Editorials
Before YouTube, the Sci-Fi Channel’s “Exposure” Was the Way to Watch Horror and Sci-fi Shorts [TV Terrors]
Horror and science fiction have always been a part of the television canvas, and constant attempts have been made over the years to produce classic entertainment. Some have fallen by the wayside, while others became mainstream phenomena. With “TV Terrors,” we take a look back at the many genre efforts from the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s, exploring some shows that became cult classics, and others that sank in to obscurity.
This month we head back to the early 2000s for a little “Exposure.”
- Aired from 2000 – 2002
- Aired on Syfy
I can pinpoint when I started to love the concept of short films and short filmmaking. It was while I was watching the Sci-Fi Channel one night in 2000, and the short “Antebios” came on. “Antebios” was a foreign short about an alien and a human soldier forced to work together to stop a common foe, in the vein of “Hell in the Pacific.” Since then my love for short films has been long lasting and I often take greater interest in them than most features that come my way.
Back in 2000, the Sci-Fi Channel aired “Exposure.” An amalgam of an anthology series, and experimental film series, “Exposure” was an hour long weekly series that aired science fiction, horror, and fantasy short films. Much in the vein of MTV’s “Liquid Television” and “Cartoon Sushi,” there were never really any limits to what kind of short films aired on “Exposure.”
Occasionally hosted by model/actress Lisa Marie, the show aired every Sunday night, and was introduced around the time that the internet was still very much in its infancy. The only platform filmmakers had for short films was Atom Films, and we were still about three years away from the introduction of the juggernaut known as YouTube. Watching short films was often a privilege reserved for film festivals or comic book conventions, and the Sci-Fi Channel presented some of the weirdest, wildest, and most bizarre short films back to back. They aired them for viewers to get a glimpse at some of the minds working in the business that also had potential to break out and produce the next genre masterpieces.
For the most part we always got a glimpse at up and coming artists that would later break out, but the series was at its best when it approached audiences at eye level and presented some classic short cinema that offered bolder entertainment that studios would have never touched. The show seemed happy to take chances with short films that were just downright out there and often surreal. Some of my all time favorites included Jono Oliver’s “The Window” about a heavenly vision in a window that begins to inspire people, and Ian Kessler’s brutally creepy “The Puzzle.”
The show also acted as proving grounds for future studio features. “Season’s Greetings,” the animated short that would become the template for Mike Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat, aired on “Exposure,” as did Ellroy Elkayem’s “Larger Than Life” which became the basis for Eight Legged Freaks, and 1994’s “Suspicious” by David Koepp, starring Janeane Garofalo and Michael Rooker, which would later be remade into the prologue for 1998’s Urban Legend. There’s also “Bobby Loves Mangos,” a short that was given a thumbs up by Roger Ebert after its director Stuart Archer begged him to watch it.
While “Exposure” was mainly about science fiction, the producers would also switch things up with themed episodes every now and then like “short toons,” short films about sex, and of course, “Star Wars.” Kevin Smith hosted the “Star Wars” special spotlighting some of the best and weirdest Star Wars-related films around, like Joe Nussbaum’s early viral hit “George Lucas In Love,” Lucas’ early student shorts “Freiheit” and “THX 1138,” and the comedic “Tripping the Rift,” the animated Star Wars spoof that would eventually become a cult series for the channel. There was also the weird but interesting short documentary “Searching for Carrie Fisher,” about a fan’s mission to meet his heroine. I vividly remember the documentary because he did find Ms. Fisher, but she only agreed to meet him if they met in a crowded public place. As always, host Smith often had a great enthusiasm and hilarious sense of humor.
“Exposure” also aired excellent horror based specials every Halloween; hosted by Lisa Marie, the show presented some of the best horror shorts I’d ever seen. This was the series at its best, as the producers often managed to bring out some memorable genre fare. Along with indie films we were also able to check out early works from Tim Burton including “Frankenweenie” and “Vincent.”
Despite the very late night time slot that Sci-Fi reduced “Exposure” to, it managed to last three whole seasons and was celebrated by its small but loyal fan base for years. When it was cancelled by the channel which was reformatting at the time, Sci-Fi kept the concept of the series alive with the short film showcase “Exposure: Future of Film Festival” in New York City in 2000, and in 2006, the Sundance Channel launched the “Exposure Film Contest” with films showcased from the SciFi Pulse streaming applet, allowing viewers to vote on their favorites. Sadly with so many facets online for movie fans to now view short films of all kinds from any country, the chance of “Exposure” being rebooted is incredibly slim.
But for a time when the internet was still growing and YouTube was miles away from dominating the internet, “Exposure” was surprisingly ahead of its time, and serves as a wonderful memento of the early digital age that opened the eyes of its viewers to more original and interesting entertainment.
Is It On DVD/Blu-Ray? Syfy had many of the short films available on their website for years after “Exposure” ended, but they were eventually taken down. With copyright issues there aren’t whole episodes available, but the various shorts can be found online, scattered in places like Vimeo and or YouTube… if you look hard enough.
There’s a lot of reading left to do in 2026, between the glut of summer releases and the approach of fall, when horror titles get a special push from publishers, but this has already been an incredible year for horror literature.
Some of the biggest names in the genre have turned in outstanding work, rising stars have made their mark, and we’re only halfway through the year.
To celebrate the midway point of 2026, with plenty of horror books still to come, we’re taking a look back at the best horror books we’ve read this year so far, listed alphabetically by author.
If you missed any of these books earlier in the year, consider this your reminder to catch up.
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
A student running from a crime he may or may not have committed escapes to his father’s country home in Japan, only to find himself haunted by strange apparitions, while in the past, a young samurai tries to find salvation for her family and finds a door to the future instead. Kylie Lee Baker’s Japanese Gothic begins with this dialogue between past and present, and then blossoms into so much more, a cross-time ghost story about old wounds and what it really takes to finally heal them. I got so happily lost in this one that I would have read at least 200 more pages.
Persona by Aoife Josie Clements
In this tale of shut-ins, sex workers, artists, and the horrors they both summon and recoil from, Aoife Josie Clements weaves something that feels less like a story to be experienced and more like a psychic wound to be endured, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Evocative in its prose and nightmarish in its imagery, Persona is a story of the masks we wear, and the understanding that not all of our masks are particularly pretty or even easy to breathe through. It’s a dense, literary, unnervingly vicious book, and while it’s already attracted an audience, it deserves a much bigger one.
Dead First by Johnny Compton
Johnny Compton’s latest novel opens with a throwing down of the gauntlet, a sequence that made me instantly think “How on Earth is he going to top this?” It’s a story that begins with a billionaire hiring a private investigator to determine why, despite trying in many brutal ways, he cannot die. That premise, and the scene which sets it all off, is so alluring and delightfully gruesome that you almost can’t believe it’s the way a book begins, and then Compton just keeps going, delivering a supernatural mystery that I could not put down.
Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey
A woman grieving for the life she wanted visits a mysterious island renowned for the healing salt its residents harvest and sell, seeking renewal and relief. What she finds instead is a strange cult with a twisted history with surprising resonance in her own life, and a people who are more than willing to grant the relief she wants, for a price. Laced with beautiful prose and moments of profound realization alongside folk and even cosmic horror, this is vintage Sarah Gailey.
Partially Devoured by Daniel Kraus
If you love horror film history and analysis, Partially Devoured is an essential. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Kraus, the book is a deep dive into his favorite movie of all time, George A. Romero‘s Night of the Living Dead, complete with exhaustive research into the making of the film and passages of deeply moving memoir woven in. If you’ve ever wanted to know what the eerie music that opens the film is called while also bursting into tears at how horror movies can save your life, this is a must-read.
Wretch by Eric LaRocca
Our reigning King of Extreme Horror, Eric LaRocca weaves books of uncommon beauty out of the most nightmarish parts of humanity, and Wretch is no exception. The story of a grieving man who longs for relief and searches for it amid a strange support group that might be a cult, Wretch is a brutal journey into the darkest part of us all, and explores what salvation we might find when we get to the rotten core of the world and peel back its layers. LaRocca’s on a tear of great work right now that few other genre writers can match.
Headlights by CJ Leede
A mystery, a serial killer horror show, a tribute to Stephen King‘s The Shining. All of these things describe CJ Leede’s Headlights, and yet they don’t begin to cover the full breadth of horror awaiting you in this novel. The story of a former FBI agent drawn back into the cold case that haunts him most, it’s a shocker brimming over with vivid moments that’ll live behind your eyes. CJ Leede has now published three novels, and they’re all bangers, so it’s time to get on board if you haven’t already.
It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo
Cynthia Pelayo has been one of our finest genre writers for years now, but It Came From Neverland is my favorite thing she’s written, and it’s not even close. A dark take on Peter Pan from the perspective of an adult Wendy Darling living in World War I-era London, Pelayo’s book works as both a satisfying horror narrative and a rich exploration of what it really means to never grow up. The horror never loses its potency, but it’s the search for the meaning behind the Peter Pan phenomenon in our own lives, and what we can do about it, that sticks with me most.
Filth Eaters by Ito Romo
Ito Romo’s Filth Eaters is a slim volume, one you can read in just a couple of hours if you’ve got the inclination, but it has the feel of a generation-spanning epic. The story of a breed of vampires born in Central America, the European vampires who encounter them, and the offspring they eventually produced, it spans centuries and packs loads of juicy lore into its pages while never losing its grip on character and narrative drive. I would read hundreds more pages of this world, but I’ll settle for this uncommonly grand-scale novella for now.
Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay
A former pro gamer gets a job at a tech company to pilot a brain-dead human body across the country, and so Paul Tremblay’s sci-fi-horror juggernaut begins. Indebted to Philip K. Dick, the primal snarl of Harlan Ellison, and the quirky comedy of The Big Lebowski, and yet wholly original, this is a towering and ambitious novel by one of horror’s most respected voices. What starts as a high-concept tech thriller soon becomes a startling meditation on the value of stories, who gets to tell them, and what happens when we cede too much control to machines we don’t understand. It’s a stunner.
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