the tv terror top 40

A 164-PAGE CELEBRATION OF THE GREATEST GORE ON FILM & TV
ALIEN
CELEBRATING THE
WORLD’S SCARIEST
HORROR SAGA
CAUTION!
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MIDNIGHT!
ŗ Exclusive new interviews!
ŗ Every Alien film revisited!
THE
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IG
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T
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FROM TH G DEAD... THE SH
WALKIN T TERRIFIED US
THA
PLUS!
exclusive!
THE
GREEN INFERNO
DIRECTOR ELI ROTH
INTERVIEWED
exclusive!
THE
WALKING DEAD
ARMING THE ZOMBIE
HUNTERS
preview!
THE STRAIN
GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S NEW TV SHOW
PLUS Supernatural ŗ The Shining ŗ Hannibal ŗ London Horror Comic ŗ Frightfest ŗ The Thing ŗ Poltergeist
The Company Of Wolves ŗ Hellraiser ŗ Christopher Lee ŗ Tremors ŗ The Blair Witch Project ŗ And Loads More
CONTENTS
W
elcome to SFX’s latest foray into
the fantastic world of horror!
Over the next 164 pages we’re
bringing you the ultimate
coverage of your favourite
genre in all its icky shapes and
sizes. We’ve dipped into the SFX vaults for
classic features of yesteryear, and there’s
also oodles of brand new content, including
capsule reviews of every Christopher Lee
horror movie, a look forward to FrightFest,
and a rundown of the 40 most memorable
TV shows that have dabbled in the grim and
gruesome. There’s also your definite guide
to the long-running Alien franchise. So jump
in and join us! The water’s lovely. Except for
those floating corpses…
20
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136
158
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TOP 40 TV HORROR 44
PROMETHEUS
Your countdown of the greatest
Was the 2012 movie as
small-screen shockers.
disappointing as some say?
18
ALIEN
52
ALIEN: ISOLATION
Analysing Ridley Scott’s original
We take a look at 2014’s most
sci-fi scarefest.
terrifying videogame.
20
ALIENS
56
SUPERNATURAL GORE
How James Cameron reinvented
The yuckiest scenes from the
the franchise.
brotherly horror show.
26
ALIEN 3
The story of one of the
62
HANNIBAL
We compare the four men to
grimmest of all sequels.
play the fearsome flesh-eater.
52
132
THE STRAIN
What Guillermo del Torro’s new
TV show has in store.
136
CHRISTOPHER LEE
A rundown of every single fright
film the venerable master of
horror has appeared in!
132
148 LONDON
HORROR
COMIC
Exclusive! A fabulous extract
from the anthology comic.
30
ALIEN: RESURRECTION 124
FRIGHTFEST
Sigourney Weaver’s swansong
Previewing Britain’s premier
as tough-as-boots Ripley.
horror film festival.
158
THE WALKING DEAD
Chatting with the man who
arms the zombie killers.
36
ALIEN VS PREDATOR 128
ELI ROTH
A special effects whizz on the
The Hostel director on his new
162
HORROR BINGO
franchise mash-up sequels.
picture, The Green Inferno.
Eyes down, horror hounds!
4
SFX PRESENTS HORROR
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Great balls of silver death!
Going back into the woods.
A unique fright fairytale.
Sam Raimi’s video nasty.
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THE TV TERROR TOP 40
The scariest, spookiest, goriest and most influential
horror shows that television has ever produced
U
ntil recently, TV horror was rarely able
to be as visceral and bloody as its bigscreen cousins. Those restrictions were
disappointing for gorehounds, but in
many ways they forced the shows to be
more psychologically terrifying. Mood,
atmosphere and tension – those things horror
movie directors always talk about before dropping
a bucket of pig intestines on their stars’ heads –
became the language of TV terror. And now that
TV can flay people alive and play billiards with
testicles, those decades of restraint are making
6
SFX PRESENTS HORROR
sure that shows like True Blood are more than
mere bloodbaths. Well, most of the time...
Here we list SFX’s top TV terrors, with as much
respect given to a show’s influence and inroads
into the zeitgeist as the gore quotient. Though an
ability to simply make you jump or go “Eurgh!”
still has a role to play.
Your reviewers are: Rob Power (RP); Jayne
Nelson (JN): Jordan Farley (JF); Russell Lewin
(RL); Will Salmon (WS); Alasdair Stuart (AS);
Stephen Kelly (SK); Joseph McCabe (JM); Dave
Golder (DG); Calum Waddell (CW)
THE TV TERROR TOP 40
That’s your
mum, that is.
40
TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE (US)
YEARS: 1983–1988 EPISODES: 90
“Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But there is,
unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly
lit... a darkside.”
Not the opening narration of a film about 1970s BBC TV personalities, but
George Romero’s horror anthology series, a sort-of follow-up to his 1982 movie
Creepshow. Over four seasons, Darkside served up often humorous, sometimes
hammy tales, all shot in delightful* ’80s videoesque style – and included the
writings of Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Clive Barker and Robert Bloch.
Low on budget and high on synthesised music it may have been, but Darkside
did spur the late ’80s TV anthology revival, and led to a decent 1990 big-screen
movie. The show is patchy – some episodes are dire – but it was often great fun
and an easily-digestable 22 minutes of viewing. And there are no 1970s BBC TV
personalities in it.
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: The pilot, “Trick Or Treat”, set a good
precedent, when miserable old Gideon Hackles (Barnard Hughes) gets his
comeuppance in the episode finale. RL
*may not be delightful
38
GARTH MARENGHI’S DARKPLACE (UK)
YEAR: 2004 EPISODES: 6
The title was funny. The way it was deliberately atrociously shot and edited
was funny. Even the names of the characters were funny (Dean Learner,
Dr Lucien Sanchez, Dr Rick Dagless MD, Madeleine Wool – brilliant!). The
actors were all great. So while Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace wasn’t scary, it was
highly amusing – a perfectly made comedy riffing on horror tropes.
A dig at both bad 1980s television shows and hack supernatural fiction, the
show had self-important author Marenghi (Matthew Holness) introduce what
was purported to be the show he’d written, produced, directed and starred
in 20 years previously. The show took place in a hospital in Romford, Essex,
which was regularly threatened by supernatural entities (zombies, apes,
extraterrestrial vegetables...) due to being situated over the gates of hell.
There was talk of a Darkplace movie. It never happened, although there was a
spin-off, Man To Man With Dean Learner in 2006, which sadly wasn’t the same
kind of thing at all.
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: Nothing really scary of course, but moments
like a doctor being chased by a possessed stapler and a woman turning into
broccoli stay in the mind. RL
We learn more of Freddy’s
history in the TV show.
39
GRIMM (US)
YEARS: 2011–PRESENT EPISODES: 66
37
FREDDY’S NIGHTMARES (US)
YEARS: 1988–1990 EPISODES: 44
Grimm is a weird old mix. And we’re not talking the basic premise which is
“buddy cop show meets Nightbreed”. More the fact that at times it can be very
grisly and, well, grim (the show’s main hero becomes a zombie at one point),
but at the same time it has monsters that look like they were designed for a
1970s Hannah-Barbera cartoon. The basic premise has cop Nick Burkhardt
discovering that he is a Grimm, with the power to see monsters living among
us in disguise, and the weapons to dispatch them. But he’s just as likely to make
friends with them if they don’t try to kill him first. And in amongst the merrygo-round of silly-monster-that-looks-like-a-squirrel, silly-monster-that-lookslike-a-chinchilla and silly-monster-that-looks-like-a-procupine, we get some
really quite scary moments.
Unlike the concurrent Friday The 13th: The Series (which had nothing to do
with Camp Crystal Lake or Jason), Freddy’s Nightmares was a revelation for
fans of the Elm Street franchise. Star Robert Englund – as the gloved maniac
himself – hosted each episode and, in some cases, starred in the actual stories.
The superlative pilot episode “No More Mr Nice Guy” actually acted as a
prequel to Wes Craven’s own 1984 film – and was directed by Texas Chain
Saw Massacre man Tobe Hooper – while “Sister’s Keeper” finds a pair of
twins attempting to curb Freddy’s deadly dreamscapes. Die-hard horrorhounds will also note the familiar slasher directors who made their mark on
this terrestrial terror totem. Tom DeSimone, who helmed the Linda Blair slice
and dicer Hell Night (1981), was roped in for numerous instalments whilst
Halloween 4’s Dwight Little took on season one highlight “Do Dreams Bleed”
– in which a rival serial slayer enters Freddy’s Springwood domain.
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: The exploding stomachs in “A Dish Best
Served Cold”. DG
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: The gruelling dental nightmare of the pilot
episode is far ickier than anything in the recent Elm Street remake. CW
SFX PRESENTS HORROR
7
THE TV TERROR TOP 40
Island of terror! The
creature strikes.
36
THE NIGHTMARE MAN (UK)
YEAR: 1981 EPISODES: 4
“The Whatnow Who?” you might ask of this 1980s obscurity. But The
Nightmare Man is fondly remembered by those who caught it on transmission
or took a chance on the DVD a few years back.
Set on a fog-bound Scottish island beset by a string of grizzly murders, it
has an uneasy atmosphere from the start. We know that something is afoot,
but it’s only towards the end of the second episode that it becomes clear we’re
in science fiction and horror territory.
Former Doctor Who script editor Robert Holmes adapted the serial from
David Wiltshire’s novel, Child Of Vodyanoi. It shows – this often feels like a
more adult Who story. There’s a monster, a mysterious stranger and it is, for
all intents and purposes, a base-under-siege tale. It’s not particularly scary
and it drags in places, but the brooding ambience and strong performances
from Michael Gaffikin and Celia Imrie make for an engaging watch.
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: A low key scene that’s creepy because of
what you don’t see. Over dinner in their hotel, Michael and Fiona discuss
the fact that the woman Mike has been perving on is absent that night. They
slowly realise what that might mean... and her body is later found. WS
34
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN: THE SERIES (US)
YEAR: 2014 EPISODES: 10
2014 is a good time to be a horror fan. Everyone from Hannibal to Norman
Bates is enjoying a new lease of life in intelligent and provocative prime time
stints. Moreover, movies that were considered to have “underperformed”
back in the day – such as 1996’s From Dusk Till Dawn – are being given
a second chance to splatter the screen blood red. Developed by Robert
Rodriguez himself, who calls the shots on four of the episodes, From Dusk
Till Dawn takes some time to get tasty. The pilot re-introduces us to the
Gecko Brothers (now played by DJ Cotrona and Zane Hotlz) and plays out
as a bloody, bullet-ridden hostage thriller. However, things heat up when the
twosome, and their captives, flee to the Mexico border and the inevitable
vampire mayhem takes precedence. Fans of Salma Hayek’s original snake
dance also have reason to celebrate – actress Eiza González does the serpent
shuffle with an even more alluring mix of seduction and sinister intent…
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: Satanico (Eiza González) goes on a bloody,
bloody bar brawl after revealing herself as a vampire in “Pandemonium”. CW
They’re a good looking
bunch, aren’t they?
35
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES (US)
YEARS: 2009–PRESENT EPISODES: 111
There’s nothing scarier on The Vampire Diaries than Damon’s eyes. Seriously,
look at them; they’ve practically got a life of their own. We can only imagine
the demonic forces that must be pulling the strings behind those eyebrows.
The rest may be more soap-opera teen romance than horror show, but The
Vampire Diaries can still do gore with the best of them. Characters are staked,
eviscerated and their necks broken with surprising regularity. Death is as big
a part of the show as snogging, and the cornucopia of supernatural creatures
(all of whom hate each other) means that a gruesome murder is never far
away. It does traditional scares well too, with a variety of creepy locations in
and around Mystic Falls serving as a perfect backdrop for the show’s more
frightening moments, while the ghosts are effective at delivering shocks.
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: In “The Turning Point” Elena hits a
mysterious hooded figure with her car, only for the crumpled corpse to
reanimate with a series of grisly cracks. JF
8
SFX PRESENTS HORROR
33
THE ORIGINALS (US)
YEARS: 2013–PRESENT EPISODES: 23
This Vampire Diaries spin-off is set largely in New Orleans – a creepy and
characterful city – and stars its parent show’s breakout characters – the
Originals. This is a Good Thing for horror enthusiasts because the Originals,
Klaus especially, have no qualms about killing, especially when it helps
them get their way. The show’s vampires can walk round in daylight and are
virtually unkillable, which means they lack all the traditional weaknesses that
bloodsuckers suffer from. It’s a show largely about the power struggle between
the old guard and the new in New Orleans, kind of like The Godfather with
vampires, witches and werewolves. It’s not the scariest show in the world, but
it does murder and mayhem with the best of them, and there’s usually a good
bloodbath every six episodes or so. It’s also got some remarkably charismatic
and engaging characters, along with a plot that likes to race along.
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: Any time the creepy, white-suit-wearing ghost
twins turn up. JF
THE TV TERROR TOP 40
Tame terrors in
Goosebumps.
32
GOOSEBUMPS (CANADA)
YEARS: 1995–1998 EPISODES: 74
“Viewer beware, you’re in for a scare” declared the Goosebumps TV show, but
watch it now and you’re more likely to laugh than cower behind a cushion in
fear. Even young ’uns will see through the dodgy production values, terrible
performances and absurd visual effects. But there’s still a nugget of primal
terror that survives the transition from the page to the screen, because author
RL Stine has a mind built for scaring kids. Episodes like “Stay Out Of The
Basement” (where two young girls discover a plant mutant has been posing as
their father) and “Night Of The Living Dummy” (a classic talking dummy tale)
are unsettling to this day – no surprise the show ran into constant ratings and
censorship issues in the UK. A perfect place to start for any young horror fan.
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: “The Haunted Mask” – a young girl buys the
creepiest Halloween mask you’ve ever seen, and can’t take it off… JF
31
30
THE OUTER LIMITS (US)
YEARS: 1963–1965 EPISODES: 49
A spiritual cousin to The Twilight Zone, this anthology series focused more on
science fiction than horror. Its most famous episodes are pure SF instalments
like “Soldier” and “Demon With A Glass Hand” – both by Harlan Ellison.
But those eerie opening titles – “There is nothing wrong with your television
set... we are controlling transmission” – hint at an intent to spook the viewer.
“Nightmare” focusses on a group of space marines who are captured and
tortured, physically and psychologically. “The Zanti Misfits” finds Earth facing
some creepy insectoid aliens. And some episodes – like “ZZZZZ”, which is
about a bee that can take on human form, were just plain weird. The show was
revived in the ’90s and featured more overt horror tropes (no doubt influenced
by The X-Files’ wild success), but is less fondly regarded than the mad and
daring original run.
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: “Nightmare” is a staggeringly bleak and
unsettling look at the human condition for a mainstream ’60s sci-fi show.
Trapped and tortured by aliens (or so it seems...), a group of soldiers fail to band
together, instead turning on each other. WS
Aeroplane food will
do this to you.
THE HUNGER (UK/CANADA)
YEARS: 1997–2000 EPISODES: 44
Despite sharing a name with Tony Scott’s 1983 vampire flick, this Hunger is
an anthology show. There are no concrete links to the movie, but it shares a
similar soft-core erotic tone and themes of desire and obsession.
It certainly wasn’t lacking in talent. Scott himself directed two episodes
and scripts were written by horror notables like Poppy Z Brite and Graham
Masterton. Terence Stamp was the show’s “host”, but was replaced by David
Bowie (who starred in the movie) for the second season.
Unfortunately, it aired on network TV in an age that hadn’t yet embraced
outrageous boobs-and-blood cable shows like Game Of Thrones. Despite the
adult subject matter and some risqué scenes, it was restricted in just what it
could show. If The Hunger was made again today, no doubt by HBO, it likely
would have better lived up to its queasy, sleazy potential.
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: This one is just a bit weird. In the episode
“Bridal Suite”, a newly-married couple book themselves into a hotel, only
to discover that their bed has been cursed. The upshot of this is that the
woman’s adulterous husband is absorbed into the bed for all eternity. Well,
we suppose it’s plausible... WS
29
FRINGE (US)
YEARS: 2008–2013 EPISODES: 100
Rather like The X-Files, Fringe excelled itself in coming up with crazy,
unexplained scenarios that pushed the limits of horror while also maintaining
its police procedural format. However, unlike The X-Files, which remained
(mostly) tethered to real life, Fringe could afford to really let loose when it
wanted to, given that it became a show about parallel worlds interfering with
our own to cause all sorts of weird-ass crap.
Consequently, you have people falling to their deaths when the floors of
buildings suddenly disappear from under their feet. Others get stuck half in,
half out of walls during a bank robbery. Others die thanks to horrendous, gory
diseases, viruses or parasites. The list goes on: if there’s an inventive, utterly
insane way for someone to die, they'll find it. Quite how the Fringe Division
didn’t spend half their working life barfing up their lunch, we don't know.
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: In the episode “Ability”, a mysterious
chemical substance causes innocent victims’ orifices to seal up – leaving them
mouthless, nostril-less and eye-less… JN
SFX PRESENTS HORROR
9
THE TV TERROR TOP 40
Martin Shaw took the
lead as Father Jacob.
28
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (US)
YEARS: 1997–2003 EPISODES: 144
26
APPARITIONS (UK)
YEAR: 2008 EPISODES: 6
For much of its run, Buffy was all about the comedy. Even in situations that
would frighten the willies out of most people, our sassy Buffy Summers would
crack wise and break the tension to such an extent that you forget there’s
anything terrifying about fighting monsters. But occasionally – just occasionally
– Buffy could genuinely scare us out of our wits. Xander losing his eye in “Dirty
Girls”, for instance. The murder of Warren, flayed alive by our little, innocent
Willow. And the death of Buffy’s mother Joyce, of course, in an episode that was
terrifying simply because it was so awfully real and mundane.
And then there’s “Hush”. Almost universally accepted as being the best
Buffy episode out there – it’s most definitely the cleverest – it uses the gimmick
of having the population of Sunnydale lose the ability to speak while they’re
hunted by a pack of besuited Gentlemen who don’t walk but glide. Nightmares
were most definitely had.
Father Jacob, a miracle investigator for the Catholic Church, finds himself
drawn into the war between Heaven and Hell. Apparitions only ran for one
season but it made those episodes count. An unflinchingly nasty series, both
physically and psychologically, it’s anchored by three immensely strong
central performances. Shaw’s Catholic priest is a quietly troubled, good man
who it’s easy to like. Siobhan Finneran is splendidly vinegary as his reluctant
sidekick and Rick Warden is astounding as the tormented pawn that Jacob is
trying to save. Very much a forerunner to Being Human in how it combined
the mundanity of normal life with horror, Apparitions pulled no punches
and the gore is often a little excessive. Get past that, though, and you have
a surprisingly coherent and moving series. An honest look at Catholicism
in particular and faith in general, Apparitions is eccentric, difficult but
absolutely worth your time.
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: The Gentlemen smiling so beatifically as they
tear out a poor guy’s heart – and he can't scream because they’ve stolen his
voice. JN
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: The demon uses some extraordinarily
vicious foul language; the F-word’s shock value may have diminished on TV
these days, but in Apparitions it becomes a reenergised force for evil. AS
Black Mirror is named
after an Arcade Fire song.
27
BLACK MIRROR (UK)
YEARS: 2011–PRESENT EPISODES: 6
It turns out that aside from his day job as the angriest man in the media,
Charlie Brooker also knows a thing or two about writing terrifying TV. Black
Mirror, two short series of unconnected episodes, smashed the Twilight Zone
into 2000 AD’s Future Shocks, fused it with Brooker’s grim view of modern life,
and created something quite, quite brilliant.
The first episode pondered what would happen if the Prime Minister was
blackmailed into shagging a pig on live TV, and the premise of each subsequent
instalment got progressively darker. Computer game prison dystopias and evil
talent shows, paranoid visions of a world where everything you see can be
recorded and played back, horrific prisoner-baiting theme parks – Brooker’s
worlds are not places you’d ever want to visit. But what resonated the most was
a profound fear that we are all completely buggered, and it’s our own fault. A
show that causes deep psychological distress, basically. Thanks for that, Charlie.
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: The end of “15 Million Merits”, when Bing is
revealed to have been incorporated into the system he once hated. Bleak. RP
10
SFX PRESENTS HORROR
25
IN THE FLESH (UK)
YEARS: 2013–PRESENT EPISODES: 9
BBC Three’s In The Flesh is a rare thing: a show about zombies in which
the zombies are not actually the scariest thing in it. Set a few years after an
undead apocalypse, it sees “partially deceased syndrome sufferer” Kieren
Walker reintegrated back into the fictional small village of Roarton after
being medically treated for his desire to feast on the flesh of the living. Sure,
there is the odd scene of conventional terror – series two’s opener of a zombie
terrorist attack on a city tram, for example, is particularly traumatic – but
the real terror is in the allegory: the uneasiness of Roarton’s prejudice and
xenophobia, and how it mirrors not only the very real horror that people go
through every day, but in how it also forces you to examine your very own
sense of morality. After all, would you really want a zombie for a neighbour?
STANDOUT SCARY MOMENT: Among the many jump scares, it’s series
two’s opener which presents the most horrific of scenarios: people are stuck
in a tram, with no way out, in the midst of a zombie terrorist attack. SK