10 Best TV Series Based On Horror Movies

Horror films often provide great source material for television shows. They are exciting, have larger than life characters, and often have interesting mythology or back stories to them that cannot be fully explored in the duration of a film.

Some shows expand on a premise that while good, was not fully developed in the film, and take the story into a more expanded universe. This can quite often involve discovering more details about secondary characters who proved to be popular with the fans and bringing them to the forefront.

Other films had a great idea but executed it poorly so remaking it into a television show is a chance to get it right and try again by improving on the original. This has often led to shows becoming hits while few people remember the film that inspired it.

TV shows are also frequently used to delve into the origin of a story, explaining details that the film didn’t have the opportunity to answer.

They can flesh out characters to show what happened to them to turn them into who we know from the film. There is also the scope to show what happened after the film ended, answering plot holes or cliff-hangers.

Here are some of the best TV series that are based on horror movies (warning: spoilers!).

Freddy’s Nightmares was an anthology series that was introduced after the fourth film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series to capitalise on the popularity of the franchise.

Robert Englund reprised his role as Freddy Kreuger, introducing and summarising each story and featuring in some of the episodes.

The show lasted for two seasons, and each episode consisted of two standalone stories (the second usually featured a minor character from the first) set in Springwood with a different cast.

The first episode was produced by Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and acted as a prequel to the first film, telling the story of Freddy’s trial after being arrested for child murder.

Freddy is set free due to not being read his rights, then goes on a killing spree before being burned to death by the rampaging Elm Street parents. The episode ends with Freddy killing the police officer who killed him while he is anaesthetised in the dentist chair.

Freddy featured sporadically in the other episodes, with a lot of the other stories featuring a running theme of dreams and insanity.

In a self-referential episode featuring Freddy’s uninvited attendance at his class reunion, one of his classmates wrote a screenplay about Freddy which he took to Hollywood, implying that the films were just another story in the series.

The show featured mainly unknown actors (apart from Englund) due to budget constraints, but notable cast members included Lori Petty, Bill Moseley, George Lazenby, Jeff Conaway and Brad Pitt.