It’s a time-tested cliché that horror projects aren’t always appreciated a first. Oftentimes, they’re just a little too ahead of their time. And while they go on to develop a cult following years later, it’s usually too late to save and revive them.
That’s especially true for many horror television shows. While some were overshadowed by flashier projects, others simply didn’t find their right audience at te time. Others had big legacies they were compared against and so it wasn’t until looking back that their own geniuses were appreciated for what they are. But in this age of reboots and revivals, perhaps there’s hope for at least one horror TV gem to find its way back with new stories.
10 On A Sheltered Island, No One Can Hear You Scream
Harper’s Island
Premiere Year |
Number Of Seasons |
---|---|
2009 |
1 |
An intriguing whodunnit and whydunnit slasher, Harper’s Island premiered on CBS in 2009 and brought a niche concept to a more mainstream audience. As a slasher, it was pretty fierce. It didn’t shy away from some inventive, violent, and bloody kills. It also did a great job of getting the audience emotionally invested in a character just to rip them away.
Harper’s Island followed Abby Mills, who was reluctantly returning to her hometown, a secluded island only reachable by boat. Seven years ago, a string of murders took six lives, including her mother’s. She is finally convinced to return to attend the wedding of her best friend — but the murders start back up again and everyone is a suspect. With an entirely engaging story, great twists, and a killer ending, this standalone slasher scare-fest was perhaps just too ahead of its time but could thrive today with the right audience.
9 What’s Your Favorite Scary TV Show?
Scream: The TV Series
Premiere Year |
Number Of Seasons |
---|---|
2015 |
3 |
Before the recent cinematic reboot of the franchise with Scream V, Scream: The TV Series took the familiar formula and supplanted it with a new story in a new location with new characters. Forgoing Sidney Prescott, the Woodsboro gang, and the Scream mask, the slasher anthology series focused on a group of high school kids, led by Willa Fitzgerald as Emma Duvall, as a cyberbullying incident seems to ignite a string of brutal murders.
Being associated with the iconic Scream was a double-edged sword. While the name assured it got the attention it might not otherwise have received, the expectations were too specific. Replacing the iconic Ghostface with a Brandon James mask made sense narratively — Ghostface can’t terrorize everyone — but Scream diehards and casual fans found it hard to get past the franchise umbrella of it all. But time has proven kind and fans have been clamoring for more — now is the time to expand on the original story and give justice for fan-favorite Brooke Maddox.
8 Things Get Weird When Creepypastas Come To Life
Channel Zero
Premiere Year |
Number Of Seasons |
---|---|
2016 |
4 |
Though four seasons is pretty good for a show, especially a horror anthology, there’s just something about Channel Zero that begs for more. The fact that it stuck to being a true anthology meant stories had a defined beginning and end and were never dragged on too long. They were just long enough to be engaging and just short enough to keep the eerie mystery around their tales. Nothing ever lost the horror of the unknown.
Taking inspiration from existing online creepypastas, Channel Zero wove tales that were weird and surreal. The first season held no punches, tackling intense childhood trauma and revealing a highly unsettling monster made of teeth. The following seasons stayed equally weird and perfected getting under your skin in the best way. While it had a good run on Syfy, it found a new life on the Shudder streaming service. And with new viewers discovering it every day, it’s gaining a following. In fact, it might have been just a handful of years too early for true success. In recent years, spurred on by YouTube videos and TikToks of the backrooms, younger audiences are obsessed with a liminal vibe, something Channel Zero perfected.
7 Surviving A Slasher Can Be A Total Bitch
Scream Queens
Premiere Year |
Number Of Seasons |
---|---|
2015 |
2 |
Part horror, part black comedy, part satire, Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens is truly his underappreciated gem. Taking cues from the dark yet tongue-in-cheek era of Heathers, Scream Queens followed a group of sorority girls (the Chanels, in this case) who are targetted by a killer. Delightfully fun and full of fear, it was sadly overshadowed by the American Horror Story of it all, Ryan Murphy’s other horror show that many would argue faces an opposite problem in going on too long.
A star ensemble cast including Emma Roberts and Billie Lourd really helped the show shine. But it is the character of Chad Radwell who might have the biggest draw right now. Amid the Glen Powell renaissance, he’s even gone on the record stating that Chad was his most fun character to play.
6 It’s A Cruel, Cruel Summer
Dead of Summer
Premiere Year |
Number Of Seasons |
---|---|
2016 |
1 |
Plenty of kills? Check. A summer camp? Check. Something supernatural? Check. Set in the ’80s? Check. Freeform’s Dead of Summer had all of the trappings of quintessential summer horror and its one season on air did not disappoint.
In 1989, a group of teens at a sleepaway camp accidentally awaken a dark, ancient evil and must spend their summer surviving the horrors. As it barreled through the season, the twists picked up and fright mixed with genuine fun. Conceived from the get-go as an anthology helped ensure concise storytelling and a satisfying ending. If it had made it past its first season, who knows what thrills and kills it would have cooked up? Like Harper’s Island, it never found its audience and perhaps would thrive better in the streaming era.
5 The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is…
Fear Itself
Premiere Year |
Number Of Seasons |
---|---|
2008 |
1 |
In 2008, NBC tried its hand at the horror anthology. This short-lived thirteen-episode broadcast highlighted big-name horror directors tackling self-contained horror stories. Each story followed a short story format, with plenty of scary twists. Some of the horror directing talent included John Landis (An American Werewolf in London) and Brad Anderson (Session 9 and The Machinist).
While earlier years saw mainstream success of shows such as The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, this show just didn’t have the right timing or luck. Not only was its summer premiere not a time when mainstream audiences were looking for the horror niche, but it also premiered right before the 2008 Summer Olympics. As such, it went off the air for a long time and, subsequently, out of people’s minds. But time and again it’s proven that the anthology format works wonderfully for horror to keep the suspense and new concepts, so it’s certainly a concept that could be revived again.
4 Tales Of Woe, Tales Of Horror
Midnight Club
Premiere Year |
Number Of Seasons |
---|---|
2022 |
1 |
Horror fans are no strangers to Mike Flanagan. From The Haunting of Hill House to The Fall of the House of Usher, he has a proven knack for mixing terror with tears and scares with moments of joy. Traditionally, his work has spun darker and more adult, making him the perfect choice for adaptations and franchises such as his upcoming Exorcist project. So when he took on Christopher Pike’s iconic young adult books, there was new ground to cover. The main characters, though all teens, were still dealing with some very real and heady trauma, being a hospice for terminal patients.
A well-crafted and moving series it blended standalone stories with a larger continuing plot. As the teens would meet nightly to scare each other with creepy stories, some tales belied a little bit of truth to their own histories. However, it was a secondary cult plot that Netflix forced Flanagan to incorporate that may have been to its detriment. Hampered by that secondary story that didn’t really tie into the emotions of the main characters, Netflix ultimately canceled it after one season, effectively ensuring Flangan’s departure from the streamer.
But Flanagan did not leave fans hanging. Following the news that Midnight Club would not be getting a second season, he released a detailed post outlining how the story would have ended and the poignant reveals it would have made. This more grown-up Are You Afraid of the Dark? style show though would fit perfectly into a gap in the market, and it’s a concept we hope Flanagan tackles again.
3 A Kingdom Of Your Greatest NIghtmares
Castle Rock
Premiere Year |
Number Of Seasons |
---|---|
2018 |
2 |
Premiering on Hulu in 2018, horror showCastle Rock had all the trappings of a horror hit. It took the characters, plots, and themes from many of horror icon Stephen King’s works and jumbled them all together in a small town in Maine. It had a creepy mood, captivating stories, an interesting premise, and a powerhouse name behind it (plus horror darling, Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd.) The original plan was to combine anthology storytelling within a greater connected context, with each season focusing on a few particular King stories, although throwing in plot twists and giving them a modern upgrade.
But its cancellation after two seasons hurts a little more because it wasn’t even because of the show itself, but rather a victim of big business. Castle Rock had the unfortunate luck to premiere just as production parent Warner Brothers was ending its contract with partner Bad Robot and seeking to create its own original content for streaming. When HBOMax launched in 2020, Warner Brothers simply wanted a clean slate of content to fully own, and so Castle Rock was a casualty. Has enough time passed now to try this concept again?
2 What Is Lost Really Should Be Found Again
1899
Premiere Year |
Number Of Seasons |
---|---|
2022 |
1 |
An intriguing, twisty, period sci-fi horror where things are not all what they seem. From the very first episode, Netflix’s 1899 set a mysterious and intriguing tone. Set in, of course, 1899, a woman aboard a large sea liner traveling from the UK to New York City finds herself experiencing strange, dark happenings and finds secrets within the ship that should not exist. This German-produced show was made all the more immersive and impressive for being multilingual, with various passengers on the boat speaking a wide variety of languages.
Alas, this was destined to be another stereotype of Netflix canceling something quite good after only one season. There was hope that this show would get the time it needed, as it was made by the same team behind Netflix-darling Dark, which got a full three-season run. Instead, this tale was canceled on a huge cliffhanger reveal. Low viewership, the classic scapegoat, can partly be blamed on it not being well marketed, as many months after its cancellation, people on Twitter were discovering it for the first time and bemoaning its inconclusive fate. There’s still so much story to tell, and not too much time passed, that Netflix could still right this wrong if they wanted to.
1 Dark Mysteries Were Never Allowed To Fully Unravel
Archive 81
Premiere Year |
Number Of Seasons |
---|---|
2022 |
1 |
It’s Netflix once again at the scene of the crime of an intriguing horror show canceled after one season and a cliffhanger. Archive 81’s intriguing premise follows an archivist who undertakes a job restoring videotapes in a remote and spooky compound, and who must keep his audio recording on at all times. As he delves deeper into the mystery unfolding on the tapes, he is drawn into a mysterious cult — and secrets of his own past.
With engaging writing and a great cast, Archive 81 showed a lot of promise but was still ultimately cut off with plenty of stories to tell. The good news is that it was based on a podcast, so viewers can take some solace in listening to the full conclusion. However, that also means that this story is worth another shot on film, especially since the source material is already written.