By Maria Lewis
“Do you reckon we’re living in the golden age of horror TV shows?” my fellow genre-loving pal asked me over lunch. She barely had a chance to get the full sentence out of her mouth before I screeched “YEZZZZZ” back at her like a pterodactyl on meth. With a solemn nod of agreement, she returned to her meal and I returned to mine, seemingly unaware of the diners who were now staring at us. But it’s a thing that requires genuine and loud exclamation. We are living in the golden age of horror TV shows. Not sitcoms dressed up for Halloween, like The Munsters or The Addams Family, but actual genuine horror with gore, dread, death, tension and blood splatter. And for horror fans? That’s kind of a miraculous thing.
Horror has always existed in some form on television, but usually in the guise of something else or elementally. Tales From The Crypt, in all its kitsch glory, was arguably the only pure horror beast and even then the audience for it is considered cult. Yet shows that had elements of horror were given more mainstream access, especially in the Nineties when Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Charmed and even Goosebumps (to a degree) began to experience significant success. They had more essential genre elements to them – like romance and action and science fiction – which all found positions in the foreground while horror was shuffled discreetly to the back. A horror TV show in prime time, targeted at the mainstream? It was a thing TV executives always considered too risky.
Fast forward to 2017 and it’s a time where not only are there mainstream horror TV shows, there’s dozens of different variations on the formula – just like the horror genre itself. You want a supernatural chiller? Try The Exorcist, Outcast and Channel Zero – all excellently made shows with large audiences, well known casts and significant budgets. Want a slasher? Heck, you’ve literally got Slasher for that not to mention Scream Queens and MTV’s Scream TV series, which is going into its third season and has connected with audiences in a way few people – even believers – could have predicted. Want high concept horror? Sleepy Hollow has the period piece catered for, even though Penny Dreadful did it better thanks to an A-List cast and the people who casually made James Bond. An Apocalypse more your thing? The Walking Dead is your zombie-end-of-the-world main meal, but there’s also its spinoff Fear The Walking Dead and Guillermo del Toro’s sci-fi vampire feast The Strain. Fancy a well-known property? Take a bite out of three seasons of Hannibal or the still going Bates Motel and From Dusk Till Dawn. And hey, there’s always Ash Vs The Evil Dead while we’re at it! Even the werewolf subgenre of horror has been covered with varying levels of success: see three seasons of Bitten and Hemlock Grove respectively, while Teen Wolf is entering its SIXTH and final season. Yeah, a TV series based on that novelty horror flick (and its forgotten sequel) from the eighties has been one of the biggest small screen success stories FOR THE PAST SEVEN YEARS. In fact, teen supernatural fare has been a money-maker with The Vampire Diaries proving so successful that it got a spin-off in The Originals. Even the impending Archie comics TV series – Riverdale – is said to have been given a supernatural twist with strong horror undertones. Because apparently someone thought that was a good idea.
It’s weird to think that we’re here, now, with horror as one of the most successful and prevalent genres on television. Yet it crept in slowly in the aftermath of genre staples like Buffy and The X-Files wrapping up in the early 2000s. Their offspring, inevitably, became CW’s Supernatural, which debuted in 2005, and HBO’s True Blood, which came a few years later in 2008. They were two shows that followed the formula of their predecessors – make sure there’s other shit going on, like romance and action – but instead of horror being in the shadows they well and truly brought it into the light. From the beginning both series had horror as essential elements of their DNA, with the Winchester Bros like Hansel and Gretel with abs and good hair as they worked their way through classic horror movie tropes and beasties all on primetime TV. HBO did that thing it does so well and pushed boundaries, giving audiences excessive gore, sex and violence all served with a dose of a perky southern blonde frequently covered in blood splatters. Both shows were massive hits. Supernatural was the sleeper, chugging along with solid numbers and consistent results. It’s now in its TWELFTH season. True Blood was the overnight success, immediately becoming that show everyone was talking about in your office and the guilty pleasure for people who had otherwise never stepped foot in the genre. It wrapped after seven seasons.
In 2017, horror on the small screen has never been stronger. While True Blood won Emmys – and Anna Paquin scored a Golden Globe as Sookie Stackhouse – Ryan Murphy’s anthology series American Horror Story has become an awards season juggernaut. Since its debut in 2011 it has gone on to become one of the most awarded shows – ever – with over 30 Emmy nominations (including four wins) and nine Golden Globe nominations (with wins in the best actress category for Jessica Lange and Lady Gaga). And there’s no disputing American Horror Story’s roots: it’s as horror as it gets. From serial killers and murdering clowns, to haunted houses and massacres, horror is the star of the show and the reason it’s both a critical and commercial success. With the subgenres we once found on film filling up the TV landscape, it seems almost every preference is catered for: starting with horror comedies (iZombie) and pumping through to blockbuster epics (the incoming American Gods). Heck, when even rom-com staple Drew Barrymore is signing up for Netflix’s original series take on Stepford Wives meets Dawn Of The Dead (Santa Clarita Diet), you know horror has officially, finally, entered the golden age on TV.
Maria Lewis is a journalist and author who can be seen on The Feed, weeknights on SBS Viceland. She’s the presenter and producer of the Eff Yeah Film & Feminism podcast. Her debut novel Who’s Afraid? was released in 2016 with the sequel – Who’s Afraid Too? – out now. You can find her on Twitter @MovieMazz.
