Horror TV has come a long way over the past few years. The whole television industry has evolved so much in such a short space of time and now there are numerous ways to enjoy your favourite TV shows. A broader range of channels and endless streaming services have been popping up everywhere giving us a wider selection of shows, and more importantly, multiple ways to watch them. Thankfully this has had little affect on the quality of TV which quite frankly almost surpasses that of the movie world these days. Binging on box sets and the sort of chatter that TV shows generates nowadays is phenomenal and many high profile productions are already cinematic in their own right. And horror is one such genre that has been at the forefront of game-changing TV, so we thought we would take a look back at some classic horror shows that are most deserved of a modern TV reboot.
RENTAGHOST (1976-1984)
A few years back there were plans for this classic British children’s TV show to get the big screen treatment and even had Ben Stiller attached. There’s been little movement on the project since but we think it would be the perfect series to reboot for TV audiences. The original show was based around a gang of eccentric spooks who could be hired out by the general public for a number of different tasks, and had a fantastic theme song to boot! There were initial plans to revive it in 2008 however it looks like the doors are still open for a return and we could be enjoying more ghostly antics in the near future.
MASTERS OF HORROR (2005-2007)
In Showtime’s short-lived ‘Masters of Horror’ series numerous horror directors got involved in order to showcase their genre skills with standalone episodes as part of this ambitious anthology series. Each episode was an hour long and it attracted the talents of Dario Argento, Stuart Gordon, Tobe Hooper, Joe Dante, John Landis and the late great John Carpenter. Like the vast majority of anthology series there were good ones and bad ones but it was a great way for writers and directors to flex their horror muscles once more in between movie projects as well as further develop project ideas that may have been sitting around in development.
THE STONE TAPE (1972)
There are so many great American horror shows from yesteryear, the names of which are often tossed about when it comes to discussing small screen reboots. But there’s also a rich history of classic horror shows this side of the pond too which could also offer a great source of potential material. With Hammer horror retelling the story of Dracula and other great horror Christmas-time chillers were very prominent in the 70’s and 80’s on British TV and in Peter Sasdy’s 1972 ghost tale ‘The Stone Tape’ we were treated to tense terror when a team of scientists experiment with new sound equipment in a haunted Victorian mansion in order to determine if the stones within the building are able to record past events. It was a terrifically claustrophobic tale penned by Nigel Kneale (‘Quatermass’) and is certainly the perfect fodder for a modern redo.
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