Chiller has big plans. NBC Universals horror channel has been dipping into original programming these past few years, seen in the likes of above average films like the Chilling Visions anthologies, Larry Fessendens Beneath and this years Animal. Theyve also recently produced the SpectreVision festival hit, The Boy, an atypically mannered study of a child sociopath. Now, theyve plotted out the rest of 2015 and 2016 with a few surprises, including an eight-part series entitled Slasher, a remake of Lifeforce and Siren, an expansion of David Bruckners V/H/S favorite, Amateur Night.
Deadline reports the slate, with the news of Slasher, Chillers first original series, premiering in late 2015. Following the likes of American Horror Story, Slasher is intended as a seasonal anthology show. The first season follows the plight of a young woman who returns to the small town where she was born, only to find herself the centerpiece in a series of horrifying copycat murders based on the widely-known, grisly killings of her parents. Aaron Martin, of Degrassi: The Next Generation, created Slasher. Craig David Wallace (Todd and the Book of Pure Evil) directs.
The networks reimagining of Tobe Hoopers Cannon cult film, Lifeforce (originally based on The Space Vampires, by Colin Wilson) is set to premiere in 2015, as well. Steve B. Harris produces, but no director is named. Lifeforce “follows a group of astronauts who encounter a derelict alien spacecraft hiding an ancient secret. At the vessel, the explorers discover three perfect humanoids who are returned to Earth and unleash a terrible plague upon the planet.”
Finally, Siren, based on David Bruckners Amateur Night, from the first V/H/S film will premiere in 2016. In the film, a bachelor party becomes a savage fight for survival when the groomsmen unwittingly unleash a fabled predator upon the festivities. Siren is adapted from David Bruckners short film Amateur Night, one of the segments featured in the 2012 Sundance premiere of the anthology thriller V/H/S. Siren is written by Ben Collins & Luke Piotrowski (the currently in-production Stephanie), executive produced by David Bruckner and Brad Miska and produced by Gary Binkow for Collective Digital Studios.
Its fascinating to see the slasher subgenre expand into television. Films which were typically 85 minute bouts of quick kill are being extended into multi-part murder mysteries like Harpers Island, MTVs Scream and this falls Scream Queens. It also feels particularly neat to dig more into the eerie, visceral Amateur Night, the best of the first V/H/S segments. Will Hannah Fierman return as the impossibly creepy creature?
