2011: THE YEAR HORROR WENT TO TELEVISION?

As the changing seasonal winds begin to blow throughout my Midwestern campus, I find myself reflecting about the year 2011.  As a proud survivor of TWO raptures and someone who managed to choose a school other than Penn State, I was lucky enough to ultimately deem this year as satisfying.  While my personal life has been decently satisfying, I fear that the world of the horror genre may be signaling a drastic change.  2011 was undoubtedly the year of unoriginality.  A whopping amount of the horror films that were released this year were sequels, remakes, reboots, or films heavily inspired by already beloved ones.  Obviously there were some "little indie films that could", (Hobo with a Shotgun, anyone? Anyone? Bueller?) but as a whole, this year was a little more than lackluster for quality horror films.  To contrast to this, television shows within the horror genre EXPLODED with creativity and entertaining themes. 

Previously mentioned on this blog, Ryan Murphy's sensational hit American Horror Story has completely taken the horror television genre by the collar and threatened it for its lunch money.  AHS is the combined effort of every staple within the genre and shaken all together like a bottle of glitter at a Ke$ha concert.  As a horror fanatic (and I huge Ryan Murphy fangirl) I feel it is my duty as a genre fan to try and expose everyone I know to this masterpiece, and pray that it continues on to earn the viewership it deserves.

Back for its fourth season is everyone's favorite Vampire series, True Blood.  I'll admit...I stopped watching the show halfway through the train wreck that was season three.  My hopes were crushed and I found myself unable to pay attention any longer to the ridiculous storylines and unbelievable character arcs.  A friend of mine is a complete and total diehard fan of the series and assured me that season four was more than making up for season three.  Against my better judgement, I gave the show another chance.  You know something, I'm so very glad that I did.  Season four packs a hell of a punch and Anna Paquin is as cute as ever.  Luckily for fangbangers everywhere, season four was powerful enough for HBO to renew the show for a fifth season to come out this summer. 

Earlier this October, AMC finally brought back the most talked about show of 2010, The Walking Dead.  Even after the very public firing of Frank Darabount, the season premiere, "What Lies Ahead" broke the record for the most watched cable drama in basic cable history, attaining 7.3 million viewers.  Not too shabby for a season opener, eh?  What excites me even more is that the episode was directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton...A WOMAN. Holla. Anyway, TWD has been bringing in the audiences with record numbers and although hitting a bit of a low spot throughout the middle of the season, last nights' mid-finale (directed by another woman, Michelle MacLaren) more than made up for it.  I am thirsting for it to be February just to find out how the rest of the season is going to go.  Last night really hit me in the gut, but it's exactly the jump start the season needed.  Is it a shock that the best two episodes of the season were directed by women? Not. One. Bit.

To put it bluntly, horror movies this year were less than stellar and horror television shows seem to be paving the way for genre fanatics everywhere.  Horror filmmakers everywhere should take a page from the book of these shows.  Remakes and sequels don't have to be the status quo, your audiences are THIRSTING for originality and characters they actually care about.  Quit slacking off and relying on jump scares and CGI and focus on what they teach you the first day of film school...the storyline matters.