If you’ve ever felt like streaming services simply not offer enough horror, you’re not alone. New VOD site The Horror Show is dedicated exclusively to the horror genre. With excellent independent films like Exicision, The Casebook Of Eddie Brewer, Dead Hooker In A Trunk and Pontypool alongside films such as The Human Centipede and The Tall Man, and classics like Who Could Kill A Child?, the growing catalogue of excellent horror is being stewarded by journalist and horror expert David Hughes. He talked to us about why he felt the need to bring lesser-seen genre films to a wider audience and why The Horror Show isn’t just another on-demand service.
How did The Horror Show come about? Did you feel that other on-demand services weren’t adequately satisfying your horror needs?
The Horror Show came about because it seemed high time there was a dedicated VOD/streaming service for horror films, as the other name-brand services seemed patchy, if not downright neglectful, of the huge audience out there for horror. There are so many great horror films screened at festivals like FrightFest every year, but only a handful get UK distribution – fewer still theatrical distribution. And with high street shops disappearing fast, even the old model of browsing the horror section seemed to by dying away.
How do you go about selecting the films for The Horror Show? Did you have a specific balance in mind between classics and more recent films, indie and better known?
We negotiate directly with distributors regarding their catalogues, so we can achieve a mix of old and new films, and although there are only 30 or so films on the site at present, we’re adding more all the time – and there are an unbelievable number of deals pending, so we will be adding a lot more content soon. We say the site is ‘created for horror fans, curated by horror fans’, and we already have a couple of curators-at-large out in the (horror) field, tipping us off to undistributed horror films they feel visitors to The Horror Show.TV will appreciate. We also have a couple of UK exclusives you literally can’t find anywhere else, all presented in the best possible versions.
There are some great indie horrors on there like Excision, The Casebook of Eddie Brewer, and Dead Hooker in a Trunk. Is part of the idea of the service to bring these lower-budget horrors to a wider audience?
Absolutely! As I said, unlike other VOD platforms, we are able to really get behind every single film we carry, so that it can find an audience. And although the range of films is understandably varied, every one of our films is somebody’s favourite. That said, we want the site to feel curated, rather than just be a ‘distributor dump’ so we are actively seeking more curators and ambassadors and looking to make more deals as the year goes on. Expect us to be at FrightFest with a briefcase full of deal memos!
Which film would you point new Horror Show customers towards first?
I’d have to say the Short Stack, because it’s a unique proposition – 10 short films for 99p, including several that are unavailable elsewhere. It’s a great entry level, and since we’re not subscription based, you can get a feel for the service for under a pound. We find that most of our customers start there, and then come back for a feature or two.
With the “by horror fans for horror fans” aspect, how important do you feel the community aspect is to the horror genre?
The community aspect is hugely important, which is why we are very active on Facebook and Twitter – they’re both excellent forums for people to feed back to us about the films. We want to keep the site as film-friendly as we can, so it’s simple to use, so we generally direct people to our social media platforms to tell us what they think.
Check out The Horror Show at http://www.TheHorrorShow.TV
