A Short-Lived British-Canadian Anthology Horror that follows different tales that focused on self-destruction.
The show was hosted by Terence Stamp in Season One and David Bowie in Season Two.
It aired for two seasons from July 20, 1997 to March 5, 2000 on SciFi and Showtime.
Tropes for the series:
- Alliterative Name: Brent Barry (Richard Jutras)
- Alliterative Title: Week Woman, and Sin Seer.
- Dying Dream: In the second season episode "Sanctuary", Eddie Falco is on the run for the murder of mad artist Julian Priest's agent and asks the reclusive Julian (David Bowie) for help; Priest decides to make him the subject of an especially grisly piece of performance art. The Reveal is that this is Julians death dream. Eddie is actually a manifestation of Julian's regret over living long enough to have lost his touch as an artist, modeled on a rival who committed suicide back in The '70s and thus cemented his reputation without risking the career downturn Julian did. In truth, Julian - driven 'round the bend by outrage and shunning for his increasingly grotesque work - killed his agent and then turned himself into his last work of art, resulting in a slow death, to achieve the immortality he wanted. It works too well, though - rather than passing on into an afterlife, he becomes a ghost who dwells in the abandoned prison that became his home in life and the narrator who introduces and closes each subsequent episode.
- Horror Host: The show had two of these, one for each season. Terence Stamp did the honors for Season One. Season Two went further by casting David Bowie (who had a key role in the movie that inspired the show) as an original character; mad artist Julian Priest. Unusually for a Horror Host, his backstory is complicated enough that the first season episode of the season ("Sanctuary") is devoted to telling it, so he doesn't address the viewer until the final sequence. Subsequent episodes use traditional bookends as he muses over the themes of the stories in question, with touches of Black Humor here and there. He's rather elegant and melancholy for a horror host too, but that only makes his sadistic (and sometimes masochistic) moments all the more unnerving.
- Mad Artist: The second season opener has Julian Priest, whose fascination with/resentment of death manifested itself in increasingly grisly and shocking performance art - one piece of him surgically strip away a large piece of human skin from his lower arm - that led to outrage and shunning. Encountering a young man on the run for the murder of Julian's agent, he decides that he'd make the perfect subject for his next work...the madness runs ''so deep the stranger is all in his head. Julian was the murderer and he's actually killing himself - since turning his demise into a work of art will bring him the immortality he craves. The ghost of Julian goes on to host the rest of the series.
- One-Word Title: Necros, Anais, Hidebound, Clarimonde, Footsteps, Sanctuary, Brass, Replacements, and Double.
- Tagline: "The Taste of Terror".
