Exam season is going on and I, obviously, will watch every TV show and movie out there. I’m completing seasons and my friends are finishing chapters. But if someone asks “Hey, can you recommend me a movie or a TV series to watch?”, my friends don’t have the answer for that. I HAVE!! Guess who’s laughing now? (Cries internally).

I have been watching a couple of shows now and they are mainly the new seasons of the previous shows. The Walking Dead came out with its 8th season, Mr. Robot with its 3rd season and Stranger Things is coming out with its 2nd season on 31st October. But what I am going to talk about are the new shows that I watched.

Stephen King is single-handedly taking over Hollywood with all his adaptations which came out this year and the ones about to come. It seems like directors and producers are standing in a queue to get their hands on King’s work. You all must have watched Stephen King’s IT(2017), It did so well around the globe that even King was surprised. This and some other adaptations into movies are The Dark Tower which did not do as good as the books, Gerald’s Game(Netflix), 1922(Netflix) and Children of the Corn: Runaway(sequel to the 2011 film). These are the movies that King earned from this year. The King adaptation trend is not new, Carrie(1976) was the first film based on king’s book. After that there were many movies and TV shows based on his work. It seems that the trend is never-ending.

His work is so popular that even Indian media industry was inspired to adapt his work. In 1998, Zee TV aired a 52 episode series called “Woh”. Yes, it has a similar story as of “IT” but they ended up showing the clown as a good spirit (NO, I did not watch that, but you can because all the 52 episodes are on YouTube).  The Mist and Mr. Mercedes are the TV shows based on his novels. The Mist is a 10-episode mini-series which got cancelled after the very first season. It received average ratings and is nowhere near the Frank Darabount vision of this King novel. Frank Darabount’s The Mist(2007) is a masterpiece. Mr. Mercedes on the other hand has great performances by Brendon Gleeson and Harry Treadaway. The screenplay is well done and the show was liked by many. It was a good decision by David E. Kelly to adapt this novel of King and at the same time it was a risk too. Retired cop still haunted by his last unsolved case is a not a new thing in Hollywood, but Kelly executed it in a way that made it seem like a fresh concept.

There’s one more horror show that I particularly enjoyed a lot. It’s not by Stephen King and it’s not from this year. Last year SyFy channel aired a CreepyPasta based show called Channel Zero which completed its second season this month. If you are not familiar to CreepyPastas, I recommend you to Google it and read the best short horror stories out there. I watched the First season and I loved it. The characters are good, the story is good, it succeeds in giving you the chills and the last-minute revelation is awesome. Only six episodes a season and all the seasons are stand alone, makes this anthology series great( I haven’t tried American Horror Story yet). What makes it even better and likeable is the fact that the first season was based on a short CreepyPasta named “Candle Cove” written by Kris Straub. The story quickly went viral and became so popular that people made YouTube videos and Fan-Fiction wiki of the short story. Straub was not happy as other people were making money out it. However, Channel Zero show runners gave him the credit for the story. The six episodes are based on the same characters from the short story but the makers stretched the story for the television. The already popular “Candle Cove” was elaborated in the show in such a good way that I bet you can’t dislike it. Borrowing someone else’s imagination which is already a hit and making it even better is a hard thing to do. The second season of the show is also a creepypasta and the reviews are showing it’s a hit.

This is all that I can recommend for now. Make sure you watch them and leave a comment below. You can also read my previous blog here:- “Why Horror Movies Are Important For The Film Industry“.