The Bite #59

Horror TV’s Fear-Filled Finales, How THE EXORCIST Changed the Sound of Horror Movies Forever, and More!

May 21, 2019

In this issue:

Horror History: Horror TV’s Fear-Filled Finales
Image of the Week: Stop-Motion Scares
Tiny Bites – This Week’s Best Horror Headlines
Things We Love: Waffle House
Hey, That’s Us! – Shudder in the News

HORROR HISTORY: HORROR TV’S FEAR-FILLED FINALES

Series finales are on our minds this week, thanks toGame of Thrones. That’s all anybody can talk about, on news reports, around water coolers, and at super market produce sections. All are abuzz about whether or not Game of Thrones gave fans the send-off they wanted, deserved, or felt entitled to. Coincidentally, this week also marks the 16th anniversary of “Chosen,” the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

“Chosen,” as a series finale from the days before Facebook, Twitter and the widespread use of memes, seems like something from another civilization, compared to the finale of Game of Thrones, with (WARNING! SPOILERS!) its surprise ending that revealed, via Patrick Duffy in a shower, that the whole series was a dream of Bob Newhart’s, as imagined by a kid named Tommy staring into a snow globe. (END SPOILERS).

The absence of Buffy on the airwaves is now as old as Buffy herself was when she transferred to Sunnydale High. “Chosen” was a packed hour, completing arcs not just of Buffy and the Scooby Gang, but the setting of Sunnydale and the Hellmouth itself. With this in mind, let’s take a look at the series finales of other horror TV shows, and the various ways these shows shuffled off this mortal coil … the Good, the Meh, and the Ugly.

First, there are the shows that, like Buffy‘s “Chosen,” pull together multiple threads for a final tying off, while still leaving room for major character turnarounds and surprises. Without jumping into the dreaded SPOILER territory, let’s tip our hats to how the Fringe finale managed to explore and resolve a multi-season Father/Son dynamic against an apocalyptic backdrop in a way that was deeply satisfying to most, while the finale of The Strain did the same thing with less success. Penny Dreadful did most of a good job resolving beloved character arcs, though not enough for all fans of the show. And maybe the biggest turnaround was in True Blood, which had a wedding, the founding of a business selling a new sports energy drink with a twist, and a surprise resolution to a romantic arc that ended with a Thanksgiving during which a character, and maybe a lot of fans, felt thankful for “Nothing.”

Then there are shows that pulled together finales with varying results, while still leaving hooks on which to hang further storylines. When Twin Peaks went off the air in 1991 with the brilliant David Lynch-helmed “Beyond Life and Death,” the show had been put on “hiatus” (read: doomed). Lynch pulled out all the stops, creating the Lynch-i-est David Lynch fest the show had yet to Lynch. The cliffhanger ending was a shocker. So much so, that a superb feature film (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me) and resurrected TV series followed.

In 1971, the writers of Dark Shadows, the gloriously Gothic soap opera, had only two weeks’ notice that the show was cancelled, and they had to wrap things up. Thing is, the show was in the middle of a story arc set in 1841, with none of the regular characters on hand to give the show a send-off. The 1840’s plot ended with a hint of an attack on a young lass by Barnabas, the show’s main vampire anti-hero from 1971. Feature films and resurrected TV series followed, though nowhere near as good as what came after Twin Peaks.

Finally, there are shows that don’t end, they just stop. When the much-beloved Kolchak: The Night Stalker(a huge influence on The X-Files) breathed its last in 1975 after 20 episodes, it was a breath of exhaustion. “The Sentry” was the show giving up, with a lame riff on (read: “rip-off of”) Star Trek‘s “The Devil in the Dark,” this time, with a guy in a lizard suit standing in for the Horta, protecting a cache of its eggs. The plug was pulled. The show died.

On the horizon? 2020 will bring us the 15th (!) and last season of Supernatural. We’ll see how the finale of that sprawling epic compares to these others.

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

Stop-Motion Scares

FX artist Bart Mixon puts the finishing touches on a stop-motion Pennywise behind the scenes on the 1990 TV miniseries version of IT.

TINY BITES

CHRIS ROCK’S SAW, IMMERSIVE EVIL DEAD & MORE

A fascinating video breaks down how The Exorcistchanged the sound of horror movies forever.

A blogger makes a persuasive argument Pinhead should be female in the next Hellraiser movie.

Hannibal Lecter creator Thomas Harris makes the claim that “I don’t think I’ve ever made up anything.” (Yikes!)

Bill Murray says he’s ready to come back for anotherGhostbusters. (We’re in.)

Cosmopolitan counts down 10 scary but funny horror movies and it’s a pretty great list.

Chris Rock — who’s been a fan of Saw since the first film in the franchise — will be behind a “mind-bending and intense” reboot of the series.

There’s a slick new trailer for Black Mirror‘s fifth season, which drops June 5th with three new episodes.

Bruce Campbell says we’ll soon be able to wander the world of Evil Dead in a “fully immersive” video game. (Groovy.)

The Ladies of Horror Fiction is launching their own awards for horror authors who identify as female.

John Carpenter was honored at Cannes and he explained why horror is so incredible: “Humour isn’t always universal. Fear is.“

THINGS WE LOVE: WAFFLE HOUSE

Build both the original and Upside Down versions of Will Byers’ house with a massive new Stranger Things LEGO set, packed with 2,287 pieces — eight of them miniature figures of Eleven, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, and the rest of the gang. Also included (and absolutely necessary in our opinion): Eleven’s waffle, without which no Stranger Things set would be complete.