The Netflix Vision of Horror

Since the emergence of on-demand streaming platforms, television as a storytelling medium has drastically changed. The lines between TV and cinema are blurred. Traditionally, television relied on narrative forms and genres that were highly formulaic, striving to tease the viewer onward with a series of cliffhangers while still maintaining viewer comprehension. Now, on platforms such as Netflix, the lack of commercial breaks and the practice of “binge-watching” have led to a new type of television flow that urges viewers to see and consume a series as a whole and not as a fragmented narrative.

This book examines the structuring methods of 13 Netflix original horror series, including Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Stranger Things, Hemlock Grove, The Haunting of Hill House, and Santa Clarita Diet. Although these shows use television as the medium of storytelling, they are structured according to the classical rules of film.

Sotiris Petridis is an adjunct professor at Hellenic Open University, Greece. His research interests are about film and television genres, audiovisual horror, screenwriting theory and practice, viral marketing, and the new ways of film and television promotion and has written academic books and articles on cinema and audiovisual narrative. He is a member of the European Film Academy and the Greek Film Academy.

Sotiris Petridis

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 194
Bibliographic Info: appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2021
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8422-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4312-0
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
Introduction 1
One. Netflix Original Horror Series: Films in Disguise 7
Two. The Narrative Structure of the Complex Discovery Plot 40
Three. The Narrative Structures of Triple and Double Function Plots 101
Conclusion 157
Filmography 163
Appendix A: Series Corpus 165
Appendix B: ­Three-Act Structures 167
Appendix C: Types of Plot and Horror 169
Chapter Notes 171
Bibliography 177
Index 185