5 Horror Franchises That Could Work On TV

If there’s one thing that Hollywood can’t help themselves following: it’s trends. As soon as something is popular, they want to milk it for all its worth. That’s why, after The Penguin‘s success, the focus is on more Penguin versus just doing another spinoff in the Batman world. And when those execs start to complain about “Penguin fatigue” they’ll have no one to blame except themselves. There’s another trend going on right now and that’s popular horror films being adapted into television shows. The Creep Files was recently released to Shudder, and it got me thinking about other horror franchises that could thrive on television. And clearly, I’m not the only one.

Recently it was announced that Mike Flanagan would be making a Carrie TV show. But that’s far from the only thing in development. Javier Bardem is set to play Max Cady in a Cape Fear TV series, A24 has been developing Crystal Lake (the Friday the 13th prequel series) for years, and even Pennywise is making the jump to television with Welcome to Derry. And these aren’t just low-budget, cheap adaptations. Bardem is an A-list actor and Bill Skarsgaard is actually reprising his role of Pennywise. This is a far cry from the days of the Friday the 13th series, which had no real connection to the Voorhees slasher series outside of crew. Hell, we’re getting an Alien series from Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley!

But with those series already in production, what other horror franchises/films would work well on television? We’ve seen Chucky and Ash vs Evil Dead prove that you don’t even have to start over, you can just continue the same canon. I dove into the depths of the horror world to try and come up with some fun ones so let’s get started!

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Last weekend I got into why I feel like A Nightmare On Elm Street is absolutely perfect for television. Check that out if you want even more detail but long story short, Elm Street has the most potential of any series. You can tell a multi-season story arc a la Stranger Things or you can even do an anthology series, with Freddy haunting the nightmares of different characters in each episode.

Predator

With Alien coming to TV in 2025, I’d say it’s also time to see the Predator come to the small screen. The Predator species is so interesting because their sole purpose to hunt and challenge themselves. They explore the universe to find prey, which means the possibilities are limitless with what to do with them. Dan Tratchenberg is exploring this a bit in cinema, taking a look at a different time period and set of humans in his Predator films, so taking this concept to television isn’t too out of the norm. Put it on various Alien worlds, with some Earth appearances every now and then. The Predator series has proven to be quite versatile despite its simplicity.

Underworld

More of the action/horror variety, the Underworld franchise has really struggled with what to do with its narrative. I’d argue one of the biggest issues is that they tried to do too much with it. Taking it to television will allow it to focus on a more grounded look at the vampire/werewolf feud. The lower budget would mean they have to get creative with the usage of the Werewolves (I’d recommend taking a look at Werewolves as an example of how to do things right).

Hellboy

The recently released Hellboy: The Crooked Man showed us that Hellboy can be done on a budget. And anyone who’s read the graphic novels knows that he has many grounded stories that can be done for much cheaper than the GDT films would have you believe. Like the Crooked Man, this can simply be a detective series involving Hellboy. One of the greatest appeals about Hellboy is the characterization of the lead, so you can put him up against all sorts of creatures of the week and it’s sure to be entertaining. He’s not the Chosen One, he’s simply a monster from Hell, whose only place on earth is to help take out monsters. His loneliness can be explored in more long-form content and would allow the audience more human moments with a very larger-than-life character.

Candyman

This may be a sore subject with the recent passing of Tony Todd, but I’ve always felt the Candyman series was better than the whole of its parts have let on. While the first is an incredible take on the legend of Candyman, the sequels are more-or-less silly slasher films. And what makes the first so great is it’s a journey film for Virginia Madsen’s Helen Lyle. She investigates the legend of Candyman before being put in his sights. With how supernatural he is, there isn’t a concern about police involvement ruining the logic of the world (meanwhile a slasher spread throughout a season is likely to get the FBI called in). We can just watch a slow descent into madness as Candyman obsesses over some poor woman.

What Horror Films/Franchises do YOU think should come to Television? WHY do you think they’d work so well in the format? Let us know in the comments!