Incidentally, Strega, how do you feel about Assignment 6 for Sapphire and Steel?
Hm, it's been a while since I've rewatched that one... it would probably be improved if it didn't have absolutely all of the revelations packed into the last episode, but I kind of like that it goes for unsettling more than spooky.
And to be fair, I was a bit distracted the first time I saw it, trying to place Edward de Souza. Then I realized he played the Master in some Who-adjacent audios and felt much better.
...Wait, did you watch the whole series already? Yow.
Also, is there a Buffy episode you think is scarier than "Hush"?
Probably not overall; "Conversations with Dead People" might be a close second to it. But I still think the most powerful horror of the series was in the brief glimpses we got of Monkey's Paw!Joyce at the end of "Forever," though.
...Wait, did you watch the whole series already? Yow.
Nope, just research. They only have S1-S4 at my video store. Anyway I was watching "The Incredible Doktor Markeson" an episode of Thriller with Boris Karloff and Dick York.
But I still think the most powerful horror of the series was in the brief glimpses we got of Monkey's Paw!Joyce at the end of "Forever," though.
That is pretty horrific.
Hey billytea, have you seen any of the "A Christmas Ghost Story" series that ran on the BBC throughout the 70s?
Hey billytea, have you seen any of the "A Christmas Ghost Story" series that ran on the BBC throughout the 70s?
I have not. I don't know if they were shown in Australia, I can't find a reference thereto.
A Christmas Ghost Story - mostly adapting M.R. James but also Dickens. Ran from '71-'79, then revived in 2005.
I actually found "Conversations with Dead People" way scarier than "Hush". "Hush" was brilliant, but I didn't find it frightening.
I actually found "Conversations with Dead People" way scarier than "Hush". "Hush" was brilliant, but I didn't find it frightening.
You're right; the sections with Dawn and Willow both have genuinely horrific moments. And even Buffy's scenes with Holden have a sense of dread and apprehension to them.
Here's my fantastically over-researched list of definitive Television's horror masterpieces, with occasional notes ganked from various discussion groups.
Duel
The Kingdom
Pilot for The Walking Dead
First half of IT
"Babylon" - Carnivale
"Conversations With Dead People" - Buffy
"Home" - X-Files
"Gramma" - The New Twilight Zone (written by Stephen King)
"Shatterday" - The New Twilight Zone (from the Harlan Ellison short story)
"Scarecrow" - Friday the Thirteenth: The TV Series
"Blink" - Dr. Who
"It's a Good Life" - Twilight Zone
"Bloodline" - Criminal Minds
"Meet the Beetles" - American Gothic
Salem's Lot
"Born Free" - Dexter (S1 finale)
"Family Remains" - Supernatural
"Episode 14" (Maddy's Murder) - Twin Peaks
"Assignment 6" (four episode series) - Sapphire and Steel
"The Playground" - Ray Bradbury Theater
"Corpus Earthling" - Outer Limits
"The Zanti Misfits" - Outer Limits (ants with human faces)
"The Invisibles" - Outer Limits (parasitical crablike creatures attached to the naked back)
"Nightmare" - Outer Limits (POWs of wicked aliens)
"Food for Thought" - Tales From the Crypt (Ernie Hudson & Joan Chen)
"The Dummy" - Twilight Zone (stars Cliff Robertson)
"The Perfect Crime" - Alfred Hitchcock Presents (Vincent Price)
The Night Stalker (original TV movie)
"Anniversary of a Murder" - One Step Beyond (man hears voice of boy he accidentally killed on his dictaphone)
"The Hitchhiker" - Twilight Zone
"Mirror Image" - Twilight Zone
"The Case of Mr. Pelham" - Alfred Hitchcock Presents (doppelganger story, inspired Harlan Ellison's "Shatterday")
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" - Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett version, shot on the moors)
Trilogy of Terror (Karen Black Zuni doll)
"An Unlocked Window" - Alfred Hitchcock Presents (The orgin of the trope "They're calling from inside your house!")
"The Clown" - One Step Beyond (Pippo the mute clown wants a word with you)
"The Attic" - Dollhouse
"Pigeons From Hell" - Thriller (the Robert E. Howard short story)
"The Incredible Dr. Markeson" - Thriller (not just hosted by but also starring Karloff)
"The Weird Tailor" - Thriller (story by Bloch, remade in Asylum)
"Well of Doom" - Thriller
"The Grim Reaper" - Thriller (starring William Shatner)
Quartermass and the Pit (BBC 1958, later edited down to a feature film)
"The Cemetary" - Night Gallery (first episode)
"The Caterpillar" - Night Gallery: "An unscrupulous man who wants the beautiful wife of another colleague pays to have an earwig placed in the husband's ear. This insect will will tunnel through the victim's brain causing excruciating pain and certain death. His accomplice enters the wrong bedroom and places the insect in his employer's ear. After weeks of pain he miraculously survives, but his doctor tells him that his ordeal is not yet over."
"Whistle and I'll Come to You" 1968, BBC show Omnibus. Famous M.R. James adaptation by Jonathan Miller that launched the "Ghost Story for Christmas" tradition.
BBC "A Ghost Story for Christmas": ‘A Warning to the Curious’ (1972) and ‘The Treasure of Abbot Thomas’ (1974). With the ‘Signalman’ (1976) in the same classic category.
The Stone Tape (1972) - BBC2, written by Nigel Neale (of the Quartermass series)
"I Kiss Your Shadow" - Bus Stop: The series finale "I Kiss Your Shadow", with Joanne Linville and George Grizzard as guest stars, is a story of a man crushed by the memory of his wife's death in an automobile accident. In his book Danse Macabre, Stephen King nominated this episode as "...the single most frightening story ever done on TV." King wrote that Bus Stop was "...a straight drama show,... The final episode, however, deviated wildly into the supernatural, and for me, Robert Bloch's adaptation of his own short story "I Kiss Your Shadow" has never been beaten on TV - and rarely any where else - for eerie, mounting horror."[
"Halloween Candy" - Tales from the Darkside
"The Closet" - Tales from the Darkside
Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981, Made for TV movie)
Frankenstein: The True Story (1973) made (continued...)
