Masters of Horror: Why the World of Television Needs Anthology Shows like These

How great it is to have anthology series on TV again. Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Amazing Stories, even Freddy's Nightmares if you really want to go that far; what these shows had over other shows is that they were not bound by the same cast of characters or by the same plot. They went in all sorts of directions while staying in its specific genre. You eagerly waited to see what was coming up next week. Whereas on some shows you would simply expect the same old thing (especially if it's a long running show like Law & Order or ER), anthology shows kept you guessing and wondering what would happen next.

Masters Of Horror is the newest anthology series on television, and this is to the delight of Fangoria fans everywhere. On most shows, the focus is typically on the cast which (the network hopes anyway) includes a big star that everyone knows about. But for this show, the real stars are those who work behind the cameras - the directors. Many of them you know, and some are fairly new, and makes you wonder how they became masters of horror so quickly.

An interesting fact of this show is that it was already fully funded before the Showtime network picked it up. The episodes were originally going to be released directly to video by Anchor Bay Entertainment, a company that has done wonders for the world of horror. They have restored countless horror movies by such famous horror directors as George Romero whose zombie movies have been given the supreme Divx treatment, and John Carpenter whose Halloween has been re-released over and over and over again. Each time it looks better.

The advantage of the show in the mind of creator and executive producer Mick Garris was that the show could give free reign to what stories they wanted to tell, and how to tell them. When Showtime came along, however, they laid out a handful of rules. There was to be no male full frontal nudity (women I guess were obligated to be an exception of this rule). Also, there could be no violence committed by a child upon another child. However, violence on adults on children or children on adults was fine. Go figure.