Interesting article asking why horror fans don't support horror TV series. But I have some obvious answers. filmschoolrejects.com/horror-televis…
First of all, almost all the TV series mentioned in this article are incredibly derivative. Penny Dreadful, Hannibal, Walking Dead, Ash vs Evil Dead. It's taking overly familiar properties or subgenres and turning them into broad entertainment.
And that's the key word here -- broad. A horror film is already superservicing a target audience. The film makes a contract with the viewer asking if they dare watch it. A TV series needs to appeal wider to be successful, and this leaves many horror fans behind.
I've seen this as I travel with horror films I've edited to different festivals, all manner of people telling me how terrifying even the tamest horror films are. I just can't identify with them.
This is the audience that horror TV series are made for, the audience that finds most horror films too scary to handle. To them, something like American Horror Story is just the right amount of non-scary.
It's also a lot harder to sustain a horror series than it is a film. Most horror movies run on tension, and the demands of a series are that it needs to ramp up that tension week after week after week. That's almost a fool's errand.
Take the example in the article -- Get Out. Imagine if that were a series and the entire story dragged over a whole season, turning a 90 minute thrill ride into a 13 hour marathon. You just can't sustain that tension.
So what you end up most of the time is what amounts to a drama with genre elements. That's essentially what Walking Dead is. It's a drama that has zombies in it.
And all this comes together to create an experience that makes the audience feel safe. And one thing horror fans, true horror fans, don't want to feel... is safe.
One final thought about this is that familiarity breeds comfort. Think about how scary Jason Voorhees became after 8 films, or Freddy Kruger after 6. How do you feel after 10 hours of one story?
That's why horror series are so hard to pull off.
That's why horror series are so hard to pull off.
