From MTV's Scream series to the exciting Chucky based on the beloved Child's Play franchise, there are many horror movies that have been turned into great TV shows. It makes sense that people would be eager to use such scary and intriguing source material and tell a longer story across several episodes. Sometimes this doesn't work out, as I Know What You Did Last Summer isn't the most well-done series. But it's always interesting to see what will be great and what will get lost in translation.
While several horror films have TV adaptations, there are just as many that haven't been given the small screen treatment. These horror movies would make amazing TV shows and it would be cool to see how the premise and characters would translate.
Fright Night (2011)
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There are some underrated TV shows based on horror movies and there are just as many great horror films that could be turned into TV series. The 2011 remake of 1985's Fright Night stars the late Anton Yelchin as Charley Brewster, a teenage boy who starts worrying about his neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Colin Farrell).
The movie is definitely scary, as Jerry is a vampire, but it also has a lot of humanity to it as Charley has a love interest Amy (Imogen Poots) and a strong single mother Jane (Toni Collette). The film's story could be slowed down to fit an entire season of TV, focusing on Charley and Jane's dating lives along with the horror living right next door.
Unfriended (2014)
Unfriended is a unique horror movie and it would make for a cool TV series. The show could focus on the same story: a group of teenagers who are connected to a classmate's dark and tragic death and who are talking online when her ghost begins stalking them.
The film is so good that it would be nice to spend more time with this fascinating story. One potential criticism of the movie is that while Blair Lily (Shelley Henning) is focused on quite a bit, the others don't get as much explanation or backstory. Each episode could focus on how each character is tied to Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman), which would flesh each person out a bit more.
Freaky (2020)
Freaky is a horror movie version of Freaky Friday as teenage girl Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) and serial killer the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn) swap places. It's a hilarious and scary film that would lend itself perfectly to a TV show.
Whether the TV series featured new characters or the same ones, it could keep the same idea of having two unlikely people live each other's lives. The story would need to be stretched across several episodes, so it would take longer for people to realize what was going on. If Freaky was a TV show, this would also allow more time for viewers to really get to know the two main characters as their likes, dislikes, and backstories could be explored more. Horror movies that are funny tend to be the best TV shows as Scream and Chucky both retain the film franchises' sense of humor.
Trick 'r Treat (2007)
Horror fans love the Trick 'r Treat monster Sam and he is so interesting to watch that's one reason to turn this beloved horror movie into a TV show. There's also the fact that this is an anthology film made up of a few different stories, and it would be easy to tell a different scary tale in each episode.
Trick 'r Treat works so well because it's set on Halloween, and a TV adaptation could definitely focus on October 31st as well since there are countless scary stories that could be told about this holiday. It would also be possible to have some fun with other holidays and have a few episodes about Christmas or Valentine's Day.
Urban Legend (1998)
The urban legends in the '90s horror movie could each be their own TV episode, making Urban Legend another good choice for a movie-to-TV adaptation. The show could be an anthology with a totally separate and fresh story being told in every episode.
One season could focus on several high school students and another could keep the movie's setting at a beautiful college campus which would provide some variety and give the show more to work with. Many of the stories told in the horror film, from "the babysitter and the man upstairs" to the disturbing "kidney heist" tale, could each be its own episode. An Urban Legends TV show could also be a slasher story and feature a killer who is also using these famous legends to hurt people and get their message across. And if the show kept the corny vibe of the movie, that would be fun, too.