[ad_1]
Horror is a dime a dozen genre with countless monsters and victims. Every kind of fear has been imagined and realized. B-movie schlock is the bottom-of-the-barrel horror, a low-budget barometer for the audience. These movies were made for cheap with fast turnaround times in between major productions. Quantity over quality was the way of the B-movie. It wasn’t until the ’50s that this niche garnered a larger audience and eventually a cult following of horror devotees. To cater to people’s bloodthirsty appetite, TV horror hosts presented a dedicated marathon of the campy movies. Maila Nurmi was the first TV horror host known as Vampira, who starred in her own B-movie, Plan 9 from Outer Space. The trend of horror fanatics continued into the ’70s and ’80s, when quantity became quality.
Horror transcended and maintained its chilling charm. Subgenres like environmental, psychological, and body horror have changed the way terror manifests itself. Child’s Play used the horror of losing innocence and growing up too fast. The franchise about a killer doll took on a life of its own, embracing its strange premise in each installment. Now, the Chucky series and its original creators have their own TV show, extending the growing pains for its fans. These horror films need the same but fresh longevity of a TV show, too.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Any murderer can kill someone in their sleep. Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) kills his victims in their dreams and nightmares. Each A Nightmare on Elm Street movie offered unique dream sequences, each with their own creative death scenes. The mental and physical horror was a deadly combination and a relatable concept. The franchise did have a short-lived anthology series called Freddy’s Nightmares. Freddy was a horror host and occasional antagonist for the terrified teens. Viewers only saw Freddy in action eight times out of the 44 episodes made. A proper show with him as the main antagonist is what fans want to see. The show could explore his backstory more, sharing events leading up to the moment he became a child-killer. It’s a chance to dream better dreams and scare up even better nightmares.
Beetlejuice (1988)
Ever since Michael Keaton played the raunchy, undead bio-exorcist, people have been itching for a sequel. Tim Burton successfully made a Netflix series about Wednesday Addams and an animated series for Beetlejuice; why not a live-action show? The Netherworld has plenty of oddball characters and paranormal activity to develop and explain. A series could follow an entire neighborhood or find new haunting grounds. Burton mentioned using Hawaii as the bright backdrop to the dark contrast of the Beetlejuice character for his sequel, which could work for a show.
Friday the 13th (1980)
Jason Voorhees loves his summer vacations at Camp Crystal Lake. There isn’t a camp counselor or camper he doesn’t like to kill off. The franchise has seen Jason journey outside campgrounds, too. From the depths of Hell to the city of Manhattan to the far reaches of space, the hockey-masked killer knows no bounds. Paramount produced Friday the 13th: The Series, but it revolved around the idea of bad luck, not Jason. A show about Jason was being developed for The CW, but they decided it wouldn’t be a long-lasting series. A TV show with a grounded reality for the Friday the 13th franchise is possible; it just needs to acknowledge its schlock and lean towards its seriousness.
Ghostbusters (1984)
A ghost-catching business run by parapsychologists in New York City sounds like a running gag. Saturday Night Live alum Dan Akroyd conceived the idea based on his own interests in the supernatural and struck comedy gold with Ghostbusters. The horror comedy was haunted by sequelitis before landing a number of animated series. Akroyd has joined Jason Reitman, the director of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and the son of Ivan Reitman, director of the original Ghostbusters, for a potential prequel television series. If the show is developed, Akroyd said it will be a definitive end to the franchise. The Ghostbusters deserve to die as they lived one last time.
Halloween (1978)
Michael Myers is the schlock slasher of Halloween. He is pure evil personified, so evil that no sequel has managed to kill him. That was until the city of Haddonfield unceremoniously put Michael’s killing streak to an end in Halloween Ends. Every movie in the series was some kind of departure from the last, in the form of unexplainable cults, reboots, and Busta Rhymes. Passing on the mantle and mask of Michael Myers could be the direction a TV show takes. A better idea might be to have an anthology series surrounding the holiday, as John Carpenter intended with Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
Hellraiser (1987)
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser would be a perfect adaptation for TV. The body horror of the Cenobites, the drama-filled temptations and carnal desires. The untapped potential of a series is like the untapped pleasures of Lemarchand’s Box. The franchise was rebooted in a self-titled movie made for Hulu. A live-action show for Hulu could easily be made.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
Killer Klowns from Outer Space is one of those gateway B-movies into horror. Carnival carnage and slapstick humor are great for all ages. The Chiodo Brothers have discussed making a “requel” (a portmanteau of remake and sequel) and a television series for years, but attempts have been in development hell since the film’s 1988 release. A video game based on the cult classic will be released in 2023 and Syfy has offered to make more movies for the franchise, but a show would be the next best thing.
Predator (1987)
A rag-tag team of military soldiers facing an alien army of one made Predator one of the best science fiction action movies ever made. With Prey, another Hulu movie and a prequel in the franchise, there are enough aspects of horror that could lend itself to a TV show. The Alien franchise is getting a TV series, and since Predator and Alien had a crossover, a crossover TV series is also in order.
The Shining (1980)
The Stephen King adaptation from director Stanley Kubrick was the only movie based on his book the author hated. Kubrick changed the novel for the making of his film with stylized but effective results. King would later supervise a TV miniseries he found more faithful to his story, using the main inspiration for The Shining, The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. A TV show could bring the visuals of Kubrick and the scares of King together, like Bates Motel.
They Live (1988)
Another John Carpenter film that works on many levels. They Live is a science fiction action horror crime procedural in which a drifter discovers sunglasses that reveal the aliens walking among us who control and dictate the masses’ unconscious decisions and way of life. A remake from John Carpenter with Matt Reeves as screenwriter was in the works as of 2011, focusing on the film’s inspiration, the 1963 short story, 8 O’Clock in the Morning by Ray Nelson. Its status is unknown, but a TV adaptation would be clever. The use of subliminal messages could introduce a new main villain, Mr. Subliminal, made famous by another SNL alum, Kevin Nealon.
[ad_2]
Source link