Why Horror TV Is More Popular Than Ever

Why Horror TV Is More Popular Than Ever

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American Horror Story, The Purge, and modern horror TV shows have been trailblazers from the legacy of older series like True Blood and Dexter.

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Why Horror TV Is More Popular Than Ever

While many mainstream horror movies have seen harsh criticisms so far in 2020, horror television continues to grow in popularity and shift the genre’s fanbase in a new direction. That’s not to say that movies are dead in the water, as that’s a medium that will likely never go completely out of style. With the rise of streaming giants like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video dominating a large section of media, the possibilities for horror have expanded significantly for a few distinct reasons.

In the past, horror television has encompassed shows like Twin Peaks in a serialized format in the early ’90s along with other genre-benders like The X-Files (1993) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997). Later, shows that really sought to capitalize on horror elements in darker, more boundary-pushing ways, such as True Blood and Dexter, found their home on networks like HBO and Showtime likely because they could show content that wasn’t allowed elsewhere. Horror and horror-adjacent series from the mid and early 2000s saw such a huge audience base that other networks green-lit shows that existed in the same genre, hoping to capitalize on what they saw being successful elsewhere. Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology, American Horror Story aired for the first time on FX in 2011, and has recently been green-lit through a landmark thirteenth season.

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AMC began airing The Walking Dead in 2010, and A&E took audiences to the Bates Motel in 2013. Those shows were both incredibly successful, so the trend continued. However, the proven interest in horror caught the attention of the streaming platforms that were starting to rise to prominence, and that’s when everything really started to boom.

Horror TV Has Seen An Increase In Popularity And Accessibility

Netflix, which originally began as a DVD rental service by mail, eventually switched their library over to an online streaming format. In 2013, they came out with their first original series, House of Cards, and the rest was history. Since horror had proven to be lucrative as a TV genre based on the success of shows on network television, Netflix started to capitalize on this. The Eli Roth produced series, Hemlock Grove, premiered on Netflix in 2013, and while the series was relatively short-lived, the platform expanded from there. Eventually, they reached the heights of success in the horror space with Stranger Things in 2016 and Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House, which is another anthology series, in 2018.

The ability for binge-watching series on Netflix – as the full season tends to drop all at once – gave horror fans a new way to enjoy content from the comfort of their own home, and without having to wait week to week, as was being done on network television. While serialized television hasn’t seen a complete downslide in popularity, horror content is more able to push boundaries on streaming networks like Hulu and Netflix as well, similar to what was done on HBO and Showtime, though their content is set up so that all audiences can find something to explore within the same genre. Stranger Things and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina are more oriented toward a young adult audience, where shows like Hemlock Grove were more visceral, dark, and edgy.

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When Hulu expanded to original content, there was yet another avenue for original horror television, and the platform decided to tackle Castle Rock, based around many of the works of legendary horror author, Stephen King. While Castle Rock has yet to be renewed for a third season, it brought a massive audience of King fans because, as proven, the writer’s material is almost a guaranteed success. Regardless of how mainstream horror movies are doing, horror television is here to stay and, as streaming continues to become more dominant as a media source, there’s sure to be a bright future for the genre.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/horror-tv-shows-popularity-increase-reason/

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