, these other shows picked up their story years after the initial run, while still telling the same story about the same characters.
Two of the most prominent examples are The X-Files, which returned to FOX with record viewership, and Twin Peaks, earning David Lynch some of the best critical reception of his career. Both are considered horror-themed series, so why not strike while the nostalgia iron is hot and bring back some other beloved horror series? This is a list of other great horror TV series that could make a comeback.
(They’re listed in order of likelihood of return, from most to least.)
HANNIBAL
Horror fans loved Bryan Fuller’s interpretation of the Thomas Harris novel series, but unfortunately, they were the only ones watching. After three critically acclaimed but poorly watched seasons filled with disturbingly beautiful imagery, stunning dialogue, and flawless performances from Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen, NBC pulled the plug.
Unlike other shows on this list, though, Fuller still talks regularly and excitedly about bringing it back for another run with the same cast and creative team. The excitement hasn’t died for the return of this series from the fans OR the creators, so don’t give up hope. Hannibal may dine again.
TREMORS
Back in 2003, before the horror-film-to-TV-series trend hit strong with Bates Motel and Hannibal, the Sci-Fi Channel adapted the beloved horror-comedy franchise Tremors into a series, complete with the original writers on board. The show was fun, delving into the town of Perfection, Nevada as a protected wildlife sanctuary/tourist attraction for the giant, carnivorous worms. It also expanded its mythology to include crazed scientists in the desert creating even more troubling monsters that intrepid survivalist Burt Gummer had to deal with.
The series was canceled after a single season when the network began to rebrand itself as Syfy and create darker series content like Battlestar Galactica. Interest in Tremors never fully vanished, however, with another film entry in the series popping up in 2015; later, interest was expressed from original cast member Kevin Bacon to bring a continuing series back to TV. The life cycle of the Graboids may see another incarnation yet.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER/ANGEL
With one of the most dedicated and rabid fan bases on television and a cult following long after its original run on television ended, the Buffy universe has long been rumored to be making some kind of return. From the big-screen relaunch (which wouldn’t have involved creator Joss Whedon) to spinoff series’ about Faith and Giles (the latter of which, called Ripper, nearly became a reality on the BBC) to comic book storylines that tell season-long arcs continuing past the TV show’s end, no one truly believes that we’ve heard the end of the franchise.
Creating a return to the universe and for Buffy herself, seeing her as a grown-up and watching supernatural tales that allegorically represent the struggles of adulthood, marriage, and being a parent, might be just the thing that grown Buffy aficionados would flock to.
MILLENNIUM
Millennium was a dark and affecting horror series about a criminal profiler with an uncanny ability to get inside the heads of disturbed killers, and it was influential on procedural television and even the framework of the aforementioned Hannibal. The X-Files creator Chris Carter toyed with the supernatural in Millennium as well, but focused mostly on the evil of humanity. The series was narrowly renewed for a second and third season, and it took a crossover episode of The X-Files to give lead character Frank Black some resolution.
Though the original impetus for the series, the millennium itself, is long gone, returning to the life and work of Frank Black would make for some great, dark television. And Lance Henriksen has already gone on record as wanting to return to the character, so only FOX and Chris Carter need to sign off.
EERIE, INDIANA
A beloved cult show that deserves even more love and admiration than it already receives, the horror-comedy series perfectly portrayed what any adolescent horror fan’s inner world would look like if it sprang to life. It was cancelled in its first season, but reruns on The Disney Channel kept it in the popular imagination for years afterwards and led to another single-season spin-off, Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension.
If the original series was about a boy who uncovered the strange secrets of his hometown but no one believed him, bringing the show back with a grown-up Omri Katz playing his character as an adult seems like a perfect continuation. Instead of being the investigating child, perhaps he’s now the creepy adult figure who works out of the local library, still trying to solve decades-old mysteries…
INVASION
Television creator Shaun Cassidy will be remembered as a visionary whose ideas were ahead of their time, from the epic fantasy series Roar to the recent Emerald City to this series, about an alien invasion in the aftermath of a hurricane in Florida. The series was well-received critically and commercially, but it was dropped when its post-Lost time slot didn’t produce as many viewers as the network felt it should for such prime TV real estate.
The smart, low-key supernatural thriller series reworked the Invasion of the Body Snatchers concept into a story about family, and much of that storytelling could still work now. Tyler Labine and William Fichtner have both expressed sadness at not being able to continue the story, as did the creator; so though it is not likely to see it again, there is still interest from the people who created it.
AMERICAN GOTHIC
If the cancellation of Shaun Cassidy’s Invasion was a tragedy, then the unceremonious ending of his series American Gothic was an epic heartbreak. With producer Sam Raimi, the series boasted small-town Southern creepiness and a brilliant cast including Gary Cole, Lucas Black, and Sarah Paulson. The plot, about an evil sheriff in a small town manipulating everyone except a new local doctor and a powerful young boy, was too complicated and challenging for audiences of the time.
A new series could easily pick up years later, with young Caleb (a fantastic young Lucas Black) all grown up and struggling not to become the same evil figure that the old Sheriff Buck was trying to mold him to be. It was like nothing else on television, and audiences might welcome its originality back with open arms.
FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES
If you can get past the fact that it is entirely unconnected to the film franchise whose name it bears, this was a fun three-season show about a couple of kids collecting evil artifacts that pre-dated other similar high-concept series like Warehouse 13. The series, which was actually nominated for an Emmy, ran for three seasons and boasted behind the camera work from horror luminaries like David Cronenberg, Mick Garris, and Tom McLoughlin.
The series was abruptly canceled in season three, so it ended with no conclusion. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine that the work of collecting those antiques has gone on all these years, and people have died and joined the cause along the way.
NIGHTMARE CAFE
A brilliant high-concept series from horror genius Wes Craven, Nightmare Café had just a handful of episodes to show the versatility and possibility it contained. The story revolved around a café that appeared in random places, involving itself and its employees in the lives of unsuspecting patrons. The show was a balance of anthology-style stories about its patrons and a continuing narrative about its employees, making it an interesting narrative hybrid.
The series only made six episodes before its unfortunate cancellation, but the premise is one that a show could immediately jump right back into. Robert Englund is still alive and likely willing to return in his role as restaurant owner Blackie, and the framework of this should make for a compelling dark fantasy series a la The Magicians or American Gods.
FREAKYLINKS and STRANGE LUCK
The longest of longshots, the only reason these shows made the list is because of the fond (if foggy) memories they bring back for the small group of viewers who caught them on their initial runs. Both shows were vaguely supernatural concepts that popped up on FOX after the network’s success with The X-Files, and both were victims of the perceived underperformance when compared with Chris Carter’s juggernaut. Freakylinks was an X-Files for the Gen-X crowd with a likable lead performance from Ethan Embry, and Strange Luck was a spooky-tinged modern noir series about a photographer with preternaturally odd luck who gets sucked into outlandish events.
Let’s be honest: these two are almost certainly not coming back. But in a world with hundreds of channels and dozens of streaming outlets, it may not be too much of a pipe dream to imagine that any of these shows might find their way back to our television, computer, or phone screens.
Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.”
A bizarre recurring issue with the Amityville “franchise” is that the films tend to be needlessly complicated. Back in the day, the first sequels moved away from the original film’s religious-themed haunted house storyline in favor of streamlined, easily digestible concepts such as “haunted lamp” or “haunted mirror.”
As the budgets plummeted and indie filmmakers capitalized on the brand’s notoriety, it seems the wrong lessons were learned. Runtimes have ballooned past the 90-minute mark and the narratives are often saggy and unfocused.
Both issues are clearly on display in Amityville Karen (2022), a film that starts off rough, but promising, and ends with a confused whimper.
The promise is embodied by the tinge of self-awareness in Julie Anne Prescott (The Amityville Harvest)’s screenplay, namely the nods to John Waters’ classic 1994 satire, Serial Mom. In that film, Beverly Sutphin (an iconic Kathleen Turner) is a bored, white suburban woman who punished individuals who didn’t adhere to her rigid definition of social norms. What is “Karen” but a contemporary equivalent?
In director/actor Shawn C. Phillips’ film, Karen (Lauren Francesca) is perpetually outraged. In her introductory scenes, she makes derogatory comments about immigrants, calls a female neighbor a whore, and nearly runs over a family blocking her driveway. She’s a broad, albeit familiar persona; in many ways, she’s less of a character than a caricature (the living embodiment of the name/meme).
These early scenes also establish a fairly straightforward plot. Karen is a code enforcement officer with plans to shut down a local winery she has deemed disgusting. They’re preparing for a big wine tasting event, which Karen plans to ruin, but when she steals a bottle of cursed Amityville wine, it activates her murderous rage and goes on a killing spree.
Simple enough, right?
Unfortunately, Amityville Karen spins out of control almost immediately. At nearly every opportunity, Prescott’s screenplay eschews narrative cohesion and simplicity in favour of overly complicated developments and extraneous characters.
Take, for example, the wine tasting event. The film spends an entire day at the winery: first during the day as a band plays, then at a beer tasting (???) that night. Neither of these events are the much touted wine-tasting, however; that is actually a private party happening later at server Troy (James Duval)’s house.
Weirdly though, following Troy’s death, the party’s location is inexplicably moved to Karen’s house for the climax of the film, but the whole event plays like an afterthought and features a litany of characters we have never met before.
This is a recurring issue throughout Amityville Karen, which frequently introduces random characters for a scene or two. Karen is typically absent from these scenes, which makes them feel superfluous and unimportant. When the actress is on screen, the film has an anchor and a narrative drive. The scenes without her, on the other hand, feel bloated and directionless (blame editor Will Collazo Jr., who allows these moments to play out interminably).
Compounding the issue is that the majority of the actors are non-professionals and these scenes play like poorly performed improv. The result is long, dull stretches that features bad actors talking over each other, repeating the same dialogue, and generally doing nothing to advance the narrative or develop the characters.
While Karen is one-note and histrionic throughout the film, at least there’s a game willingness to Francesca’s performance. It feels appropriately campy, though as the film progresses, it becomes less and less clear if Amityville Karen is actually in on the joke.
Like Amityville Cop before it, there are legit moments of self-awareness (the Serial Mom references), but it’s never certain how much of this is intentional. Take, for example, Karen’s glaringly obvious wig: it unconvincingly fails to conceal Francesca’s dark hair in the back, but is that on purpose or is it a technical error?
Ultimately there’s very little to recommend about Amityville Karen. Despite the game performance by its lead and the gentle homages to Serial Mom’s prank call and white shoes after Labor Day jokes, the never-ending improv scenes by non-professional actors, the bloated screenplay, and the jittery direction by Phillips doom the production.
Clocking in at an insufferable 100 minutes, Amityville Karen ranks among the worst of the “franchise,” coming in just above Phillips’ other entry, Amityville Hex.
The Amityville IP Awards go to…
- Favorite Subplot: In the afternoon event, there’s a self-proclaimed “hot boy summer” band consisting of burly, bare-chested men who play instruments that don’t make sound (for real, there’s no audio of their music). There’s also a scheming manager who is skimming money off the top, but that’s not as funny.
- Least Favorite Subplot: For reasons that don’t make any sense, the winery is also hosting a beer tasting which means there are multiple scenes of bartender Alex (Phillips) hoping to bring in women, mistakenly conflating a pint of beer with a “flight,” and goading never before seen characters to chug. One of them describes the beer as such: “It looks like a vampire menstruating in a cup” (it’s a gold-colored IPA for the record, so…no).
- Amityville Connection: The rationale for Karen’s killing spree is attributed to Amityville wine, whose crop was planted on cursed land. This is explained by vino groupie Annie (Jennifer Nangle) to band groupie Bianca (Lilith Stabs). It’s a lot of nonsense, but it is kind of fun when Annie claims to “taste the damnation in every sip.”
- Neverending Story: The film ends with an exhaustive FIVE MINUTE montage of Phillips’ friends posing as reporters in front of terrible green screen discussing the “killer Karen” story. My kingdom for Amityville’s regular reporter Peter Sommers (John R. Walker) to return!
- Best Line 1: Winery owner Dallas (Derek K. Long), describing Karen: “She’s like a walking constipation with a hemorrhoid”
- Best Line 2: Karen, when a half-naked, bleeding woman emerges from her closet: “Is this a dream? This dream is offensive! Stop being naked!”
- Best Line 3: Troy, upset that Karen may cancel the wine tasting at his house: “I sanded that deck for days. You don’t just sand a deck for days and then let someone shit on it!”
- Worst Death: Karen kills a Pool Boy (Dustin Clingan) after pushing his head under water for literally 1 second, then screeches “This is for putting leaves on my plants!”
- Least Clear Death(s): The bodies of a phone salesman and a barista are seen in Karen’s closet and bathroom, though how she killed them are completely unclear
- Best Death: Troy is stabbed in the back of the neck with a bottle opener, which Karen proceeds to crank
- Wannabe Lynch: After drinking the wine, Karen is confronted in her home by Barnaby (Carl Solomon) who makes her sign a crude, hand drawn blood contract and informs her that her belly is “pregnant from the juices of his grapes.” Phillips films Barnaby like a cross between the unhoused man in Mulholland Drive and the Mystery Man in Lost Highway. It’s interesting, even if the character makes absolutely no sense.
- Single Image Summary: At one point, a random man emerges from the shower in a towel and excitedly poops himself. This sequence perfectly encapsulates the experience of watching Amityville Karen.
- Pray for Joe: Many of these folks will be back in Amityville Shark House and Amityville Webcam, so we’re not out of the woods yet…
Next time: let’s hope Christmas comes early with 2022’s Amityville Christmas Vacation. It was the winner of Fangoria’s Best Amityville award, after all!
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