[Commlist] Call for papers: Horrific Movies of the Week! - 1970s Made-for-TV Horror Films and Society

Todd Gitlin pointed out in 1983 that ‘‘The three networks now underwrite 
more original movies than the studios combined” (in Stone, 2017: 616). 
The made-for-TV movie was a vast cultural phenomenon, commanding huge 
viewing figures and global, syndicated reach. Many of the most memorable 
and culturally resonant of these  were horror films. Despite this, the 
made-for-TV film, especially horror, remains largely under-explored in 
academic writing. If, as Pirie states, ‘Our fears are among the most 
revealing things about us’ (1994: 224), then what might these hugely 
popular films suggest about the society that produced them?

This call for papers is for an edited collection focusing on the 
extensive but little researched catalogue of US network made-for-TV 
television horror films of the long 1970s (late 1960s to the mid-1980s). 
There were literally hundreds of movies of the week and made-for-TV 
horror films with exceedingly high audience figures. Many featured major 
stars, including Bing Crosby (/Dr. Cook’s Garden, /1971), Olivia de 
Havilland (/The Screaming Woman/, 1972) and Kim Novak (/Satan’s 
Triangle/, 1975). Others remain well remembered as notable productions 
in their own right, including /Gargoyles /(1972) and /Satan’s School for 
Girls /(1973). They have continued to influence modern horror; for 
instance, Guillermo del Toro co-wrote and produced the 2010 cinematic 
remake of /Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark /(1973). Some actors experienced 
career resurgence owing to the prominence of TV horror, while it also 
gave actors and directors an opportunity to begin their career, such as 
Steven Spielberg (/Duel/, /Something Evil),/and Sally Field (/Home for 
the Holidays/, 1972) among others.

The diversity of these films is astounding, traversing killer robots, 
houses and trucks (/Paper Man/), vampires (/Kolchak: The Night 
Stalker/), zombies (/The Norliss//Tapes, Night Slaves/), werewolves 
(/Moon of the Wolf/, /Scream of the Wolf)/stalkers (/Someone’s Watching 
Me/), serial killers, including killer children (/Scream Pretty 
Peggy,//The Victim, All the Kind Strangers/), witchcraft/satanism 
(/The//Possessed/, /Black Noon, The Devil’s Daughter, Summer of Fear/), 
killer animals (/Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell/), supernatural horror 
(/Crowhaven Farm), /creature features (/Trilogy of Terror/), possession 
(/She Waits/) children-gone-bad (/Bad Ronald/, /Don’t Go to Sleep/), 
telekinesis (/The Spell/, /The Initiation of Sarah/), demonic babies 
(/The Stranger Within)/, genre mash-ups (/Black Noon/) and anthologies 
(/Dead of Night/). Horror can also carry broad meaning, and major 
television events such as /The Day After /depicted the aftermath of 
nuclear war as the most horrific scenario possible.__

__

Broadcast in 1983, /The Day After/was  viewed by 100 million, and 
prompted heated political debate, blanket media coverage and  a rethink 
of nuclear policy (Craig, 2023). This was the broadcast era of impactful 
television, with vast audience reach and  ‘watercooler’ moments.

Their budgets were often small, but network horror films could use 
ingenious makeup and special effects (/Gargoyles /won a Primetime Emmy 
for makeup effects) and be major broadcasting events timed to boundary 
rituals such as Halloween. These made-for-television horror films make 
the 1970s a ‘golden age’ for horror on the American small screen, with 
works that traversed style and genre (Fryers and Harmes, 2025). John 
Kenneth Muir notes a very American cultural inflection as influencing 
their production and popularity, with the routine broadcasting of 
violent Vietnam War footage causing a ‘turn toward darkness’ which 
fuelled this cavalcade of horror on television (2012: 27).

These films therefore spoke to societal fears and mores in domestic 
contexts of reception. Thus, these films represent a cultural phenomenon 
and are therefore texts which function as vital cultural documents that 
can inform us about the socio-cultural and political dimensions of this 
decade of flux and upheaval in American history.

In recent years, important work on televisual horror has been undertaken 
(Schmidt, 2013, Abbott and Jowett, 2014; 2021, Gaynor, 2019, e.g.)  but 
hitherto, no sustained analysis or single volume of this type has appeared.

Thus, this collection will seek to intervene on the significance of 
these films in a collection that brings together diverse and impactful 
research on the topic, utilising ‘horror’ in its broadest and most 
capacious sense.

Chapter proposals could cover but certainly not be limited to the 
following topics:

  * 1970s context; social,  economic, cultural and institutional
  * Technology and Modernity
  * Crises of Faith (religious, institutional, political, national
    identity etc)
  * Televisual specificities - domestic viewing context
  * Ecology and Environmentalism
  * Institutions – network TV/Hollywood/other
  * Social, cultural and economic contexts; Watergate, Vietnam, oil
    crisis, ‘me generation’ etc.
  * Similarities and divergence from 1970s horror film in the cinema
  * Televisual form and aesthetics (e.g. running times, broadcast,
    pilots etc)
  * TV theory – liveness and authenticity, ‘flow,’ intimate address e.g.
  * Authorship
  * Class and economics
  * The domestic space
  * Family and familial relations
  * Race, gender and sexuality
  * Grief and trauma – death and loss
  * Space, place and landscape
  * ‘Types’ and generic categories of horror – supernatural, monster,
    psychological, killer-thriller, techno horror…etc
  * Generic crossover/fluidity especially police procedural - challenge
    to Hollywood’s cultural hegemony and classification?
  * The specific function of horror on television
  * The profile of contributor directors and actors

We welcome proposals of no more *than 500 words* and a brief bio of no 
more than 100 words by *January 31^st 2026*. First Draft Chapters would 
need to be completed by *October 2026*, and the expected publication 
date would be 2027/8.

We are happy to hear from graduate students, early career researchers 
and especially those from underrepresented backgrounds as well as 
established scholars.

There is strong interest from Liverpool University Press’s ‘Hidden 
Horror Histories’ series for this edited collection.

Please send these to (mark.fryers /at/ open.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(mark.fryers /at/ open.ac.uk)> and (Marcus.Harmes /at/ unisq.edu.au) 
<mailto:(Marcus.Harmes /at/ unisq.edu.au)>


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