The topic for this post is kind of last minute because I had mistaken this weekend for the weekend that we have our Book-To-Movie review but that’s not until next Saturday. So, I spent the majority of the time getting everything together for that. But for this post, I have for you something kind of like a Book-To-Movie. It's more of a book-to-TV. It’s TV anthologies. 

Anthology series are one of the latest trends in streaming television. This is especially so in the Horror genre. Although I'm not one for horror television like I am with movies of the genre, I do make an exception when it comes to anthology series. I've always enjoyed the horror that the shows of the 1960s such as “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits” came out with. So, I'm always willing to give a TV horror anthology a try. The TV streaming service, Shudder, is loaded with horror anthology series. After all, horror is its specialty! One of the most popular of these series has been “Creepshow”. So, since I have the extra time during this three-day President’s Day weekend, I signed up for a free trial of Shudder almost for “Creepshow” and the documentary movie, “Horror Noire”, alone. Speaking of which, while surfing through the list of programming, I discovered another anthology by the same name as the documentary. So, my plan is to watch some episodes of that as well before the trial ends next week. 

Shudder’s ‘Creepshow’

The “Creepshow” anthology series is a Shudder original but based on the 1980s anthology movie of the same name. It has the comic book style of storytelling like the movie (and its sequel that also released in the 80s) and so the stories’ openings and scene changes are transitioned into through the turning of four-colour, multi-paneled pages. Most episodes consist of two segments of which each is a different story. One episode features a segment based on a short story by Stephen King (who wrote the screenplay for the movie) and two other episodes feature stories by author Joe Hill. Of what I’ve watched so far, the directing and acting have been really good and the characters are ones you can easily care about. There’ve been three seasons of “Creepshow” and Gizmo announced earlier this month that a fourth is coming.  

‘Noire Horror’, A Shudder Original

“Noire Horror” is a follow-up project to the 2019 documentary movie of the same name. The documentary discusses the history of blacks in horror films. I'll also be sure to watch this one before the free trial ends, especially since we're in Black History Month. The series is a Shudder original which premiered back in October of last year, only three days before Halloween. The episodes star black characters and are directed and written by black creators. Many of the writers are award-winning speculative fiction authors such as Tananarive Due, Victor LaValle, and Steven Barnes. Because of this, the stories are bound to be good. I’ll be watching some episodes of this series too over the weekend. 

If these anthologies feature enough well-made episodes, and if I like some of the other shows and movies on Shudder, I may purchase a monthly subscription. It starts at about $6 a month. Shudder also features some vintage classics such as Universal's “Frankenstein” as well as newer films, many of them indies that you won't likely see anywhere else. And, like Netflix, it also streams its own movies not shown anywhere else. If I can find enough movies on Shudder that are based on books it may be a good source for future Book-To-Movie reviews!

Do you subscribe to Shudder? Have you watched any of the above TV horror anthologies? 

Until next time . . .