The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 19

by Stephen Jones

  The second season of Showtime’s Masters of Horror anthology series ended with Rob Schmidt’s “Right to Die”, David J. Schow’s adaptation of John Farris’ “We All Scream for Ice Cream” directed by Tom Holland, Stuart Gordon’s clever reworking of “The Black Cat” featuring regular collaborator Jeffrey Combs as a psychotic Edgar Allan Poe, Peter Medak’s silly version of Bentley Little’s cannibal story “The Washingtonians”, and Norio Tsuruta’s atmospheric J-horror treatment of Koji Suzuki’s ghost story “Dream Cruise”, filmed in Japan.

  Hosted by Stephen Hawking’s voice (although it could have been anyone), ABC’s Masters of Science Fiction ran for just four one-hour episodes in August. Based on original stories by John Kessel, Howard Fast, Robert A. Heinlein and Harlan Ellison (who turned up in a cameo in his episode, “The Discarded”), the dull Outer Limits-style show featured such actors as Sam Waterston, Judy Davis, Terry O’Quinn, William B. Davis, Malcolm McDowell, Anne Heche, John Hurt and Brian Dennehy.

  After encountering an imaginary friend, a bank-robbing shape-shifter, apparent angels, a highway ghost, a female werewolf (Emmanuelle Vaugier), Hollywood horrors, a wish-granting Djinn and their dead dad (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) was transported to a ghost town by the Yellow-Eyed Demon in the two-part Season Two finale of Supernatural, where Dean (Jensen Ackles) had to make the ultimate sacrifice for his brother.

  Despite US audience figures dropping below three million, The CW decided to continue Supernatural for a third season, as Dean enjoyed his last year of life and two tough new female characters (played by Katie Cassidy and Lauren Cohan) were introduced. In the season opener, the brothers confronted the demonic Seven Deadly Sins, which they had inadvertently released from Hell. For the Halloween episode they investigated a series of Grimm fairy tale killings connected to the Crossroad Demon (Sandra McCoy), and a Christmas special involved pagan cannibalism.

  Bill Patterson returned as Dr Douglas Monaghan in a special two-part Sea of Souls on BBC in April. Now apparently working alone and possessed of psychic powers, Monaghan investigated a strange painting found in a haunted Scottish manor house that was apparently linked to the occult group The Golden Dawn.

  Following on from such serious TV shows as Brimstone and The Collector, The CWs comedy horror Reaper found Bret Harrison’s warehouse worker Sam Oliver discovering on his twenty-first birthday that his parents sold his soul to an urbane Devil (a mahogany-tanned Ray Wise). In return for a life-lesson every week, he had to track down escapees from Hell with the help of his goofy friend (Tyler Labine). The pilot episode was directed by Kevin Smith.

  NBC’s sci-spy comedy Chuck was about another nerdy warehouse employee (the likeable Zachary Levi) who became a reluctant secret agent after a database full of government secrets was downloaded into his brain.

  From the same network, Journeyman channelled such shows as Quantum Leap and Early Edition as San Francisco newspaper reporter Dan Vasser (Brit actor Kevin McKidd) mysteriously bounced back and forth through time helping people while encountering his dead former fiancée (Moon Bloodgood). In the final episode, Dan met fellow time-traveller Evan (Don McManus) from the not-too-distant past.

  Meanwhile, after debuting in its slot earlier in the month at #1 with thirteen million viewers, the horror movie-themed Halloween episode of the quirky Pushing Daisies set a new low (8.6 million) for the ABC series, in which pie-maker Ned (Lee Pace) used his magic touch to return the dead to life or send them back beyond the veil. Created by Bryan Fuller and Barry Sonnenfeld, Anna Friel co-starred, Paul Reubens guest-starred and veteran Jim Dale supplied the cute storybook narration.

  Co-produced by actor Nicolas Cage and based on the popular novels by Jim Butcher, the first season of Sci Fi Channel’s entertaining The Dresden Files featured likeable British actor Paul Black-thorne as sorcerer-turned-PI Harry Dresden and Terrence Mann as his talking skull/mentor Bob. Together with Valerie Cruz’s Chicago police detective, they found themselves involved with monsters, ghosts, werewolves, vampires and rival magicians.

  Based on Tanya Huff’s popular series of “Vicki Nelson” novels, Blood Ties from Lifetime Television turned out to be a cliched collection of old horror ideas dressed up for the post-Bufly generation. Christina Cox played the former police detective-turned-PI who investigated the supernatural with 450-year-old vampire Henry Fitzroy (a miscast Kyle Schmid) and former partner Detective Mike Celluci (Dylan Neal).

  It’s hard to imagine how a show dealing with voodoo curses, psychic children, revenge-seeking ghosts, incubi, Windigos [sic], Gorgons, Egyptian gods and brainwashing cults could be so tedious, but Blood Ties managed it every time. The only real surprise was why an obviously slumming Julian Sands guest-starred in a two-part episode as obsessed vampire-hunter Javier Mendoza.

  The subsequent season was an improvement, with Danny Trejo turning up as a revived Mayan Mummy sorcerer, and Vicki reliving the same day over and over again. However, the second season finale was pulled by Lifetime from its broadcast schedule and was only available to US viewers on the station’s website.

  After almost completely reworking and recasting the original pilot episode, CBS came up with its own new vampire private investigator show with Moonlight, starring Australian actor Alex O’Loughlin as undead LA detective Mick St John who could literally smell the past. Angel creator David Greenwalt left the anaemic series after only a couple of episodes.

  If vampires weren’t enough, Angels were also spreading their wings all over the US TV schedules. Leon Rippy’s tobacco-chewing angel Earl watched over Holly Hunter’s abrasive Oklahoma detective on TNT’s Saving Grace. ABC Family aired three new episodes of Fallen in early August, about Aaron Corbett (Paul Wesley), a Nephilim charged with returning all the fallen angels to Heaven. Bryan Cranston turned up as Lucifer.

  Although Austin Nichols’ enigmatic character in HBO’s cancelled John from Cincinnati was never identified as such, he definitely had divine powers in David Milch’s drama about a dysfunctional California surfing family.

  Julian Sands was back in the two-part second season finale of CBS’s much improved Ghost Whisperer, as Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt, always in an impressive array of low-cut tops) learned that she may have an evil half-brother and that there was a darkness inside her waiting to be released. For the new season, things turned even creepier as Melinda’s parents (Anne Archer and Martin Donovan) returned with a dark family secret, she once again encountered her evil counterpart, Gabriel (Ignacio Serricchio), and blogging university student Justin Yates (Omid Abtahi) was introduced.

  Eric Stoltz guest-starred as a serial killer with intuitive powers in NBC’s Medium, while in a three-episode story arc featuring guest stars Neve Campbell and Jason Priestley, the third season ended with Alison’s (Patricia Arquette) psychic ability being revealed in public.

  In the final episode of Sci Fi Channel’s Painkiller Jane, based on the comic book series, Kristanna Loken’s indestructible DEA agent investigated a mass escape of Neuros (humans with genetically enhanced brains) from a secret facility.

  Jennifer Finnigan (as fellow psychic Alex Sinclair) returned in the sixth and final season of the USA Network’s The Dead Zone, while Anthony Michael Hall’s Johnny tried to discover what his friend Walt Bannerman was investigating before he died. Tom Skerritt – who played Bannerman in the 1983 movie – turned up again as Johnny’s late father, who was revealed as also possessing psychic powers.

  Douglas Henshall’s Professor Nick Cutter discovered that mysterious “anomalies” were allowing CGI prehistoric creatures to come through to the present time in the enjoyable six-part British series Primeval. In the first season finale, Cutter and his team of researchers not only had to deal with creepy mutant bat-monsters from the future, but also Cutter’s scheming wife, Helen (Juliet Aubrey).

  In June, CBS’ cancelled post-apocalyptic drama Jericho was given a mid-season second series of seven episodes following a fan campaign that flooded the network’s offices with more than an
estimated twenty tons of peanuts (inspired by a line delivered by star Skeet Ulrich in the first season finale). Esai Morales joined the cast as an emissary of America’s new government, based in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

  Joe Dante directed the Halloween episode of CBS’ CSI: NY, set in the town of Amityville and featuring Bruce Dern as a gravedigger. Gill Grissom (William Petersen) and his team were called onto the set of a slasher film in the Halloween CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Joe Mantegna’s Agent David Rossi debuted in “About Face”, the Halloween edition of CBS’ Criminal Minds (whose plot bore a very close resemblance to Kim Newman’s 2001 short serial killer movie Missing Girl). The show topped the night’s ratings with 14.7 million viewers.

  The 100th episode of CBS’ NCIS was also a Halloween special set aboard a drifting ghost ship, complete with a mysterious corpse and bleeding rats.

  Nathan Fillion’s Adam dressed up as the Universal Frankenstein Monster for a Halloween fancy dress party on ABC’s Desperate Housewives, while the wedding episode of the network’s Ugly Betty went Wicked with a visit to the stage musical.

  Following the creation of a nascent Justice League, a guest appearance by former Wonder Woman Lynda Carter as Chloe’s super-powered mother, and a silly 1940s “dream” episode, the sixth season of The CWs greatly improved Smallville ended with the usual life-or-death cliffhangers and the introduction of a Bizarro Superboy.

  The seventh season opener introduced Clark Kent’s cousin, super-girl Kara (Canadian actress Laura Vandervoort), who had been stuck in suspended animation, and the revelation that Lana (Kristin Kreuk) wasn’t dead after all. Super-veterans Dean Cain (as a mad scientist after Chloe’s heart) and Helen Slater (as Clark’s Kryptonian mother, Lara) guest-starred in subsequent episodes.

  Despite the return of his ex-wife (Olivia D’Abo), clueless Sheriff Jack Carter (the likeable Colin Ferguson) continued to become involved in the lives of the scientific geniuses who lived in the eponymous small town of Eureka (aka A Town Called Eureka) on Sci Fi. The second season wrapped up with an episode in which an aggressive Franken-virus infected the town.

  Eric Johnson starred as the titular Flash Gordon in the same channel’s low rent reinvention of the classic sci-fi hero, who was now searching for his missing father while battling Ming the Merciless (a miscast John Ralston) and other menaces from Mongo. The 1980 film Flash, Sam J. Jones, had a small role in the episode titled “Revelations”.

  After a shaky start, the third season of Sci Fi’s Battlestar Galactica kicked into gear with the trial of Gaius Baltar (James Callis) and the surprise revelation of their true identities by four of the final five Cylons. With its fourth and final season not airing until 2008, a two-hour special episode was shown in November before being released as an extended-cut DVD. The grim Battlestar Galactica: Razor was set during the second season and detailed the first mission of the Pegasus under the command of Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber), with flashbacks to when the crazed Commander Cain (Michelle Forbes) was in charge.

  Brit actress Michelle Ryan was the upgraded Jaime Sommers, who clashed with Katee Sackhoff’s unstable earlier model in David Eick’s re-imagined version of Bionic Woman. After a debut audience of nearly fourteen million viewers, that number quickly halved and producers brought in a new creative team to try to save the show. However, the writers’ strike resulted in a two-part re-launch not being filmed, and NBC declined to pick up any additional episodes.

  After ten seasons (making it the longest-running, continuous SF series on American television), Amanda Tapping’s astrophysicist Samantha Carter headed over from the cancelled Stargate SG-1 to replace an infected Dr Weir (Torri Higginson) as the new boss of Stargate Atlantis, which enjoyed its fourth season on the Sci Fi Channel.

  The enigmatic Jordan Collier (Billy Campbell) had to deal with the consequences of distributing the drug Promicin, which gave people superpowers or killed them in USA’s The 4400. After an episode involving killer clowns, the show ended its fourth and final dull season in September with hundreds of people (including a few series regulars) being killed by a deadly virus in a chaotic Seattle, while others were imbued with new abilities.

  ABC Family’s teen-without-a-belly-button (Matt Dallas) returned for a second season in Kyle XY. This time he discovered he wasn’t clone alone when he met the mysterious Jessi XX (Jaimie Alexander). The series ended mid-season, with the remaining episodes scheduled to air in 2008.

  The Disney Channel’s The Wizards of Waverly Place featured three teen siblings living in New York who were sorcerers.

  After being cancelled by NBC in August, the sexy supernatural soap opera Passions moved over to satellite station DirectTV in September with a cliffhanger episode, multiple murders and reformed witch Tabitha returning to her evil ways, which led to her inviting Death to the town of Harmony.

  Halloween proved a ghostly time on American soaps with the spirits of dead characters returning to General Hospital, The Young and the Restless, Guiding Light and All My Children.

  An attempt to guerrilla-promote the Cartoon Network’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force in Boston went disastrously wrong in January when electronic billboards placed around the city resulted in a major security alert and the closure of roads and bridges because police mistook them for home-made bombs. The network’s owner, Turner Broadcasting System, agreed to pay $2 million compensation to state and local agencies, while the head of the Cartoon Network, Jim Samples, was forced to resign.

  Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil debuted on the Cartoon Network, as Satan’s little girl started dating a DJ named Jesus.

  Scooby-Doo and his pals were unwisely “pimped up” for a new generation in Shaggy and Scooby Get a Clue, in which Shaggy inherited a billion dollars and those “meddling kids” were pitted against the evil Phineus Phibes.

  After Fox’s cartoon series The Simpsons celebrated its 400th episode earlier in the year, the disappointing Treehouse of Horror XVIII spoofed such films as E. T and, bizarrely, Mr And Mrs Smith with the stories “E. T. Go Home”, “Mr and Mrs Simpson” and “Heck House”. Jack Black and reclusive comics writer Alan Moore added their voices to another episode, based around a new comic-book store opening in Springfield.

  Meanwhile, the same channel’s much more cutting-edge Family Guy continued to sprinkle cultural genre references into most episodes as it passed its 100th episode and entered its sixth season. Shows included spoofs of Back to the Future (featuring Death and Molly Ringwald) and Star Wars.

  Over on The CW’s The Batman, the cartoon caped crusader teamed up with the Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern (voiced by Dermot Mulroney), and the fifth season kicked off with the creation of The Justice League. Meanwhile, the same channel’s Legion of Super Heroes featured a grown-up Superman teaming up with the 31st-century group of super-powered characters.

  Produced by Britain’s Road House Films/B7 Media and shown on Canada’s Space network, Michael MacDonald’s Famous Monster was an affectionate hour-long tribute to #1 film monster fan and editor Forrest J Ackerman. Along with archival footage and movie clips, the show featured interviews with Ray Bradbury, Ray Harryhausen, George Clayton Johnson, John Landis, Joe Dante, Roger Corman and many others.

  On Fox Reality they were looking for a new “hand-maiden” (okay, assistant) for the high-haired horror host in The Search for the Next Elvira, while Spike’s Scream Awards 2007, broadcast in October, honoured rock star Alice Cooper (Vincent Furnier) with a Career Achievement Award.

  John Carpenter, John Landis and Cheech Marin were among those featured in the Starz! documentary Bloodsucking Cinema, in which Richard Roeper looked at vampire movies.

  Although James Runcie’s hour-long documentary/. K. Rowling: A Year in the Life was spoiled by too many interjections by the self-serving producer/director, Rowling herself came across extremely well, as cameras followed her up to the launch of the final Harry Potter book in July.

  BBC 2’s irritatingly downmarket British Film Forever documentary series included a feature-length episod
e devoted to Magic, Murder and Monsters: The Story of Horror and Fantasy. Along with many choice clips, there were interviews with the inevitable Kim Newman, Anne Billson, Jonathan Rigby, Mark Gatiss, Simon Pegg, Jimmy Sangster, David McGillivray, Tudor Gates, John Landis, Roy Ward Baker, Pete Walker, Freddie Francis, Ken Russell, Michael Winner, Terry Gilliam, John Boorman, Danny Boyle, Neil Marshall, Barbara Shelley, Jenny Agutter, Anna Massey, Ian Ogilvy, John Hurt, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Richard Todd, Sylvia Syms, Ingrid Pitt, Madeline Smith, Martin Stephens and others, including archive footage of Michael Powell, Roman Polanski, David Lynch, Sir James Carreras, Yutte Stensgaard, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

  On Friday nights in October, Turner Classic Movies in the US honoured “Classic Horror Directors” with retrospective screenings of key films by Jacques Tourneur, William Castle, Tod Browning and Roger Corman. On Halloween, TCM hosted a night of seven Boris Karloff films that included the station’s premiere of The Ghoul (1933).

  Developed by Spain’s Mercury Stream and featuring photo-realistic graphics, Clive Barker’s Jericho was based on an original game concept and story by the author. The first-person player could lead the eponymous strike team trained in occult warfare into a flaming ruined city where an ancient evil had broken through a dimensional rift into our world.

  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was hailed as one of the best movie-to-games ever made, with the eponymous boy wizard moving around a remarkably detailed Hogwarts, recruiting fellow students to Dumbledore’s Army.