Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The Horrors!: 4 Webseries that bring Halloween to the small screen

Big Bother is still on hiatus for a bit, so be sure to watch (and tell all of your friends to watch) the first 10 episodes if you haven't done so already. I can tell you that housemates will be "checking out" at a faster pace in upcoming episodes, be it by way of eviction or more dangerous challenges. But while you wait for the BB season to continue, check out our next selection of other great webseries. This month we feature horror webshows that set out to make you nervous, make you shiver and, some of them, even make you laugh.

Circle of Ei8ht

Today marks the official launch of Circle of Ei8ht, the new horror series from MySpace (and a list of other producing partners). Jessica (Austin Highsmith) has just moved into the Dante, a creepy apartment building whose residents include Ed (John Bishop), the superintendent who anticipates your EVERY need, Bale and Elaine (Josh Kelly and Katie Lowes), the expectant couple with TMI, and the always comforting stranger-with the camera, Randall (D.J. Qualls of "Hustle and Flow" fame). We first believe Jessica's only problem is neighbors with boundary issues. But by Episode 3, she'll learn what horrors lie in the Dante.

The Occulterers

Another long-awaited horror series releasing this week is Babelgum.com's The Occulterers -- a comedy of terrors. It features paranormal "experts" Jennica (Ellen Sandweiss of "Evil Dead"), Kevin ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"'s James C. Leary), Chelsea (Amy Kline) and Herve (Not that one) Villechez (Hayden Black). The foursome investigates the dark secrets of Count Vampire's Castle and receive help from audience members who tweet about ghostly activity in various rooms. Black, who also produces, directs, and composes for The Occulterers, is widely known in the WebTV world for his webseries: Goodnight Burbank, Abigail's Teen Diary and the upcoming The Cabonauts.

Bumps in the Night

Continuing with the comedy-horror genre, we come to Strike.TV's Bumps in the Night. Got ghosts? Hard water? Look no further! Pool cleaners Emmet (Furey), John (Reha) and Greg (Benevent) discover a haunted swimming pool on their first day of work. Though John remains skeptical, it's hard to disprove paranormal activity when Emmett is dragged into the pool by unseen forces and Greg has his own wet nightmare. Unfortunately, catching their haunting on film will be difficult with a camera man afraid of ghosts. Furey is also the creator and star of the "Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog"-inspired webseries: Fury of Solace.

Penny Dreadfuls

Finally, we return to true tales of horror with Penny Dreadfuls, another Strike.TV offering. We almost expect to see Rod Serling lighting a cigarette and offering his two cents in this Twilight Zone-esque collection of short films. Penny Dreadfuls is written and shot beautifully. But that's where the beauty ends. These tales of neglect, abduction and apocolypse have one thing in common -- their lovers suffer a gruesome fate. Creator James Arnall paints a grim picture of what love can do to castmates Carolyn Hennesy, Donald Agnelli, Christopher Collard and Michele Boyd (from The Guild).

3 comments:

  1. Interesting note about "The Occulterers"...it wasn't particularly "long-awaited" considering Hayden conceived of, wrote, shot, and produced the series in about two weeks.

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  2. But "The Cabonauts" is definitely "long-awaited"! :)

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  3. Thanx for the comments, ladies. Guess it seemed like I was seeing "Occulterers" FB promos for longer than I really was. "Cabonauts" will be long-awaited indeed.

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