10 Horror TV Shows You Must Never Pause

These moments are often horrifying for all the wrong reasons.

Haunting Of HIll House
Netflix

It's fair to say that horror, perhaps more than any other genre of media, benefits from what isn't shown to viewers, of hiding terrifying threats in the shadows and crucially not making the production's visual effects limitations clear.

There's a lot to be said for restraint, for only periodically showing the terror, because with the nature of digital media these days, it's all too easy for audiences to hit the pause button and take a long, lingering look at an effect that doesn't stand up to prolonged scrutiny.

These 10 horror TV shows, each with their own devoted fanbases and many of them acclaimed classics, dared to offer up moments that you absolutely shouldn't pause, from unconvincing CGI to atrociously obvious body doubles, and yes, an Easter egg hunt so terrifying you really shouldn't bother.

TV production is hard with the time and financial constraints compared to film, but even so, most of these moments shouldn't be paused because they're just so easily torn down with the press of a single button.

Experience them in the moment and then move on rather than stripping all of their mystique away with a mere freeze-frame...

10. Terrible CGI EVERYWHERE - The Walking Dead

Haunting Of HIll House
AMC

Despite being one of the most popular TV shows of the last decade-plus, with episodes being budgeted at several million dollars each, it's shocking just how persistently terrible The Walking Dead's visual effects are.

Hell, there are enough hideous CGI blunders in the show that we even wrote a list on it, with by far the most infamous VFX gaffe being an embarrassingly low-fi digital deer that showed up in the series' seventh season.

This is just one of several instances of egregiously poor CGI throughout the show: there's the digital CDC building explosion, Michonne (Danai Gurira) walking past burning mattresses that were created in post, and the awful green screen shot of Rick standing in front of a landfill, not to mention the general overabundance of unconvincing CGI blood throughout.

Basically, never pause anything in this show to get a better look, because there's a good chance it'll just reveal how shamelessly AMC cut corners in order to save a little money. Yikes.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.