The Old School Otaku Lounge

With Halloween coming up soon, it seems like a good time to discuss the world of horror-themed television shows!

Some of my favorites include Night Gallery, Freddy’s Nightmares, and Monsters. Sure, none of these shows are perfect, but each one is a lot of fun, and always manages to make me nostalgic for nights spent in front of the television set, hoping to catch something spooky being broadcast.

Hopefully there are some fellow horror fans on the forum; please share your memories and favorite shows!

Freddy's Nightmares and Night Gallery were always fun. Friday the 13th: The Series had some enjoyable episodes too. The first season of Tales from the Darkside was great. And if we're going even further back, shows like Thriller (hosted by Boris Karloff) and Twilight Zone were a blast.

Though, my favorite horror TV show was, hands down, Tales from the Crypt. It's a vivid childhood memory catching episodes every Saturday night at 11pm (two episodes would always air back-to-back) with my uncle in NYC. We'd order pizza and it would always arrive just before the show would broadcast. It was a weekly tradition. Now I own the whole series on DVD and it still holds up remarkably well today, aside from the pretty dismal last season.

Char Aznable wrote:Though, my favorite horror TV show was, hands down, Tales from the Crypt. It's a vivid childhood memory catching episodes every Saturday night at 11pm (two episodes would always air back-to-back) with my uncle in NYC. We'd order pizza and it would always arrive just before the show would broadcast. It was a weekly tradition. Now I own the whole series on DVD and it still holds up remarkably well today, aside from the pretty dismal last season.

Tales from the Crypt is great! I only own a few seasons myself, but it really is a fun series. I used to stay up late to catch it on the weekends; I believe it ran in syndication for a while (in an edited form).

I enjoyed Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside, and Kolchak: the Night Stalker (when I eventually caught the re-runs.)

I think Amazing Stories, and of course Jim Henson's The Storyteller, had a few horror-themed episodes as well.

Yes! Tales from the Crypt was always super great. I also enjoyed Tales from the Darkside and Twilight Zone. I actually never saw Freddy's Nightmares, I think we didn't get the channel it was on whenever it was airing. One of these days I should get around to watching it.

Let's see...I also enjoyed Dark Shadows on occasion, The Outer Limits, Alfred Hitchcock Presents...I recall liking American Gothic, but it's been so long I can't remember most of it. As a kid I loved Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, even tho it was super cheesy. Recently I watched Darknet and Black Mirror on Netflix, which were both pretty good, tho Black Mirror was hit or miss on some. I also enjoyed the creepiness of Hannibal, esp. in season 2.

X-files had some good creepy episodes back in the day, too. The episode "Home" still creeps me out to this day!

Tales From the Crypt, obviously. Unsolved Mysteries is probably actually a horror series as well. Same with Twilight Zone.

But there's not a lot of "pure" horror these days aside from American Horror Story (which I haven't started watching yet).

I'm pretty picky when it comes to horror though. I don't like anything too gory, but at the same time I don't like generic, bland, safe, horror either. I usually like a bit of an action component in my horror too. And visuals...too many people often think just shooting everything in the dark counts as scary, but if I have to turn up the brightness level on my TV even once, it's just more visually murky rather than atmospheric.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER!!!

I like my horror tv shows with some humor and beauty to go along with the fear and gore. Got to have a little balance. ^__^

yusaku wrote:BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER!!!

Good choice! I didn't even think of this, but it certainly qualifies!

I was one of the few people out there that never watched Buffy, lol.

I watched Buffy religiously for the first 3 seasons, but Whedon's dialogue quirks began to wear on me after that. I came to really dislike Xander, who as it turns out was a stand in for Whedon himself at times. I get that what rubs me wrong is also what people like about him though, so it's definitely a "try and see your tastes" kind of show.

It was fun comparing Buffy to Sailor Moon at the time because they often had similar plotting structures for their seasons. Introducing main bad guys along with "mini bosses". Filler episodes followed by key episodes where Buffy and co "beat" the mini bosses, followed by more filler, and then 6 or 7 rollercoaster ride episodes to wrap the season up where they take on the ULTIMATE BAD GUY OF THE SEASON.

Would I consider Buffy as horror? It didn't *feel* like horror to me but I definitely get and understand people counting it as one.