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Established Horror

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Rethinking Horror in the New Economies of Television

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Abstract

This chapter considers horror serialization on free-to-air US TV networks. Solely funded by advertising, networks are potentially the most problematic model on which to schedule horror. This chapter will explore how NBC with Hannibal (2013–2015) and Dracula (2013–2014) took part in the horror cycle of the 2010s by developing horror series that were international co-productions to reduce cost and risk and combined well-established horror characters with familiar television drama forms. With Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the crime procedural, and Dracula reimagined as an American entrepreneur in a costume drama. This chapter also examines iZombie (The CW, 2015–2019), another repackaging of the by 2015 established TV zombie into a low-key murder-of-the-week series, punctuated by comedy and romance. This chapter will demonstrate that the amalgamation of horror into existing television forms is a strategy utilized by networks to take part in the horror trend.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Red Dragon (1981); Hannibal (1999); and Hannibal Rising (2006).

  2. 2.

    Fuller said this in a Prosthetics Featurette from the DVD box set of Season 2.

  3. 3.

    In the real world, serial killers are usually one or the other, process or product killers. For example, John Wayne Gacy was a process killer, how and why he killed was more important than the corpse. With the product killer, the method of murder itself is not significant but returning to the body and/or using it after death is, like Ted Bundy or Ed Gein.

  4. 4.

    Z Nation (SyFy 2014–2018); The Returned (A&E 2015); Fear The Walking Dead (AMC 2015–); Game of Thrones (HBO 2011–2019); Ash V Evil Dead (Starz 2015–2018).

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  1. University of Salford, Manchester, UK

    Stella Marie Gaynor

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  1. Stella Marie Gaynor
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Correspondence to Stella Marie Gaynor .

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Gaynor, S.M. (2022). Established Horror. In: Rethinking Horror in the New Economies of Television. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97589-0_8

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