Editorials
10 Horror TV Series We’re Looking Forward to in 2019
2019 may be shaping up to be one hell of a year for horror on the big screen, but what about the small screen? Though not as stacked as the slate of feature films heading our way, there’s still a lot of new and very intriguing horror TV series on the horizon. Book and comic adaptations, new seasons of beloved Netflix series, and more. Here are 10 horror series we’re looking forward to this year.
The Passage – Fox
The first major horror series is just around the corner, premiering January 14 on Fox. Based on Justin Cronin’s novel series of the same name, The Passage is focused on an underground medical research facility, Project NOAH, where scientists are working on a virus that they hope will cure all diseases, but has the potential to wipe out humanity. Their test subjects? Death row inmates. When the virus turns the inmates into infectious vampires, and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, an orphan girl may be the only one who can save them.
What We Do in the Shadows – FX
Currently slated for a spring release, this 10-episode spinoff series of the 2014 horror comedy film follows a group of vampires sent 200 years ago to conquer America. Except, they sort forgot and lost their way. Meaning, the boat dropped them off in New York, and that’s as far as they got. Expect the same hilarious mockumentary-style comedy as the film, but with a new group of vampire characters. The series is produced by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, and being that this series is set in the same universe as the film, there’s potential for crossovers.
Swamp Thing – DC Universe
Set to arrive on the streaming service in May, this gothic romance stars Andy Bean (It: Chapter Two) as Alec Holland, the scientist tragically transformed into the beastly Swamp Thing (played by Derek Mears). Crystal Reed stars as Abby Arcane, a researcher from the CDC to investigate a mysterious virus, and finds herself falling for Holland in the process. Based on the popular DC comic series, Swamp Thing is executive produced by James Wan, Mark Verheiden, Gary Dauberman, Michael Clear and Len Wiseman, and also stars Jennifer Beals, Henderson Wade, Will Patton, Virginia Madsen, Jeryl Prescott, Henderson Wade and Kevin Durand.
Stranger Things: Season 3 – Netflix
It’s been over a year since season 2 dropped on Netflix, and we’re more than ready to take a trip back to Hawkins and revisit the gang. Luckily, with the recent announcement of a July 4th release date, the countdown has begun. As for plot? Well, that’s still a mystery. Season 2 wrapped up quite nicely, with the Mind Flayer defeated (for now), Eleven back with Mike and officially adopted by Sheriff Hopper, and the door to the Upside Down has been closed. But this is also going to be the biggest season yet, set in the summer of 1985, and will bring new Hawkins set pieces like the mall. We’re also supposed to get more Steve Harrington, which is always a huge plus.
NOS4A2 – AMC
Set to premiere in the summer, this 10-episode series adaptation of Joe Hill’s novel of the same name sees Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings, Hounds of Love) as the only one with the potential to take down ancient immortal Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto), a vampire that feeds off the souls of children and dumps their shells into Christmasland – his twisted world where every day is Christmas and no one can be unhappy. McQueen has more than just courage and a wisecracking attitude at her disposal; she also has the ability to open portals to help her find lost objects.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance – Netflix
Set to release on the streaming service sometime in 2019, this new series is actually a prequel to the 1982 Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal. The series will follow three Gelfling heroes as they undertake a quest to save the world from the oppressive Skeksis, and boasts an unending roster of prominent voice talent. Yes, this is more kids fantasy than horror, but to be honest, there’s always been something about the Gelflings’ design that’s creeped me out.
October Faction – Netflix
Based on the IDW comic series of the same name, this 10-episode show follows globetrotting monster hunters Fred and Deloris Allen, who retire to upstate New York with their teenage children following the death of Fred’s father. Fred and Deloris attempt to adjust to retired life under secret identities, but ghosts from the past refuse to stay dead and their new town is less than idyllic. The comic series is grim, morbid, and gory, so if this adaptation is half as bloody this could be a great one.
Carnival Row – Amazon Video
Described by Amazon as “fantasy-noir,” the series revolves around a serial killer preying on mystical fantasy creatures in a neo-Victorian city. The lead investigator becomes the prime suspect, and tensions between citizens and the rising immigrant populace reaches a boiling point. Cara Delevingne stars as Vignette Stonemoss, a faery fleeing persecution, while Orlando Bloom plays Rycroft Philostrate, a police inspector tasked with solving the murders. The story is based on an unproduced filmscript by Travis Beacham (Pacific Rim) called A Killing on Carnival Row, which made its way onto the Black List in 2005.
Lovecraft Country – HBO
Jordan Peele’s Us may be at the forefront of our minds, but his executive produced series Lovecraft Country should be on our radar, too. His company, Monkey Paw Productions, will be producing alongside J.J. Abrams and Ben Stephenson of Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television. The story follows Atticus Black (Jonathan Majors), who teams up with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George as they embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of Black’s father. If the racist terrors they encounter along the way aren’t enough, there’s also the terrifying monsters of Lovecraftian nightmare to deal with as well. It’s based on Mark Ruff’s novel of the same name.
Locke & Key – Netflix
It’s been a long road getting this fantastic IDW comic series adapted to screen, having been ordered to pilot twice before and getting passed on. Thanks to Netflix, who ordered 10-episodes, this Lovecraftian story is finally on its way. Comic series author Joe Hill is on board as creator/writer/executive producer with Carlton Cuse (Lost, The Strain, Bates Motel) as showrunner. The plot follows the Locke family, who move to their ancestral home in Massachusetts following the grisly death of the patriarch only to find the house has magical keys that unlock a variety of powers and abilities. Little do they know, a devious demon trapped in the house wants the keys, and is willing to do anything to get them.
Due to a complex series of anthropological mishaps, the Wayans Brothers are a huge deal in Brazil. Around these parts, White Chicks is considered a national treasure by a lot of people, so it stands to reason that Brazilian audiences would continue to accompany the Wayans’ comedic output long after North America had stopped taking them seriously as comedic titans.
This is the only reason why I originally watched Michael Tiddes and Marlon Wayans’ 2013 horror spoof A Haunted House – appropriately known as “Paranormal Inactivity” in South America – despite having abandoned this kind of movie shortly after the excellent Scary Movie 3. However, to my complete and utter amazement, I found myself mostly enjoying this unhinged parody of Found Footage films almost as much as the iconic spoofs that spear-headed the genre during the 2000s. And with Paramount having recently announced a reboot of the Scary Movie franchise, I think this is the perfect time to revisit the divisive humor of A Haunted House and maybe figure out why this kind of film hasn’t been popular in a long time.
Before we had memes and internet personalities to make fun of movie tropes for free on the internet, parody movies had been entertaining audiences with meta-humor since the very dawn of cinema. And since the genre attracted large audiences without the need for a serious budget, it made sense for studios to encourage parodies of their own productions – which is precisely what happened with Miramax when they commissioned a parody of the Scream franchise, the original Scary Movie.
The unprecedented success of the spoof (especially overseas) led to a series of sequels, spin-offs and rip-offs that came along throughout the 2000s. While some of these were still quite funny (I have a soft spot for 2008’s Superhero Movie), they ended up flooding the market much like the Guitar Hero games that plagued video game stores during that same timeframe.
You could really confuse someone by editing this scene into Paranormal Activity.
Of course, that didn’t stop Tiddes and Marlon Wayans from wanting to make another spoof meant to lampoon a sub-genre that had been mostly overlooked by the Scary Movie series – namely the second wave of Found Footage films inspired by Paranormal Activity. Wayans actually had an easier time than usual funding the picture due to the project’s Found Footage presentation, with the format allowing for a lower budget without compromising box office appeal.
In the finished film, we’re presented with supposedly real footage recovered from the home of Malcom Johnson (Wayans). The recordings themselves depict a series of unexplainable events that begin to plague his home when Kisha Davis (Essence Atkins) decides to move in, with the couple slowly realizing that the difficulties of a shared life are no match for demonic shenanigans.
In practice, this means that viewers are subjected to a series of familiar scares subverted by wacky hijinks, with the flick featuring everything from a humorous recreation of the iconic fan-camera from Paranormal Activity 3 to bizarre dance numbers replacing Katy’s late-night trances from Oren Peli’s original movie.
Your enjoyment of these antics will obviously depend on how accepting you are of Wayans’ patented brand of crass comedy. From advanced potty humor to some exaggerated racial commentary – including a clever moment where Malcom actually attempts to move out of the titular haunted house because he’s not white enough to deal with the haunting – it’s not all that surprising that the flick wound up with a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes despite making a killing at the box office.
However, while this isn’t my preferred kind of humor, I think the inherent limitations of Found Footage ended up curtailing the usual excesses present in this kind of parody, with the filmmakers being forced to focus on character-based comedy and a smaller scale story. This is why I mostly appreciate the love-hate rapport between Kisha and Malcom even if it wouldn’t translate to a healthy relationship in real life.
Of course, the jokes themselves can also be pretty entertaining on their own, with cartoony gags like the ghost getting high with the protagonists (complete with smoke-filled invisible lungs) and a series of silly The Exorcist homages towards the end of the movie. The major issue here is that these legitimately funny and genre-specific jokes are often accompanied by repetitive attempts at low-brow humor that you could find in any other cheap comedy.
Not a good idea.
Not only are some of these painfully drawn out “jokes” incredibly unfunny, but they can also be remarkably offensive in some cases. There are some pretty insensitive allusions to sexual assault here, as well as a collection of secondary characters defined by negative racial stereotypes (even though I chuckled heartily when the Latina maid was revealed to have been faking her poor English the entire time).
Cinephiles often claim that increasingly sloppy writing led to audiences giving up on spoof movies, but the fact is that many of the more beloved examples of the genre contain some of the same issues as later films like A Haunted House – it’s just that we as an audience have (mostly) grown up and are now demanding more from our comedy. However, this isn’t the case everywhere, as – much like the Elves from Lord of the Rings – spoof movies never really died, they simply diminished.
A Haunted House made so much money that they immediately started working on a second one that released the following year (to even worse reviews), and the same team would later collaborate once again on yet another spoof, 50 Shades of Black. This kind of film clearly still exists and still makes a lot of money (especially here in Brazil), they just don’t have the same cultural impact that they used to in a pre-social-media-humor world.
At the end of the day, A Haunted House is no comedic masterpiece, failing to live up to the laugh-out-loud thrills of films like Scary Movie 3, but it’s also not the trainwreck that most critics made it out to be back in 2013. Comedy is extremely subjective, and while the raunchy humor behind this flick definitely isn’t for everyone, I still think that this satirical romp is mostly harmless fun that might entertain Found Footage fans that don’t take themselves too seriously.
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