Last Updated on August 3, 2021
#1. HARROW COUNTY (CULLEN BUNN)
By all accounts, Cullen Bunn’s HARROW COUNTY is one of the most chilling modern day horror comics and far overdue for a live-action adaptation of some kind. Word is the property was optioned by Universal Cable, but the project has languished since 2015. The premise – all centered on the titular town of terror – HARROW COUNTY sees a young girl named Emmy, thought to be a witch, combating various ghouls, monsters, ghosts, and spirits that dwell in the woods that surround her farmhouse. When Emmy realizes she has an inherent connection with the creatures, she traverses down an irreversibly dark path while facing unspeakable horrors. Given the breadth of the material, a TV series seems most logical.
#2. NAILBITER (JOSHUA WILLIAMSON & MIKE HENDERSON)
NAILBITER has a premise that’s too damn delectable to let go by the wayside. Indeed, Josh Williamson & Mike Hernandez’s take on a psycho-serial-killer, in which the nasty namesake of our heroic nemesis bites off the fingernails and chomps on the plump digits of his victims before gorily eviscerating the rest of their bodies, is too ingenious to limit to the page. This can either work as an episodic TV series, or even better, full length feature to introduce a newfangled cinematic horror villain to an even larger audience. Not sure why, but I’m seeing Doug Jones playing the titular terror. How about you?
#3. AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE (ROBERTO AGUIRRE-SACASA)
Yeah, f*ck Riverdale! This is the Archie comic that should have been given the big/small screen update, AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE! No doubt, one of the oldest and most beloved comic characters of all time – Archie and his pals Jughead, Betty, and Veronica – get a supernatural makeover in Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s heartfelt ode to horror of yore. When Riverdale is overrun by uncouth hordes of blood-parched, flesh-starved ghouls from the grave, Archie’s innocent idyll is supplanted in lieu of sinister brain-licking and appetizing entrails. Archie and his faithful friends must unite, fend off the frightening, and restore order to their quaint little town. When CW cancels Riverdale, Showtime ought to pick this one up in its stead!
#4. WINNEBAGO GRAVEYEARD (STEVE NILES, ALISON SAMPSON, ET AL)
Oh baby, the title WINNEBAGO GRAVEYARD alone is good enough for me to want to see a small or silver-screen adaptation. But then consider this sick ass setup. A family traveling across the country in a Winnebago stop at in small, oddball town holding a local Gothic carnival. Their Winnebago is stolen, leaving them stranded in a place where something extremely bizarre is happening. Occult worship, satanic pentagrams, religious fanaticism, and untold violence run rampant in this hallucinatory road-trip gone mortifyingly awry. Given the nascence of the material, we can see this as a taut one-off feature perfectly tailored for the hands of say, Cary Fukanaga. I’d see that in a deadened heartbeat!
#5. JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK (PETER MILLIGAN)
Ah yeah, you already knew we had to throw in a little superhero love. But this isn’t just a pandering crowd-pleaser, far from it, JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK actually boasts a wildly intriguing conceit. In an alternate DC Universe, select members of the JL are teamed up with John Constantine (Keanu won’t be cast this time out) to fight off supernatural scourges intent on overtaking the world. We’ve got Swamp Thing, Deadman, Zatanna, and Etrigan the Demon. Still, despite an hour long 2017 animated version, a feature length adaptation of JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK seems to be in the works at Warner Bros. (Guillermo del Toro was at one point attached to direct!)
#6. COLDER (PAUL TOBIN)
An ice-cold madman who literally feeds on insanity? I’m hooked! Thankfully, such is the case for Paul Tobin’s COLDER, which, pardon the pun, seems to damn cool not to adapt at some point down the road. In fact, this could perfectly work as a miniseries, as the entire run of the comic only features a five-issue arc. The story entails the life of Declan Thomas, a seemingly ageless man who has the body temperature of a corpse. As a former asylum inmate, Declan’s records date back to the 1940s, but he doesn’t look much older than 30. Declan must avert the perils of Nimble Jack, a f*cked-up phantom that feeds on insanity to grow stronger. This idea needs to be serialized onscreen!
#7. CLEAN ROOM (GAIL SIMONE)
From what I’ve read, Gail Simone’s CLEAN ROOM is one of the most original, thought-twisting horror/sci-fi comics to come about in a long, long time. Of course, that makes it a double-edged sword. Something so ingenious needs to be adapted, but doing so will be damn difficult. Even so, the story of Astrid, a young girl who envisions a scarifying alternate reality after surviving a near-death even as a child, is too compelling NOT to adapt. Years later, Astrid writes a self-help book with the fiancee of Chloe Pierce. The fiancee commits suicide, prompting Chloe to enter Clean Room, a virtual reality simulating all of Astrid’s macabre visions. A bizarre blend of character-driven sci-fi/horror is too promising to pass!
#8. UNDERWINTER: SYMPHONY (RAY FAWKES)
Ray Fawkes’ UNDERWINTER: SYMPHONY has such a great Giallo premise to lean on that I am willing to forgive the fallen-angel from Heaven detail, a subgenre of horror I’ve never cottoned to. But here, things are different. When a four-piece metal-band is invited to play a gig at suspiciously remote estate and told they cannot remove their macabre blindfolding masks, an unthinkable series of sinister twists and turns ensues. Overtly inspired by the works of Argento and Bava, Fawkes’ not only pays homage to, but adds thrilling wrinkles within the Giallo genre. As such, we could easily see this play as an Italian feature under the aegis of maybe SUSPIRIA’s Luca Guadagnino. What says you?
#9. THE DREGS (ZAC THOMPSON & LONNIE NADLER)
Socio-conscious zombie fare never grows tiresome, even if the sappy soap opera of The Walking Dead tries to render such so. In response, we nominate Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler’s THE DREGS as either a big or small screen antidote that harks back to the halcyon zombie days of the late great George A. Romero. Peep this conceit. After consuming a mind-altering substance that makes people see signs and patterns in the citywide architecture, the homeless population in Vancouver is being systematically cannibalized by the city’s affluent population. The lead character a transient obsessed with detective fiction, and uses his voracious reading to help solve the maddening mystery as to why this is happening.
#10. AMERICAN VAMPIRE (SCOTT SNYDER & RAFAEL ALBUQUERQUE)
Hell yeah! Let’s get this gruesome gala off to start by restoring order to the sissified, put-upon vampire subgenre that has seemingly fizzled under the sun since TWILIGHT and True Blood went away. Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque’s AMERICAN VAMPIRE not only ditches romance in favor of hardcore bloodsucking horror, but in so doing, utterly revamps (sorry) the mythology we’ve come to know and understand about the nocturnal ghouls. First, our lead is a vampire named Skinner Sweet, a new breed of vampire that is bigger, faster, stronger, impervious to sunlight, and subject to new strengths and weaknesses. The series tracks Skinner as he navigates through decades of America’s vampiric past en route to understanding what he’s become. Stephen King wrote one story in the first five issues!
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