As a medium, comics work incredibly well for portraying everything spooky and macabre, exploiting the ability to lay dialogue atop surreal art. As a result, a ton of excellent horror comics have graced our shop shelves and a gamut of familiar characters have been dipped in blood, so to speak, by appearing in horror stories.

With The New Mutants and Morbius on the way, we’ve got an eyeful of how superhero comics can be adapted into scary movies. And with the success of Joker, we’ll hopefully see a rise in standalone superhero films that allow creators to break free of a cinematic universe and play in other genres like horror. Unfettered, filmmakers, like comics writers, could be free to adapt otherwise familiar characters into standalone scares, and there are piles of comics that take our favourites and fling them into the center of scary stories.

Here are five more horror comics we’d love to see adapted for the big screen.

Shadowland

We’ve had a few adaptations of Daredevil, some better received than others, but none as spooky as his run in “Shadowland”. Starting off as a darker Daredevil storyline, “Shadowland” finds Matt Murdoch having rebuilt and renamed his New York neighbourhood, filling it with his new castle. Bullseye, having escaped The Raft, returns to Shadowland, the former New York, to face Murdoch, who ultimately breaks Bullseye’s arms and impales him, startling his good-hearted superhero chums.

Concerned, old friends like Spider-man, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Punisher show up to try and tame this hardened Daredevil, with no success. In a twist I won’t drop here, the story turns from dark to pure horror. Though some of these characters have had grim adaptations, “Shadowland” would provide the opportunity for Spider-man and his New York pals to dive headfirst into the spooky pool, something that would be jarring in a cinematic release.

Arkham Asylum

Of all the superhero comics conducive to horror screens, Grant Morrison’s “Arkham Asylum” feels the most like sitting through a ruthless horror movie. In this story, Batman visits Arkham Asylum to face off against the un-caged villains who’ve taken the place over. In exchange for freeing the hostages, Bats is forced to endure the twisted games of the familiar foes.

Taking on the inmates, Batman is also forced to face his own demons. There have been a host of stories that have put a mirror to Batman, forcing him to see his own madness, but “Arkham Asylum” takes Bats through his own tortured psyche which will have you gripping the pages as if you can’t breathe. Through the unique and surreal art from Dave McKean, this one truly drives the horror home, and a willing director (it’s quite reminiscent of James Wan’s style) could adapt this story into a dimly-lit haunt I’d line up at any theater for.

Afterlife with Archie

Though not a superhero (unless you count Pure Heart), Archie is a familiar comic character not traditionally associated with horror. The Archie Horror umbrella has dropped some great scary stories, including the small screen adapted “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”. Ready for screens next is “Afterlife with Archie”. 

This story exploits horror to take deeper dives into the darker realities of these squeaky-clean characters. What might Reggie, a rich kid who’s never faced a consequence, do when his guilt finally hits him? What’s really behind the overprotective relationship between Cheryl Blossom and her overbearing brother, Jason? What might it do to Veronica when Archie finally chooses Betty? The gang faces off with unfathomably tragic events, and not one Archie character is immune, with dark appearances from the Spellmans, the Blossoms and The Pussycats.

With the adult freedom of a horror comic, “Afterlife with Archie” explores more of these familiar characters, grounding their archetypes in reality. And also, it’s an insanely terrifying zombie story set in Riverdale which is just fantastic.

Midnight Sons

Dr. Strange has danced with horror through many of his runs, and now that the newest MCU installation might be less horror-heavy than we thought, with Kevin Feige downplaying that it is a horror movie at all, an adaptation of this Marvel story could give us the spooky Strange we deserve.

Like some other comics epics, the “Midnight Sons” saga is spread across multiple properties with a complex reading order. The collection centers around demons and tracks the lore of Marvel’s use of black magic. These 90’s comics relaunched Ghost Rider as a flaming motorcycle enthusiast and teams him up with Dr. Strange, Moon Knight, and Scarlet Spider, among others. This story could be woven into the MCU depending on the ongoing plans with Strange and the addition of Blade and Moon Knight to the universe, but a standalone pure horror team-up film could be the antidote to Suicide Squad and the opposing companion to Birds of Prey.

DCeased

Most of the attention DC’s newer horror release has gotten has been over the variant covers, and with good reason. Pouring horror all over DC favourites allowed for creators to go wild, for instance, imagining Joker as Pennywise and Robin as poor little Georgie. But what’s past those jarring covers are pages of DC heroes managing a zombie apocalypse. Yes, this is much like “Afterlife with Archie,” in that familiar characters are being tested with a zombpocalypse; but this one has Batman, so why not both?

In a twist on Darkseid’s favourite weapon, the anti-life equation causes users to become zombiefied murder machines, and not even your favourite supers are immune to its grasp. The entire Justice League is vulnerable and must tackle the apocalypse that imagines 28 Weeks Later if the resistance had a golden lasso. If you don’t want to see a zombified Red Hood eat Joker, then I don’t want to know you. The ending of this story is absolutely gutting, and it works because it isn’t attached to anything larger. It is a master class in using popular lore, unfettered by an expanded universe, and thus spits out one of the scariest and most tragic horror stories; one that’s screaming to bite through cinema screens.