The 10 Most Expensive Horror Show Episodes Of The Last Decade – Screen Rant

In recent years, horror has been one of the top-grossing genres at the box office. With power players like Jason Blum churning out smart $5 million movies and making an absolute killing on ticket sales(no pun intended), it's hard not to wonder at the fact that there hasn't been a similar renaissance of horror on the small screen.

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Television horror is the realm of big budgets and big names, with modest outfits likeTrue DetectiveandPenny Dreadful offering up meaty leading roles to drawin career film actors. And though the horror shows audiences enjoy in their living rooms haven'tquite cracked Blumhouse's secret formula for turning an extraordinary profit, the last decade has come up with some real gems, with some serious budgets.

Here are the 10 most expensive horror show episodes of the last decade.

JamesBondalumns Eva Green and Timothy Dalton headline this Showtime horror series alongside Josh Hartnett. Set in a Victorian England plagued by vampires, werewolves, and witches, this premium series ran for 3 seasons and ran the gamut of horror, action, and even romance.

With appearances by Dr. Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, and Van Helsing, it's no wonder that this show had a big budget. After all, it had a lot of territory to cover. Clocking in at approximately $1.3 million per episode (1 million GBP),Penny Dreadful put up great production value without breaking the bank.

This French TV series, known in its home country asLes Revenants, may not have cropped up on many horror fans' radars, but it certainly made a splash across the pond. Debuting on Canal+ in 2012,Les Revenantswent on to win an International Emmy for Best Drama Series and was re-made by A&E for American audiences in 2015.

The series tells the story of a small townwhere the dead suddenly reappear, brought back to life by unknown forces. It's an interesting take on the zombie genre. It focuses more on personal drama than horror, which may have made it unpopular with horror's traditional fanbase.Though the original French program managed to eke out 2 seasons, the A&E adaptation was cancelled after one.

With 15 seasons and more than 300 episodes under its belt, The CW's flagship seriesSupernaturalboasts one of the largest fanbases of any show currently on television. And while it's not quite horror in the way true grindhousefans prefer, it appeals to a wide audience of both casual viewers and die-hard devotees.

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It's not surprising, after its long track record of success, that each episode ofSupernaturalgarners a budget ofanywhere between $2 and 2.2 million. That may not seem like much, especially compared to the epic scale of modern behemoths likeGame of Thrones, which spends upwards 0f $10 million an episode, but it's nothing to scoff at either.

Based onThe Southern Vampire Mysteriesbooks by Charlaine Harris, this Anna Paquin vampire series was a hit almost right out of the gate. Its 7 seasons and 80 episodes garnered both a Golden Globe and an Emmy. It drew in fans with bloody sex appeal, riding the wave of vampire obsession that accompanied the mega-popular teenfilmTwilight.

It was HBO's most-watched show since The Sopranos, so the fact that the premium network was willing to throw an estimated $3 to 5 million behind each episode shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.And it was an investment that paid off.

A decade ago, AMC'sThe Walking Deadbrought zombies to the small screen in epic fashion. With 10 seasons, 140 episodes, and 2 spinoff series (Fear the Walking Deadand the upcomingThe Walking Dead: The World Beyond), this post-apocalyptic action-horror series has surpassed mere entertainment to become a phenomenon.

With the show already renewed for an 11th season, and with networkCEO Josh Sapan claiming in 2018 thatThe Walking Deadcould potentially continue for another 10 years, it seems unlikely that AMC will stop spending money on, or making money off, the show any time soon.

One of Netflix's first original series way back in 2013,Hemlock GrovestarredX-Menalumna Famke Janssen and Pennywise himself, Bill Skarsgrd. It centered around a small town in Pennsylvania, winding a haunting tale of vicious murders and secret werewolves, but unfortunately never quite managed to entrance critics.

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The 13-episode first season cost Netflix $50 million to make. And at a time when the original streaming TV series was a largely unproven model, that was no small gamble. In the end, the gamble didn't pay off. The series was canceled after 3 underwhelming seasons, an announcement to which most critics could only reply, "Good riddance."

American Horror Story: 1984was the ninth season of FX's hit horror anthology series, released in 2019 with a budget of $44 million for 9 episodes. Headlined by returning stars Emma Roberts and Billie Lourd, the season was strongly inspired by classic slasher films likeHalloweenandScream.

Though it had the lowest viewership of anyAmerican Horror Storyseason to date, with the finale garnering only about 1 million viewers, it was critically well-received. Die-hard fans of the series were not disappointed, and as long as the fans are happy, the show's approximately $4 million per episode budget was money well-spent.

The first season ofTrue Detectivedrew heavy hitters to the small screen like few series have before it. Film stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson portrayed homicide detectives for the Louisiana State Police, investigating a series of interconnected crimes in a Gothic American South.

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Though it's not horror in the strictest sense of the word,True Detectivehas been said to draw influence from weird horror fiction and is certainly unsettling in its depiction of heinous slaughter. Setting aside the disastrously disappointing second season, it's fair to say that this series emerged asone of the most popular dramas of the last decade.

Withouteven limiting the discussion to horror,The Alienistis one of the most costlyTV shows everproduced. At $7.5 million per episode, it clocks in at #17 of the 30 most expensive. Starring ex-child star Dakota Fanning and Marvel cast member Daniel Brhl, the TNT series details the investigation of one of the first serial murderers in 1890s New York City. It's characterized by dark, foggy cityscapes andintense levels of historical accuracy.

The network has ordered a follow-up series, based upon the second novel in the Kreizlerseries,The Angel of Darkness. It remains to be seen whether that series will garner such a hefty budget.

It should come as no surprise that Netflix's hit seriesStranger Thingstops this list. At #15 of the 30 most expensive shows ever made,Stranger Things' budget only seems to be climbing. In the first season, each episode cost $6 million. In the second, they cost $8 million. It seems likely that in the third season, they cost even more.

And with the show's popularity continuing to climb, it's likely Netflix will start spending more andmore on the horror series. They'll have to, in order to hold onto their stars, who are in increasingly high demand, starring in films likeBlack Widow,Ghostbusters: Afterlife,andGodzilla: King of the Monsters.

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The 10 Most Expensive Horror Show Episodes Of The Last Decade - Screen Rant

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero