Editorials
What Are your Favorite Horror TV Shows?
Over the past few years, horror has made a huge impact on TV. Shows like “The Walking Dead” and “Ash vs Evil Dead” have delighted fans with their gleeful amounts of gore and violence as well as giving us far more material than a standard length feature film could ever hope to offer. And the quality of these shows has only increased, from the glamour of “American Horror Story” to the grittiness of “The X-Files“.
This phenomenon has been slowly coming, from “The Twilight Zone“, “Dark Shadows“, “The Addams Family“, “The Munsters“, and so on, all giving viewers a taste of horror but in different ways. Some favored the twist while others favored charm. But their horror foundation could never be denied.
Horror has never been stronger in our culture and society as it is today. It has become a powerhouse in nearly every medium it touches and it’s a delight to see so many people embracing it or, at the very least, giving it a shot.
So with all these amazing horror TV shows on now, I thought it’d be interesting to find out some of your favorites and your reasons why. Is it the characters? The writing? The setting? You tell us!
As always, here are a few of my favorites and I look forward to seeing yours!
“Twin Peaks”
Right away I have to go with pretty much my favorite of all time. The characters are absolutely delightful, the locations charming and inviting, the writing snappy and interesting, and the show never feels like it ages. Pretty much the only thing that gives away when it takes place is the very rare sight of a computer or the outfits, which indeed are horribly dated.
I can’t even begin to tell you just how excited I am for the new season to hit Showtime next year. Hell, I might even start drinking coffee again to celebrate!
“Harper’s Island”
Although this show lasted only one season, I really enjoyed its take on Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” (not the original name but I’d rather not get called a racist, thankyouverymuch). The characters were interesting, there were enough twists to keep me guessing, it looked sharp and the island was beautiful, and there was plenty of violence and twisted murders for the gorehound in me to stay rapt. If you haven’t watched this show, I highly recommend picking it up and giving it a shot!
“Tales From the Crypt”
Did you honestly think I would leave this off the list? This is one of the greatest examples of horror on TV. While the Crypt Keeper was already incarnated thanks to the EC Comics, the show made him a cultural icon, one whose laugh was enough to send shivers up and down the spines of those who heard it.
Furthermore, some of the best minds in Hollywood were a part of the series. Robert Zemeckis, Kyle MacLachlan, Joel Silver, Benicio del Toro, Bill Paxton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Joe Pesci, Malcolm McDowell, Kirk Douglas, Tim Curry, Daniel Craig, Timothy Dalton, and so many more were involved in some way, shape, or form. Without “Tales From the Crypt”, who knows where horror television would be today?
“Hannibal”
God, I will never cease proclaiming my love for this show. It was elegant yet viciously violent. It was intelligently written and expertly pieced together, crafting a tale that was as psychologically terrifying as it was physically revolting, all the while remaining hypnotizing and visually arresting. With gorgeous yet haunting music and a perfect ensemble cast, “Hannibal” set a standard that has yet to be matched and, I feel, won’t be for a very long time.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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