America’s TV Horror Story
Where did these shows come from?
In the wake of The Walking Dead phenomenon, horror television shows have spread quickly, infecting networks left vulnerable from mediocre ratings and the challenges of generating original content. The all-encompassing genre spans period dramas (Showtime’s Penny Dreadful) and “almost” musicals (American Horror Story: Freak Show, seriously…watch it). Even the quintessential procedural can’t escape horror’s impact. Shows like True Detective, influenced by the iconic stories of author H.P. Lovecraft, refuse the horror label but still dabble in the genre’s psychology.
It’s not the escalation of violence that surprises. It’s the shift of entertainment typically relegated to October movie releases rather than September season premieres. Horror morphed from teen-aged date night fodder to that thing your mom texts you is “starting at 9pm so leave ‘her’ the HELL ALONE!!” Yet, like Candy Crush (also that thing your mom loves), over saturation hasn’t slowed the movement’s popularity.
The phenomenon isn’t without precedent. Horror in the late 1950's was defined by two legendary shows: Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone. Actual violence was subjected to that terrible thing, our imagination. Its genuine fright is prevalent, even today. Viewers wrestling with the truth of Twilight Zone’s Eye Of the Beholder episode probably didn’t sleep for weeks.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents debuted first in 1955, re-titled as The Alfred Hitchock Hour toward the end of it’s run. The Twilight Zone soon followed, captivating audiences with a unique angle on sci-fi and horror via 60 minute stories. Like George A. Romero’s Living Dead series, social commentary lies front and center. Not taking away from the poetic, character driven masterpiece that is Paranormal Activity 2, perhaps it’s these multi-layered stories that truly leave us shaken to our core.
“When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, ‘It’s in the script.’ If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?, ‘ I say, ‘Your salary.’ ” — Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock is horror for an entire generation of Americans and his command over the psychology of cinema is indisputable. Show’s like 1963's The Outer Limits assume the bite sized story format but fall short of the massive scale seen in Hitchcock’s work. Eventually The Outer Limits and Twilight Zone were coldly re-booted to ho-hum reviews and alas, this broadcast style is all but forgotten.
There were two notable exceptions. In 1992, HBO shocked home audiences with the gutsy Tales From the Crypt, a show where comic book origins met HBO’s R-rated personality. Not to miss out on the opportunity to cash in on the terrorization of children, Nickelodeon debuted the similar (but predictably toned down) Are You Afraid of The Dark as part of their 90's S.N.I.C.K. line-up. The show is successful in combining Crypt’s presentation with stories clearly inspired by teen scream author, R.L. Stine, lasting nearly five years before ending its run. Interestingly, Goosebumps (based on Stine’s books) was given it’s own competing show just a few short years later.
The next generation of TV horror left much to be desired. Kolchack the Night Stalker was the only stand out horror show from the 1970's while The 80's settled in re-boots and unremarkable attempts at living room scares. In the 90's, a true horror resurgence was ushered in by The X-Files. Mulder and Scully’s weekly mysteries centered around an overarching plot involving aliens and government conspiracies lasting just short of a decade. Sure, aliens may be debatable in their scare factor but those little grey a-holes top my personal list of last thing I’d want to see before I sleep.
X-Files was unique in its mixture of the tongue-in-cheek with more traditional “monster of the week” episodes. It also single handily spawned the supernatural procedural genre seen today in shows like Sleepy Hollow and the now cancelled Fringe. The X-Files straddled the line between cult classic and unequivocal hit, spawning two movies at the end of its run. Jokes aside, it’s one of TV’s most successful episodic horror shows ever.
“I think there’s a lot of people out there who say we must not have horror in any form, we must not say scary things to children because it will make them evil and disturbed … That offends me deeply, because the world is a scary and horrifying place, and everyone’s going to get old and die, if they’re that lucky.” — Joss Whedon
X-Files was not the only horror show to decorate our 90's bedrooms in posters. Well before Avengers trailer leaks, Joss Whedon created the most influential horror show to date. That’s right. You can thank Joss for Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, the phrase “Team Jacob”, Charmed, The Originals, True Blood and everything you hate about your teenaged daughter or sister. Buffy The Vampire Slayer broke both gender and genre conventions with its strong female leads and unapologetic mixing of high school drama with cosmic mythology. Of course, the show had its fair share of scares to boot. Part of Buffy’s success is Whedon’s signature style: approaching dramatic scenarios with levity while refusing to patronize the audience (that’s the sound of every Dawson’s Creek fan agreeing).
The Twilight novels have Buffy elements albeit with a less… sophisticated approach to vampires. It’s become the new model cast from an old mold: young, horror driven shows with varying perspectives on teenage drama and unmitigated violence. Vampire Diaries leads the pack in young adult angst while the most interesting of the vamp shows, True Blood, was also the most graphic, encouraged by its presence on premium cable. While the high school metaphors of Buffy have now given way to darker, moody plot arcs (thanks Breaking Bad!) Whedon’s influence can still be felt across television today.
“I think we are seeing a resurgence of the graphic ghost story like The Others, Devil’s Backbone and The Sixth Sense. It is a return to more gothic atmospheric ghost storytelling.” — Guillermo Del Toro
The turn may have gone too far. I remember director Guillermo Del Toro’s first episode of FX’s vampire horror drama, The Strain. The show did just enough to hook me in with interesting exposition between less interesting character beats. The first glimpse of an actual vampire was noticeably reminiscent of Del Toro’s past movie creations. Beautifully crafted. Terrifying in action. In the scene that followed, said vampire used a clearly, non-human appendage to drain blood from its victim and when finished, something… interesting happened. For no apparent reason, it used its over-sized hand to repeatedly smash its victim’s face into the pavement with more CGI blood spilled then an Expendables movie. What the !@#$ did I just watch?
Needless to say, things escalated quickly.
Showtime’s Dexter (2006) was the first of these next generation horror shows and glamorized a serial killer’s exploits in gory detail. Dexter at times is more dark comedy than drama but the horror movie influence remains clear. It paved the way for new expectations and proved American audiences were hungry for a new style of entertainment.
Four years later, The Walking Dead picked up where Dexter left off, with a more direct approach toward the genre. Zombies’ increasing popularity was clearly in effect, evidenced in Max Brook’s best selling novel World War Z and countless video game adaptations. The world was ready for zombie episodic television.
Through 55 episodes, The Walking Dead shattered TV records rivaling America’s actual past time, NFL football, for the coveted 18–49 demographic. What’s even more impressive is its relatively modest budget and confinement on basic cable.
Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy surprised audiences with his unsettling 12 episode anthology, American Horror Story (season one’s title now ret-conned as American Horror Story: Murder House) in 2011. American Horror Story’s first season reveled in genre tropes but executed them with a delicious self-awareness made even more memorable by the enchanting Jessica Lange. The show procured Emmy’s en-masse, proving that you didn’t need monsters or zombies to write a solid, scary story. You only need to be on cable.
“I think I have a pattern of nice and lovely and then dark and twisted.”—Ryan Murphy
The horror explosion continued across networks. Tarantino protege, Eli Roth, debuted his take via the 2013 Netflix exclusive, Hemlock Grove. NBC produced Grimm, Hannibal and their latest experiment, a re-boot of the movie and DC comics hero, Constantine. Hannibal is the critical standout of the three, but due to network TV’s perceived restrictions, none have fared well.
The most important take-away from this movement is quality. The new debate between TV and movies could not be further apart when it comes to horror. This October, horror film fans were subjected to a re-release of Saw and a movie called Ouija. Ouija… like the board game. Meanwhile, TV fans were treated to the best Walking Dead premier yet and a compelling new season of American Horror Story. Then there’s The Knick: A fascinating look at surgery’s early beginnings which has mixed predictable violence with unpredictably well-crafted drama. Even Hitchcock has been given the TV “upgrade” with Bates Motel, a Psycho prequel reveling in the perverse mother-son relationship the movie only hinted at.
The best scary stories were always just that… stories. Shared around long campfires and passed down to future generations. Not 90 minute torture-porn romps delving into self-parody (COUGH* Saw 6 ). That’s not to say slasher films won’t hold their place in history, but TV was the patient zero in this epidemic. Hopefully, when The Walking Dead wraps its final season this golden age of horror won’t disappear as quickly as it came.
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