The Renaissance of TV Horror | Spotlight. I haven’t found the time to sink my teeth into the gritty charms of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” — but I do have friends who are hooked on the post-apocalyptic zombie franchise. In a recent episode titled “The Grove,” an acquaintance described to me the emotional violence that accompanied the mental instability of a little girl that drove her to kill her younger sister — a baby would have been the next to go if the adults didn’t arrive on the scene. Because of distrust an adult took little Lizzie outside, told her to look at the flower, and shot her in the back of the head.
Disturbing and graphic scenes are the norm on “The Walking Dead,” yet it’s the most popular television program for the in-demand 18-to-49-demographic. Its ratings per episode on average are comparable to the series finale of AMC’s other cultural hit “Breaking Bad.” With its season finale set to air this Sunday, “The Walking Dead” is leading the revitalization of the violent horror genre in mainstream television. Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica - Google Books. Why today's TV series are so great. The new popular TV series share the common characteristics of having relatively modest ratings and very narrow target audiences. The picture above shows two of the zombie-types with a taste for human flesh that the characters in the AMC series The Walking Dead risk running into.
(Photo: kileyblaqkyear) Breaking Bad; Boardwalk Empire; Mad Men, Dexter; True Blood; Game of Thrones; Homeland; Modern Family. The list of new quality TV series is long. Over the past 30 years, TV series have undergone vast development, which is now culminating in a host of high-quality series. “This wave of high-quality niche series started as early as the 1980s, and then sporadically broke through with series like Twin Peaks and The West Wing. Lights, camera, quality The actor Michael C. Today, the TV series that receive the most attention are intelligent niche productions that are aimed at relatively narrow target audience. “Previously, the aim was to please all viewers equally. On a par with movies. George A Romero interview: “The Walking Dead is just a soap opera with the occasional zombie” George A Romero: Why I don't like The Walking Dead. Oh, it definitely was. I used to be the only guy in the playground. Now, my God.
I do think the popularity of the creature has come from video games, not film. Zombieland [2009], which was relatively recent, was the first zombie film to break $100 million at the box office, and therefore got Hollywood interested. The remake of Dawn of the Dead [2004] did about $75m, so I think that may have started the ramp. And then Zombieland and now, of course, World War Z. But dozens of hugely popular video games have had a bigger impact. You’ve said somewhere that you felt Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake was a bit like a video game in itself? I thought it was, yeah. I wondered if it was trying to make a different point, in a way.
In my film the zombies are in there to start with. That did seem to launch the vogue for fast zombies, didn’t it? I guess it did. I was almost consciously trying to stay away from it. That’s the first time anyone’s mentioned that! George A Romero. Oh yeah. I love it. SERIAL KILLERS: MASTERS OF TELEVISUAL MISE-EN-SCÈNE by Stacey Abbott. Jason Jacobs and Stephen Peacock recently published a book on TV Aesthetics – Television Aesthetics and Style – in which they argue that discourses surrounding style and aesthetics are ‘curiously absent from many critical appraisals of contemporary television’ (2013: 1).
They suggest that, instead, ‘academic work on television remains, for the most part, entrenched in theoretical frameworks’ (2). In this they echo Sarah Cardwell who, in the inaugural issue of Critical Studies in Television (1:1), acknowledged a need for more work on TV aesthetics, although she also recognised that this is a developing area within the discipline. Since the publication of Cardwell’s essay, the subject has become an increasingly significant, if still contested, area of television studies. A growing number of publications surrounding such programmes such as Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dexter, Mad Men and Doctor Who (to name just a few) have begun to unpack the complexities of TV aesthetics.
Why do Americans Love Horror Films? Ambivalent about Horror » The LARB Blog. Dear Television, TO LOVE HORROR is to love genre. As Annie’s piece on abjection and Phil’s on “Hellmouth” (new meme, anymore?) Have both pointed out, discussions of horror very often lead to categorization. Whether in defining the psychoanalytical underpinnings of horror’s affective range or in noting the types of tropes that converge in horror narratives, the genre is one that repeatedly calls for its analysts to return to form. In part it’s because horror is, as Annie via Kristeva has pointed out, seems so bent on complicating, and often undoing, form. The difficulty then is how to talk about (analyze, define, describe, categorize!) Horror without taming it, or reducing it to a theory of socialization.
I am ambivalent about horror. By this, I don’t mean that I’m uncertain about whether I like or do not like it, or even if it works or does not work for me in particular. Horror is a boundary-defying genre that invades other genres. Anthologies have often been my gateway to culture. Jane. Televisuality: Style, Crisis, and Authority in American Television - John Thornton Caldwell. How Horror Impaled The Small Screen | The Spinoff. Horror had a fairly minor place on television until the last decade, when it rose from the grave. Andrew Todd looks at what has driven its revival.// Horror on television, like in the movies, has always seen peaks and troughs in popularity. Otherwise, horror tended to be blended with other genres. But straight-up horror has thus far been rare.
That all changed around ten years ago. At the turn of the millennium, horror was in a decent place, popularity-wise. Twilight, of course, is softened-down horror. Now, horror is a bona fide television genre. Virtually every major trope has been represented by at least one show: Vampires! …and whatever’s left over probably got mopped up by one prominent director or other in the anthology series Masters of Horror. What’s more, many of these shows dig deep into the psychological side of horror, exploring the minds and souls of the darkest and most twisted members of society. Audiences even seem to be lapping up horror content irrespective of quality. The Horror: 5 Scary TV Shows We Can't Get Enough Of.
Horror’s on the rise in television these days, with numerous TV shows giving us a scary alternative to the funny or dramatic fare that TV usually offers. With Halloween just a day away, we thought we’d share our list of the current -- meaning they've aired new episodes at some point this year -- TV shows that scare us the most, whether it be because they tap into our deepest fears, cause our stomachs to turn or simply because they keep us on the edge our seat, holding our breaths and wondering what might happen next, here are our five favorite scary shows. Jessica’s Pick: Bates Motel There are plenty of different ways to scare television audiences. Typically, cable houses more of the gorier and bizarre entries. In recent years, network TV has started to amp up the creep factor a bit, but the program that scares me the most still resides on cable and thankfully, was renewed for a second season last spring.
The Walking Dead Premiere Breaks Ratings Records—Again! | E! Online Canada. Gene Page/AMC The zombie apocalypse continues to be lucrative for AMC—The Walking Dead season five premiere hit new heights with 17.3 million viewers, the show's highest ratings ever. AMC's comic book adaptation also pulled in 11 million viewers in the coveted 18-49 demographic. Season 5 of The Walking Dead picked up following the events of the season four finale with the gang trapped in Terminus.
A bloody and fiery battle ensued and thanks to Carol (Melissa McBride), Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Daryl (Norman Reedus) and the rest of the gang were all reunited. "It's a Dead man's party. Who could ask for more? " Charlie Collier, AMC president, said in a statement. MORE: What happened in The Walking Dead's epic premiere The Walking Dead also stars Chandler Riggs, Chad L.
In advance of the fifth season premiere, AMC renewed the drama for a sixth season. The network is also working on a companion series set in a different location and following a new set of survivors. 7 reasons why 'The Walking Dead' is so popular. Another year, another case of "The Walking Dead" shattering cable ratings. Season 5, which premiered on Oct. 12, bowed to a record-breaking 17.3 million total viewers, about 1.2 million more viewers than its previous high. Considering that's nearing "NCIS" and "The Big Bang Theory" territory (two of the most popular shows on TV), it's safe to say that "The Walking Dead" is very, very popular.
The answer is everything and more than the previously mentioned reasons. The bottom line is "The Walking Dead" is a good -- no, great -- TV show. The tens of millions of people watching the series week after week know that, and the people who are scratching their heads over its popularity are likely unable to see past its superficial scary elements. Here are seven reasons why "The Walking Dead" is so popular. It evolves. It's not about the zombies. It has great characters. It has great writing. It's unpredictable. It cares about its credibility. It doesn't have an endgame. Horror Film Forms and Conventions.
Danse Macabre - Stephen King. Reading Angel: The TV Spin-off With a Soul. Network TV dramas equal cable TV-MA shows in graphic gore but most are ONLY rated TV-14, new study shows. Violent shows on network TV carries milder parental cautions than those on cableThe network shows often equal cable ones for graphic violenceNetwork shows face sanctions for swearing and sex but not violenceAdvertising takes a hit if ratings are TV-MAThe TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board says network TV violence and ratings need to be reviewed By Associated Press Published: 14:57 GMT, 9 December 2013 | Updated: 18:18 GMT, 9 December 2013 Violent dramas on the broadcast networks carry milder parental cautions than cable shows like 'The Walking Dead' but can equal them in graphic gore, a new study found.
Scenes of stabbings, shootings, rape, decapitation and mutilation invariably received a TV-14 'parents strongly cautioned' rating on network TV, according to the Parents Television Council study released Monday. But similar fare on cable typically was given the most stringent label, TV-MA for mature audiences only, researchers for the media watchdog group found. More to come! 15 Walking Dead Moments We Can't Believe We'll See on TV - Topless Robot - Unofficial Sponsor of Your Inner Childishness.
AMC has surprised us with some of the things they've shown on the first few episodes of their version of The Walking Dead. From killing zombie kids and the horse smorgasbord in the first episode to some of the more colorful language Michael Rooker's ultra redneck Merle Dixon spouted off in the second, it doesn't seem like Frank Darabont and company are worried about crossing too many lines with the series. But, the show hasn't even covered the ground of the first six issues of the comic yet and things get a whole helluva lot worse, with more graphic zombie attacks and some of the most disturbing human interactions ever put on the page.
We've compiled a list of the ridiculously violent and graphic moments from Robert Kirkman's comic that we'd be varying levels of shocked to see on the small screen. Instead of listing them in order of grossness, we're going chronological in case you aren't all-the-way caught up on the comics. 14) Naked Suicide Pact 13) Decapitated Kids. Is “American Horror Story” the future of TV?
RYAN MURPHY SEEMS to have something against HBO’s Treme, and it’s not hard to see why. As was observed by Vulture a few weeks ago, Murphy’s characters on both The New Normal and Glee have recently been throwing barbs at David Simon’s notoriously slow series as one that is either hate-watched or not watched at all. Last month, in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Jonathan Alexander more charitably described Simon’s epic drama about post-Katrina New Orleans as a “long, slow, sometimes beautiful, sometimes tedious argument for itself.”
Murphy, whose numerous hit series include FOX’s Glee and FX’s Nip/Tuck, would appear to ascribe to a different aesthetic philosophy. Advocating melodrama over studied observation, inspirational musical numbers and pockets of shriek-inducing violence over meandering narrative, and broad social statements over minute ethnography, Murphy, for his part, is likely the kind of maximalist auteur that would give David Simon heartburn. Is TV Too Gory? The Walking Dead When you absolutely, positively have to determine whether a zombie has devoured a missing girl, there's only one thing to do: Shoot it in the head and disembowel what's left of the flesh-eater's rotting corpse. Yuck? Perhaps, but it's that kind of occasional carnage that has fans rabid for AMC's The Walking Dead. The zombie series continues to unearth big ratings as it ushers in a new age of horror and thriller series — and the accompanying gore — on TV.
TV's past thrillers, such as The Twilight Zone, relied more on psychological scares than gore. The horror genre has made a bit of a comeback in recent years, as audiences grew accustomed to more graphic thrills via the popularity of movies like Saw, Paranormal Activity and The Human Centipede (some of which have been dubbed "torture porn" because of their graphic nature). "CSI took it to another level in terms of exploring gore," says AMC programming senior vice president Joel Stillerman.
About this blog | fantastic film and tv. This blog will largely discuss television horror, although it may stray beyond what some people consider horror to examine other areas, particularly other forms of television fantasy. It may also stray off into cinematic horror and fantasy … we shall see. Here are some suggested links: Like this: Like Loading... A meeting place for myth, imagination, and mystery in pop culture. The television series The Walking Dead premiered last Sunday, Halloween night, and I thought before the second episode this weekend I’d share a few reflections. Given my interests and the social venues and media circles I travel in it was difficult not to become aware of this series.
AMC did a masterful job of tapping into various forms of communication in order reach that segment of the population that would have the most interest in this kind of programming. This included not only ads on AMC, but also promotions in magazines like Rue Morgue, other elements of the horror community, and segments of the social networking site Facebook. The marketing then became viral and word of the series was circulated by thousands of horror and zombie enthusiasts. Scheduling the premiere on Halloween night was a brilliant move as well. There is a wealth of commentary available on the Internet on this series from various websites and blogs, but I’ll add my own thoughts to the mix. THE MOVIE WAFFLER: TV Waffle - A Short History of Horror TV. Thinking Outside the Box: A Contemporary Television Genre Reader.
Terror Television: American Series, 1970-1999 - John Kenneth Muir. A meeting place for myth, imagination, and mystery in pop culture. The Walking Dead rips up the TV rulebook with season five opener | Television & radio. A meeting place for myth, imagination, and mystery in pop culture. About Horror on TV | So, I pondered... Hills-gothic-body-parts-in-postmodern-body-of-work.pdf. HuffPost Live. TV Horror: Covering the Televisual Horror Landscape – Offscreen. The New Wave of Horror Television | tn2 Magazine. Is this the golden age of TV horror? The Golden Age of Television – at least for horror - Amityville Now. AMERICAN HORROR STORY by Steven Peacock. AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM IS CRAZY by David Bianculli. TELEVISION, THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, AND THE ZOMNEY APOCALYPSE by David Lavery. THE RETURN OF THE UNDEAD: THE WALKING DEAD, IN THE FLESH AND LES REVENANTS by Catherine Johnson. AMERICAN HORROR STORY by Steven Peacock. ZOMBIES . . . ZOMBIES EVERYWHERE: THE RISE OF ZOMBIE TV by Stacey Abbott.
Why horror TV is thriving: 'Niche' isn't a dirty word anymore. Oh, the horror? It's on your TV. A History of Horror on Television. 'Hannibal's' Bryan Fuller on the Rise of the Horror Genre, Violence on TV - Hollywood Reporter. Stephen King on the Small Screen - Mark Browning. American Horror Story/Cultural references - American Horror Story Wiki. Every Major Horror Movie Reference On American Horror Story – Imitation or Inspiration? Our Shadow Side: The Appeal of The Walking Dead.
Series/The Walking Dead. Why We Need Horror Movies Now More Than Ever -- Vulture. American Horror Story might be TV’s most influential show. So why does it suck so much? Why TV Stars Are Flocking to Horror TV | Special Cable Deals Blog. ‘Do No Harm,’ ‘The Walking Dead’ and Other TV Horror. List of books and articles about Horror Films | Online Research Library: Questia. Horror Film: Creating and Marketing Fear - 2004 | Online Research Library: Questia. Horror Films: Current Research on Audience Preferences and Reactions (Routledge Communication Series) (9780805811742): James B. Weaver, Ron Tamborini: Books. Horror. From 'American Horror Story' to 'Walking Dead,' How Horror Took Over Hollywood.