Shudder’s newest survey series, Horror’s Greatest, starts streaming today on the platform and the next four weeks. Over the course of five episodes an array of experts, from filmmakers, actors, academics and such, weigh in on five categories. They are, drum roll please: Tropes & Cliches, Giant Monsters, Japanese Horror, Horror Comedies and Stephen King Adaptations. Ooo-ooooh.
A bevy of our friends, paragons and contemporaries chime in on some of their favorites. The list includes The Boulet Brothers, Axelle Carolyn, David Dastmalchian, Ted Geoghegan, Brea Grant, Author Joe Hill, Morgana Ignis, DeWayne Perkins, Jeffrey Reddick, Kate Siegel, Jenn Wexler, and Alex Winter. You know, to name a few.
Then there are ‘horror authorities’, a list includes academics like Rebecca McKendry, Film historian Nathanial Thompson, Film scholars Ben Sher Phd and Tracey Salisbury Phd. The cross section of industry folk is enthusiastic and knowledgeable, diverse and inclusive. Shudder is among those privileged brands that can call upon a broad section of the horror community and get them involved in a series like this.
The great thing about series like Horror’s Greatest is there is always the chance that this is where someone discovers the horror genre for the first time, or, the show helps you find more horror films to watch. I’m not a horror maniac but I’ve been riding inside this celestial sphere long enough that I’ve seen my lion’s share of flicks over the years. And doing what we do here at ScreenAnarchy for as long as we have, we've been there when trends like the invasion of Japanese Horror began. Some of the flicks featured in this series I saw this past week, others I saw when I was in high school, yikes! Yet, I watch Horror’s Greatest and I still say, “Riiiiight. I still need to see that one”.
This series also expands the world of horror beyond the borders of America especially with two episodes featuring all the great contributions from Japan to the the world of genre filmmaking.
Tropes & Cliches is a good first episode to start off the series, with a fun topic that any horror fan can enjoy as we’ve all appreciated and mocked films for including them. The Scary Movie franchise existed for the sole purpose of making fun of the horror genre and its tropes, grossing nearly $900 million over five films with a sixth chapter announced back in April.
Of the many, many and many tropes and cliches that horror films are wont to do this episode covers the likes of Horny Teenagers Must Die, Cabins the in the Woods. The Cursed Book, The Final Girl, The Black Character Is Doomed, Slow-walking Serial Killers, and Making Stupid Decisions.
There’s an odd decision to include one of the best contemporary horror comedies in this mix as an example, because it matched a certain trope. It’s odd because it didn’t even appear in the episode about horror comedies later on. So weird. Dear producers out there, do you have to pay for each episode a movie is featured in, not the series as a whole? Then this would make sense.
The primary focus in Giant Monsters is on the two bigguns, King Kong and Godzilla. Likewise the attention to Japan’s big monsters is not just Godzilla, but truthfully a lot of it is about Godzilla. They are King of the Monsters after all. We were also glad to see really unconventional stuff from Japan make the cut as well. You’ll know this off-beat giant monster comedy when you see it.
We also appreciate that we’re hopping across oceans and showing a lot of the portrayals of each giant monster over the decades, from other countries as well.
The spread of J-Horror has been one of the major trends and influences in contemporary horror over the past two decades. This trend has since branched out into horror flicks from all over the East and Southeast Asian regions, each country emulating classic horror flicks while bringing their own cultural flavors.
It was good that the Japanese Horror episode also goes way back to some of Japanese horror's earliest standouts, decades earlier.
In the Horror Comedies episode we found it odd that one of the best contemporary horror comedies was featured in the first episode but it did not show up at all in this one. I’m not going to say which one because I want you to feel the same disappointment that I did. I’m a jerk that way. But the one that you'd expect do make an appearance. The episode was the most predictable of the bunch.
Still, episodes like this one show that the history of horror comedy goes a ways back, by dipping into classic horror comedies from Mel Brooks and the duo of Abott & Costello. It's not a new trend, like some showrunner of a popular horror television series claimed to have invented back in 2014. Do you remember that one? Yeesh. People. Am I right?
Fitting, or just a coincidence that one of horror’s most prolific writers is also one of the authors with the most books adapted to film - that we’re just hitting the odds here. Nope, King is, well, the king of contemporary horror literature.
We thought it humorous that in the final episode Stephen King Adaptations Joe Hill would refer indirectly to King as his dad when Kate Siegel only talks about her husband Mike Flanagan as a director, in the third person. We all know you're married to him, Kate. It’s okay to admit it and no one here will consider it favoritism on your part.
Of all the episodes this was the one I spent the entire duration waiting for it to mention one of my favorite Stephen King adaptations and they only did it in a fleeting moment during the introduction, but only as a mention of one of the author’s cameos. Curses. Foiled again!
Yet, it was a perfect example of what series like Horror’s Greatest do to get you involved, make you anticipate the mention of a title you feel would be a fit. Where are my favorites? Why haven't you mentioned my favorites? You better mention my favorites or I won't watch the next episode for at least five more minutes from now. What? That was it? Five episodes? Dangit!
A point of contention
Serious talk now. The series is only moderately tainted by the appearance of stained works by problematic creators, three on my count. In my books, and the books of a lot of horror folks out there, problematic creators are not horror’s greatest.
Why do shows keep including works by these people? Even if they’re merely brief mentions, surely there are other filmmakers who are less problematic have done similar kinds of works? Or are these types of filmmakers the only ones who are capable of creating provocative and evocative works?
The answer is no by the way.
Rather than get angry about it, that their works are still being indirectly acknowledged, it could drum up conversation, “You know, the guy who made this is a monster in real life”. Like those person-splaining memes.
Perhaps make it fun. Make a drinking game of it. Down a beer whenever you see mention of a problematic filmmaker. Of the three I noted two only got quick mentions while the third appeared more and more of their works were featured in the series.
Better make it a light beer,
Final Thoughts
Regardless of that line of thought Horror's Greatest does beg for more wholesome interaction from viewers. Did any of the episodes mention your favorite horror films that fit one of these categories? I thought it was a pretty thorough survey of the horror genre and a lot of its offshoots, but I could have missed something that a more ardent horror fan would suggest. What other kind of topics should they do next if there is to be a second season? What other countries, outside of America, should a second season look at? The UK? The Nordic region? Latin America? It's a big world out there, and a series like this only goes to show that there is more horror out there to discover.