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iluvdvds@Cult Labs 20th May 2015 12:09 PM

TV's Best Horror Shows
 
Hi everyone,


Lately, it seems like every week a new horror film is being turned into a TV show with Scream being the latest addition (along with The Evil Dead)

So, here's a thread dedicated to the very best horror shows on TV. Which ones have a special place in your bloody horror-hound heart?


Whether it's an old anthology show from the 50s like The Twilight Zone, or a show based on a movie such as Freddy's Nightmares, a show that scared you as a kid or even a 'factual' programme, let us know some of your favourites below.


Are you looking forward to the Scream & Evil Dead TV shows? Personally, I CANNOT wait for the Evil Dead show. Scream... eh... not so much.

Demdike@Cult Labs 20th May 2015 12:23 PM

It was the series releases of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spin off series Angel that got me into watching tv box sets when they were first released so they will always stay close to me.

Bringer Of Funerals 20th May 2015 02:27 PM

Are You Afraid of the dark - anyone remember that??

Vipp 20th May 2015 02:58 PM

2 Attachment(s)
Quote:

Originally Posted by Bringer Of Funerals (Post 450402)
Are You Afraid of the dark - anyone remember that??

I love the old 'Are you afraid of the dark' seasons. I did watch a few goosebumps episodes but it was the Friday the 13th tv show that i most looked forward to watching.... I managed to get a copy of the VHS and man i was not prepared for the crapstorm i was about to swim into... haha.

I actually really did enjoy SCREAM when it came out so i will give the TV show a go.

Demoncrat 20th May 2015 03:22 PM

Hammer House Of Horror

Nosferatu@Cult Labs 20th May 2015 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs (Post 450383)
It was the series releases of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spin off series Angel that got me into watching tv box sets when they were first released so they will always stay close to me.

I need to buy the complete sets of both those shows as I thought they were brilliant when I watched them on Sky.

The Twilight Zone has strong horror elements to some episodes so probably counts, but I guess my all-time favourite would be True Blood, followed closely by The Walking Dead. I've really enjoyed what I've seen of Bates Motel, and the first season of American Horror Story was excellent, which made it such a shame that the second and third series were so disappointed.

Actually, would Twin Peaks count? Like The Twilight Zone, some of the episodes are quite strong in horror content.

Demdike@Cult Labs 20th May 2015 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demoncrat (Post 450417)
Hammer House Of Horror

And the Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense.

A big mention for Thriller as well. Brian Clemens classic series which had a few horror tales among it's catalogue.

SharonLynette 20th May 2015 06:06 PM

Eerie Indiana, Round the Twist had its moments.

Of course I like all the old stuff, The Twilight Zone, Thriller, Hammer House of Horror, Beasts, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits, One Step Beyond, Mystery and Imagination, Murder Most Horrid, Tales of the Unexpected...

Bringer Of Funerals 20th May 2015 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vipp (Post 450415)
I love the old 'Are you afraid of the dark' seasons. I did watch a few goosebumps episodes but it was the Friday the 13th tv show that i most looked forward to watching.... I managed to get a copy of the VHS and man i was not prepared for the crapstorm i was about to swim into... haha.

I actually really did enjoy SCREAM when it came out so i will give the TV show a go.

Never got a change to see the F13th series

Vipp 20th May 2015 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bringer Of Funerals (Post 450474)
Never got a change to see the F13th series

It only has the same title Bringer, nothing else is the same so don't be in a hurry to track it down. lol.

iluvdvds@Cult Labs 20th May 2015 10:26 PM

I think it might be on the Horror Channel now and then, along with Freddy's Nightmares if I'm correct. I swear I've seen it appear on there before - might be worth checking out if it's on :nod:

Susan Foreman 22nd May 2015 07:45 PM

'The League Of Gentlemen' and 'Psychoville' contain many gothic and horrifying elements

Nosferatu@Cult Labs 22nd May 2015 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suziginajackson (Post 450899)
'The League Of Gentlemen' and 'Psychoville' contain many gothic and horrifying elements

Great call – they are full of references to horror films and blackly funny. The League of Gentlemen is one of my favourite shows and one you'll find me quoting regularly in normal conversation – I've had several strange looks when referring to a well-known soft drink as 'I can I can't'!

Susan Foreman 22nd May 2015 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs (Post 450901)
Great call – they are full of references to horror films and blackly funny. The League of Gentlemen is one of my favourite shows and one you'll find me quoting regularly in normal conversation – I've had several strange looks when referring to a well-known soft drink as 'I can I can't'!

That was one of my favourite things to do to the 'straights' who came into the bar!

Nosferatu@Cult Labs 22nd May 2015 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suziginajackson (Post 450903)
That was one of my favourite things to do to the 'straights' who came into the bar!

Please don't take this the wrong way, but have you ever been tempted to tell someone that you can't have children because your 'insides are all wrong' or it was 'a local pub for local people'?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOtpgz4L5d8

Nosferatu@Cult Labs 22nd May 2015 08:03 PM

Please tell me you greeted people with, said in the same way Tubbs does, "Yes? Can I help you at all?"

Susan Foreman 22nd May 2015 08:07 PM

In the first few weeks of opening, I would regularly burst thru the door, exclaiming "Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting? We'll have no trouble here! This is a local pub for local people" when the place only had a few quiet customers in!

Nosferatu@Cult Labs 22nd May 2015 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suziginajackson (Post 450909)
In the first few weeks of opening, I would regularly burst thru the door, exclaiming "Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting? We'll have no trouble here! This is a local pub for local people" when the place only had a few quiet customers in!

How long was it before you explained, or didn't you?

trebor8273 22nd May 2015 08:14 PM

TV's Best Horror Shows
 
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Some aren't what you call strict horror but have horror elements

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Susan Foreman 22nd May 2015 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs (Post 450907)
Please don't take this the wrong way, but have you ever been tempted to tell someone that you can't have children because your 'insides are all wrong' or it was 'a local pub for local people'?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs (Post 450910)
How long was it before you explained, or didn't you?

You've heard of Bab's Cabs?

I would put on my old, deepest voice and talk about Sue's Brews!

Nosferatu@Cult Labs 22nd May 2015 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suziginajackson (Post 450913)
You've heard of Bab's Cabs?

I would put on my old, deepest voice and talk about Sue's Brews!

Along with graphic descriptions of the surgery? That scene with Benjamin in the taxi is brilliant.

Susan Foreman 22nd May 2015 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs (Post 450914)
Along with graphic descriptions of the surgery?

No, and I never offered any of my 'special stuff' either, before you ask!

Nosferatu@Cult Labs 22nd May 2015 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suziginajackson (Post 450915)
No, and I never offered any of my 'special stuff' either, before you ask!

Not even Special Brew?!

Susan Foreman 22nd May 2015 08:36 PM

This the only Special Brew I offered - 1980's music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufIZaxYR7j8

But once again, I think I have derailed this thread. Let's try to get it back on track, eh?

Drakie79 22nd May 2015 09:07 PM

Kolchak, Masters Of Horror, Fear Itself and more recently Walking Dead, The Strain and even Salem isn't too bad.

Nosferatu@Cult Labs 22nd May 2015 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drakie79 (Post 450930)
Kolchak, Masters Of Horror, Fear Itself and more recently Walking Dead, The Strain and even Salem isn't too bad.

I thought the book was excellent and really want a TV show not to disappoint.

Drakie79 23rd May 2015 07:16 PM

Just hope Del Toro goes on to make Naoki Urasawa's Monster tv show for HBO or the like; he hinted at it a while ago. Also in the horror/Game Of Thrones vein a GOOD western version of Berserk would be a dream come true, the three recent films were fantastic, but left you wanting more of the same.
On another note in regards to tv I was sad to see Constantine go!!!!

Susan Foreman 12th September 2016 05:50 PM

10 classics of British TV horror | BFI

Susan Foreman 10th September 2019 08:59 AM

September 10th, 1981

The first episode of 'The Day Of The Triffids' was broadcast on BBCTV

Pictured are Emma Relph as Jo Playton, John Duttine as Bill Masen and a Triffid as itself!


Susan Foreman 27th October 2020 03:55 PM

This seems timely!

'Ghostwatch': Looking back on the BBC drama that 'traumatised' the nation (exclusive) / Yahoo movies


"Ghostwatch was a big deal for the BBC on Hallowe’en 1992.

Not only did it have three of the starriest names in factual programming attached to it, it was even awarded front cover of the Radio Times (“Are You Afraid Of Ghosts?” the coverline asked. “Find out on Hallowe’en with Michael Parkinson and friends”).

Yet the newspaper headlines the day after its screening weren’t quite what the Corporation had been expecting. “Viewers Blast BBC ‘Sick’ Ghost Hoax” screamed one. “This TV Programme Killed Our Dear Son” cried another, after reports of a suicide was linked to the show. Virtually every tabloid was in full-on splutter mode as the ashes settled after the BBC’s latest Screen One drama on 31 October, 1992.

Screen One was the BBC’s single play strand between 1989 and 1993, and wasn’t used to this sort of red-top controversy. But then Ghostwatch wasn’t your average Screen One drama. Those who had been paying close attention would have noticed a writing byline, flashed up for but a split second at the beginning, crediting Stephen Volk.

But many didn’t, and sat down to this reality show-style investigation into paranormal activity without realising they were watching a carefully scripted drama, recorded weeks before.


Still, the conceit was convincing. Not only did the show have the cosily familiar Michael Parkinson fronting it, it had Outside Broadcast segments from Blue Peter’s Sarah Greene and radio presenter Mike Smith, as well as Craig Charles – as himself – mucking about in a way that suggested to viewers that it was all a bit of harmless fun. That is, until the poltergeist activity that the show is purporting to investigate at a house in Northolt, Greater London, begins to feel horribly, terrifyingly real and even Parky begins to feel the wrath of the show’s malevolent ghost, a former resident named Raymond Tunstall, and nicknamed Pipes.

“I worked on the premise that people might believe Ghostwatch was genuinely happening ‘live’ or be slightly puzzled for 10 minutes, then twig it was a clever way to do a drama, a ghost story for television,” says Stephen Volk, 28 years on from the drama that made his name.

“That’s all I ever hoped for. It wasn’t our aim to fool all of the audience all of the running time or to upset people – it was me simply wanting to scare the audience as I’d been (pleasurably) scared by BBC TV ghost stories over the years, whether they be the classic Ghost Stories For Christmas or The Stone Tape by Nigel Kneale.


“Ghostwatch in any case, wasn’t designed purely as a hoax or gag. You don’t get £700,000 out of BBC Drama by saying, this will be a jolly good prank! Yes, the number of people ‘fooled’ was a surprise, but what was more interesting to me was the idea that they had been made to feel a mug ‘by the BBC’. That’s really what made them angry.

“Strangely, children had a more malleable attitude to what they were being told, they could accept the manipulation. Adults couldn’t. The optimum age to see Ghostwatch seems to be about 12. People who were 12 years old at the time seem to be the ones who’d come up and tell me how much they loved it. They were utterly terrified, yes – traumatised, even, they’d say – but loved it.”

Still, many viewers were ‘fooled’ by Ghostwatch and the press leapt on the show the next day, whipping its readers up into a BBC-loathing frenzy.

“It was very strange,” recalls Volk about the aftermath of the screening. “We all met up for a wee party on the night of transmission. I was there with the director Lesley Manning, Sarah Greene, Mike Smith and other crew members. We watched it go out on a big screen, and after it ended, and Match Of The Day had begun, Ruth Baumgarten, our producer, returned from TV Centre rather ashen to say there had been hundreds of complaints. The switchboard had been overloaded.

“My reaction was ‘Great!’ but she was, like: ‘No, people have been really, really scared!’ The next morning it was all over the Sunday papers. That was a shock. I went to bed and woke up to ‘Heads must roll at the BBC!’ and all that. The BBC, of course, didn’t defend it in any way. Michael Parkinson said to the press: ‘People are daft, some people believe the wrestling!’ He was suitably Yorkshire about it, and always supported us right the way through. He ‘got’ it. He also got it in the neck.


“Nobody asked us to explain why we had done it in any way, or what we were trying to achieve. Maybe they thought we weren’t trying to achieve anything! There were only two reviews; one by Nancy Banks Smith and one by Kim Newman in Sight & Sound. Kim, being a genre aficionado, knew exactly where I was coming from, which was from a subversive horror film tradition, not Play For Today.

The BBC didn’t tell us what to say or not say, they just went quiet, and when that young man committed suicide, they nailed down the hatches and the directive went out to all and sundry never to mention the programme ever again.

“Ruth rang to warn me the press might try to get hold of me for a statement, but they didn’t. The ‘Powers That Be’ at the Beeb threatened to drag our Exec Producer Richard Broke over the coals, but he wasn’t about to fall on his sword. They had all known this project through the planning stages, so if he was culpable, he’d bring them all down with him. So, mysteriously, the internal inquiry never happened.”


Still, though the BBC always seemed faintly embarrassed by Ghostwatch, its afterlife has been greater than any of its Screen One peers. There’s been no BFI DVD release for any other Screen One film from that run, while no feature-length documentary has ever been made about Tony Sarchet’s Trust Me or Lynda La Plante’s Seconds Out (Ghostwatch received its own definitive ‘making of’ doc with 2013’s Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtains).

And what other Screen One film’s influence can still be seen in the movies and TV dramas we watch today? From Inside No.9’s Halloween special Dead Line in 2019 through to this year’s Zoom-styled horror Host, Ghostwatch’s cultural influence reaches far.

“I loved the Inside No.9 Halloween Special so much,” enthuses Volk. “Really funny and clever. When I heard they were doing it live, I texted Reece Shearsmith and I said, please put in a little nod to Ghostwatch. He texted back, ‘I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.’ Of course, it was fantastic. Such fun, and dark. I texted him and said how much I’d enjoyed it, and he texted back, saying, ‘It was all for you, Stephen!’ What a lovely gesture, bless him!”

Despite all the love for Ghostwatch, and the enduring horror of Pipes in particular, Volk has resisted all temptation so far to explore a sequel, or some other fiction set in its universe.

“I’m not desperately keen on any re-creation, spin off or follow-up,” he says. “Ghostwatch was what it was, and it’s a little TV flag stuck in 1992. It’s there on the wall at BAFTA for God’s sake!

“I don’t want to flesh out any back stories of Pipes or anything like that. I don’t think it’s suitable to explore as a ‘universe’ in any way. All due respect to Castle Rock and Stephen King’s inter-connecting oeuvre, but I don’t feel the need for any of my stories to overlap with any others.

“So Alison Mundy from Afterlife isn’t going to see an apparition of Raymond Tunstall any time soon! Sorry!”"

swampconcept 23rd November 2020 09:35 AM

is Chilling adventures of Sabrina good? I only seen Riverdale

Justin101 23rd November 2020 10:58 AM

It's not really like Riverdale. I really liked the first 2 seasons of Sabrina but I will admit that I'm struggling to get through season 3 although something interesting happened in the last one I watched so I'm going to keep going to see how it progresses.

trebor8273 23rd November 2020 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin101 (Post 640775)
It's not really like Riverdale. I really liked the first 2 seasons of Sabrina but I will admit that I'm struggling to get through season 3 although something interesting happened in the last one I watched so I'm going to keep going to see how it progresses.

all way through season three its hinting what is going to be the big bad for the last season which airs December 31st, in the comics she has battled them so it makes sense.

swampconcept 24th November 2020 08:02 AM

thanks for the feedback, sounds good. I will check it out for sure.
Watched the original one with Melissa Joan Hart back in the day, loved that and the talking cat lol

MacBlayne 24th November 2020 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swampconcept (Post 640838)
thanks for the feedback, sounds good. I will check it out for sure.
Watched the original one with Melissa Joan Hart back in the day, loved that and the talking cat lol

Salem was brilliant. Such a dry bastard at times.

MrBarlow 24th November 2020 06:33 PM

1 Attachment(s)
Watched this when I was in High school two of the episodes freaked me out, Prophecy and Toby. Noticed on Amazon it's available so maybe if i'm a good boy and speak to Santa nicely or Angela, I might get it for Christmas :lol:


Demdike@Cult Labs 24th November 2020 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrBarlow (Post 640871)
Watched this when I was in High school two of the episodes freaked me out, Prophecy and Toby. Noticed on Amazon it's available so maybe if i'm a good boy and speak to Santa nicely or Angela, I might get it for Christmas :lol:


I think it's in the current Network sale.

No it isn't. But it's £7 post free on their site.

https://networkonair.com/all-product...omplete-series

I've had it a few years but never got round to watching it yet.

MrBarlow 24th November 2020 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs (Post 640877)
I think it's in the current Network sale.

No it isn't. But it's £7 post free on their site.

https://networkonair.com/all-product...omplete-series

I've had it a few years but never got round to watching it yet.

:thankingyou: Dem.

Linbro 25th November 2020 04:43 AM

Picked this series up a while ago, but have only watched the first couple of episodes. It's VERY 90's, which is fine with me:cool:

Susan Foreman 26th December 2020 07:05 PM

Ghosts of Christmas Past: BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas / We Are Cult

"1968 featured what could be regarded as the first, proper horror story made by the BBC for television: an adaptation of the M.R. James story Whistle and I’ll Come To You. Originally airing as an episode of the arts programme Omnibus, the episode was extremely popular with the audience. Although a noted historian, it is his ghost stories for which M.R. James is remembered and they have become the benchmark against which most British horror literature is compared – James’s ghost stories are models of the genre, and their deceptively simple narrative style lend themselves well to adaptation.

His stories do not feature blood-spattered gore, but aim for the more psychological approach before raw horror is revealed, a carefully-constructed escalation of fear which leaves the reader unnerved even after completion of a story. James had several key rules for his ghost stories: the setting must be a normal one, in which the reader could find themselves; events should begin normally, with odd elements creeping in until they take over; the ghosts must be malevolent. It should also be noted that whilst some have cited James as a reactionary, in that much of what befalls people is due to curiosity, nothing could be further from the truth – as a historian, James was presenting the very worst thing he could imagine happening to someone; the truth causing them harm.

Whistle and I’ll Come To You is a perfect example of his work (an stuffy professor, alone in a quiet seaside resort, discovers a whistle carved from bone in an overgrown graveyard. He cleans the whistle, discovers a cryptic warning upon it, but blows it anyway. A ghost soon comes to plague him) and the adaptation is very true to the original. It is also extremely disquieting for the viewer, despite any real horror occurring (the adaptation is so well done that the sight of a sheet blowing in the wind is utterly terrifying).

Michael Hordern gave a particularly strong performance, and the production is unusual in that it features almost no dialogue. Natural sound conveys much of the atmosphere, as do the desolate beaches of an out-of-season resort. The programme was very successful, and as ghost stories at Christmas have a strong tradition in the UK the BBC commissioned a series of them to be made, all of them transmitted on, or around, Christmas Day. M.R. James would be used as the author of the source material, and the annual series began with The Stalls of Barchester in 1971.

The story was chilling rather than openly horrific, and as such was again extremely successful. Despite being made more than forty years ago the play is as effective when viewed today as it was then (no doubt helped by the historical setting – the story takes place in the 1800s). It is also very well cast, with Robert Hardy (a character actor usually cast in colourful or eccentric roles) acting very much against type as the murderous minister.

1972’s edition was A Warning to the Curious, one of James’s most disturbing and bleak stories, in which an archaeologist discovers an antique crown which would have been better left hidden – it is guarded by a supernatural creature.

Lost Hearts the next year is even more disturbing – an orphan, adopted by a kindly old man, is haunted by the ghosts of two children. It transpires that the children are not trying to scare him, but instead wish to protect him from the intentions of his adopted father: in a bid to achieve immortality the old man is cutting the hearts from the bodies of still-living children and eating them. The concept is horrific in the extreme, and the film does not shy away from the idea (showing in one scene a young boy with his chest ripped open and his heart missing).

The Treasure of Abbot Thomas is a cautionary tale in which a scholar (most of James’s characters are scholars, discovering secrets from the past which should have stayed hidden) discovers a series of clues leading to the location of the treasure of a disgraced abbot. Naturally he locates the treasure, but at a terrible cost.

The Ash Tree was the final film adapted from a James story (a man inherits an estate and discovers that it comes with a price) and was followed the next year by The Signalman, based on the short story by Charles Dickens. An extremely unsettling story, it concerns the precognitive experiences of a lonely signal man working on a railway. He has been seeing a spectre from some days and ultimately it transpires that the figure is a warning of his own death. The story is haunting, and the poor signalman is played perfectly by Denholm Elliott, in one of the finest entries of the series.

The following year saw an original story by Clive Exton, Stigma, in which a family’s renovations of their property uncover a mysterious stone which is keeping an executed witch in place. When the stone is removed, an ancient curse is unleashed.

The final film in the series, in 1978, was The Ice House, an unusual story by John Bowen (again original) about a health farm and the people there, and the plants growing all around. (Many viewers found the film both confused and confusing, something with which this writer sympathises.)

In 2000 the BBC produced a series called ‘Ghost Stories for Christmas, with Christopher Lee’ in which Lee played M.R. James reading four of his own stories. Three have subsequently been released on DVD but the second episode, The Ash Tree was not released owing to rights issues about the music used, which is from the soundtrack to ‘The Name of the Rose’ (1986), composed by James Horner. Here’s the episode, taken from an off-air recording:

The ‘Ghost Story for Christmas’ series was revived briefly in 2005 and 2006 on BBC4 with a return to M.R. James: A View from a Hill was 2005’s offering, a pleasingly old-fashioned story which sits comfortably with the earlier films. A historian borrows a pair of unique binoculars, through which he discovers that he can see buildings as they were in the past. A ruined abbey appears to be completely rebuilt, but he also sees the infamous Gallows Hill next to the abbey and soon finds himself pursued by the vengeful spirits of the executed.

Number 13 concerned the terrifying story of a small hotel and room 13, which didn’t exist…except for when it did. A guest at the hotel sees the door to room 13 late one night and is surprised the next morning to find the door has vanished. Further investigation shows that the door only appears at certain times, and naturally the guest eventually enters the room, with terrible consequences.

2010 saw another adaptation of Whistle and I’ll Come To You, one that departed substantially from the source material (although it should be noted that at least two sections of the film are extremely effective), and in 2013 Mark Gatiss presented another James story, The Tractate Middoth, a mostly faithful version, although Gatiss does change the original’s happy ending for something far more sinister. Sadly television budgets and a general indifference from the BBC have prevented further installments from appearing."


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