Those reports of TNT and M. Night Shyamalan developing a horror block around a revamped Tales From the Crypt were not just the dream of a traumatized high-schooler in a mental ward: The network has announced a ten-episode season of Tales. To fill out the block, the network has ordered a pilot of one new show, which will be called Time of Death unless they find a different name they like better, and begun developing another, called Creatures. The former will be a real-time horror anthology that sounds like a scary 24, while the latter is a Slenderman-esque tale about two young women dealing with an “internet bogeyman.” (American Horror Story was also rumored to be doing a Slenderman theme.) As for the rest of the tales, the reboot will be turning to the ultimate den of horrors, the internet, for inspiration. In a partnership with Wattpad, a fiction community site, TNT will use data to “identify horror subjects and subgenres that are bubbling up, and in some cases scoop up specific writings from Wattpad contributors,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Per Aron Levitz, head of Wattpad Studios, writers “will take part financially” if their material is developed for the show. Meanwhile, the new Tales promises to be guided by “a newly reinvented Crypt Keeper,” which, knowing Shyamalan, means he’ll be a genius writer who’s just cruelly misunderstood.
