Tags: tv

In early 2009, one of our British correspondents, Simon Powell, reviewed a fascinating-sounding miniseries called Dead Set. Written by satirist Charlie Brooker, Dead Set mixed a zombie apocalypse with the reality television series Big Brother. Simon gave it a positive review, and I despaired that the show, which made its debut on the UK-based channel E4, would never see make it across the pond to the USA. Well, those worries are now dispelled -- Dead Set is making its American debut on IFC. Starting on October 25th, each of the five parts will air at 12:00AM midnight (Eastern time), with the entire series being shown in a marathon on Halloween night at 8PM Eastern. (read more...)

While it's been swirling around the rumor mills for the past six months, a press release on Friday made it official: Image Entertainment will be releasing the complete series of Boris Karloff's seminal horror/mystery anthology Thriller on DVD on August 31, 2010. The show ran for 60 episodes over two seasons from 1960 to 1962. Boris Karloff hosted each episode and acted in a few of the stories as well. One episode, "Pigeons from Hell," made our list of great episodes of television horror. The full press release (courtesy of Tom Weaver posting at the Classic Horror Film Board) is below:(read more...)

In 1983, George A. Romero and his business partner Richard Rubinstein launched a horror anthology series entitled Tales from the Darkside. Made for syndication, the show presented a new tale of terror every week for four seasons, eventually making a total of ninety modestly-budgeted episodes. Many of the episodes were based on works by renowned authors like Stephen King, Robert Bloch, and Harlan Ellison. (read more...)

I envy those who receive their television over satellite, because they have some great opportunities to watch horror-centric high-definition channels and all the trimmings such access entails. This year, for instance, Monsters HD is running a marathon of zombie movies over Thanksgiving weekend. However, they've taken pity on those of us who don't receive their channel -- they'll also have an undead two-fer available online. On November 27th, 2008, George A. Romero's Day of the Dead (1985) and Robert Kurtzman's The Rage (2007) will make their MonstersHD.com debuts. Plus, the site will still have its usual smorgasbord of horror movie trailers and MonstersHD original presentations.

Doing a list-style feature can be an easy way to generate content. I like the idea in principle, but I try to avoid presumptuous "best of" lists when I can (and sometimes, I'll admit, I can't).

With this in mind, I've concocted the "Shiverin' 6" (with apologies to the Cinematical Seven). This irregular feature will present a list of a half-dozen really excellent films (or television episodes or fictional characters or whatever) that represent a certain topic, category, or subgenre. These items will not be touted as "the six best", but as "six of the best." Readers can (and should) leave a comment telling us about their favorites -- agreeing or disagreeing with our choices and making their own additions.(read more...)

A sunny spring afternoon may not seem like the best time to visit the set of a vampire show, but Moonlight vampires don’t burst into flames at the first hint of UV light.  They just have to wear sunglasses and they suffer from heat exhaustion if they spend too long in the daylight.  Of course, rehydrating a vampire takes something a little stronger than Gatorade.

Moonlight stars Alex O’Loughlin as vampire Mick St. John who works as a private investigator.  He’s in love with Beth Turner (Sophia Myles), a mortal woman and a reporter.  Together, they solve crimes.  The show also features Jason Dohring as Mick’s best friend, the hedonistic vampire Josef.  Eric Winters recently joined the cast as Assistant District Attorney Ben Talbot, the guy who shows up at all the crime scenes Mick and Beth crash.(read more...)

Warning: Spoilers for "Doctor Who" season three and "Torchwood" season one below.  Mild spoilers for "Torchwood" season two.

If you're hooked on BBC America's airings of "Torchwood," you'll be glad to hear that work on season two has already begun.  It won't air until January of 2008 in the UK and no word yet on a US air date, so the creators were understandably tight-lipped about what was coming.  "If I say too much now, it'll be old news by the time it comes out," says head writer Chris Chibnall.  Still, they did share a few tidbits from the upcoming season.

Chibnall says, "In season one, It's almost like a dysfunctional family  It's about these kind of disparate people trying to work together, trying to work each other out.  In season two, that family is much more tight-knit.  And it's about them going out in the world as a very close-knit team."(read more...)

Producer-director Mick Garris told Fangoria that his recently announced series "Fear Itself", produced by Lionsgate and set to air on NBC during Summer 2008, is the third season of "Masters of Horror." The main difference betweens the series are shorter episode runtimes (to accomodate commercials) and the content will have to meet a stricter set of standards regarding violence, language, and sexuality. However, Garris revealed that Lionsgate would be releasing uncensored versions of each episode that would run a least five minutes longer than the network versions.

The Internet Movie Poster Awards have the latest promotional art for The CW's upcoming supernatural comedy "Reaper." The series stars Bret Harrison as a slacker whose life is going nowhere, until he finds out his parents sold his soul to the Devil (Ray Wise). Now he has to act as a bounty hunter for hell, bringing in escaped souls with the help and/or hindrance of his friend Sock (Tyler Labine). The show's premiere episode, directed by Kevin Smith, airs Tuesday, September 25th at 9PM EST/PST on The CW.

Aliens, time travel, sex, monsters, violence, sex, conspiracies, cover-ups and oh yeah, sex.  "Torchwood," which comes to the United States this Saturday on BBC America, is the little brother of "Doctor Who," or maybe the raunchy cousin who's got all the good porn on his computer.  "Torchwood" takes the popular character Captain Jack Harkness from the first season of Russell T. Davies's revival of "Doctor Who" and gives him a team and a show of his own.  He's the leader of Torchwood Three in Cardiff, Wales, a team that's "separate from the government, outside the police and beyond the United Nations."  (Torchwood One was destroyed in the season two finale of "Doctor Who" and we never hear much about the other Torchwood bases.)(read more...)