Its rare these days to get a scene on television that genuinely makes the hairs on your neck stand up on end, which really brutally knocks you for six. Were used to gore, of course. The rise of cable TV as the go-to medium for bloodthirsty, gripping stories, along with the fall in cost of decent CG effects has seen the amount of nasty body horror on television multiplied by a factor of what-the-hell in recent years. But genuine, clammy-handed fright fests are few and far between. The old school weird sci fi and horror anthologies like The Twilight Zone, Masters Of Horror, The Outer Limits and Tales From The Crypt were always more concerned with the macabre than the chilling. Those that have stood the test of time without crumbling into cheese were either gruesome, shocking or freaky, relying on a short, sharp shock in the form of a twist(ed) ending. The entries on this list, though theyre something else. Something more sinister, nastier or more brutal, something from the darkest corners of the human mind. Whatever it is about them the ratcheting up of tension, the terrifying high-concept, the fear that it could happen to us these are the most chilling moments on television.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
