The saying is sometimes true: you don’t always realize what you have until it’s gone.
In the Fall of 2015, SyFy announced that it was rebranding the network; an attempt to move away from horror and a focus on cheaply produced movies and onto more quality science fiction television shows. I’m not sure how the Sharknado phenomenon was allowed to live (cough-cash cow-cough), but this rebranding saw a number of new series pop up on the network – 12 Monkeys, The Expanse and Z Nation as well as acquired international broadcasts of Dark Matter, Killjoys and Olympus. While I’m still a huge fan of reality series “Face Off” and I’m completely enamored with “Bitten” and recently debuted “The Magicians,” I’ve come to realize that horror fans and those who loved SyFy are missing out on something very important – the Saturday: Most Dangerous Night on Television movies!
Now, I can be honest here and admit that the movies SyFy produced or premiered weren’t always of the best caliber. They were often filled with over the top camp, bad acting and cringe-worthy CGI, which I assume was due to the productions trying to tackle such a big idea with a modest budget of only $1-1.5 million. Still, there were some gems shown on the network. Personally, I own Abominable, Beyond Loch Ness, Chupacabra: Dark Seas, Frankenfish, Red: Werewolf Hunter and Scream of the Banshee on DVD. Do I watch them often? No. But, the potential for me to slide them into my player sometime in the future is real. Plus, SyFy was the outlet for former franchises to shine before heading straight-to-DVD; think the Children of the Corn remake, Lake Placid 2 – 5, House of the Dead 2, Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis and Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave.
Hell, we were even able to see the severely underrated villain Pumpkinhead become resurrected for the first time in over 12 years with new movies Ashes to Ashes and Blood Feud. That is a favor all of us can be thankful for!
Keeping up with my honesty for another paragraph, I do have to mention that the Saturday: Most Dangerous Night on Television movies were seeing a downward slope in viewership. During its heyday in 2011, the former movie night on SyFy was averaging about 2,200,000 unique viewers per premiere. By 2014 those numbers were way down and the new slew of premieres were only able to average about 1,300,000 unique viewers per premiere. At the end of the day, SyFy is still a television network that needs to make money to stay alive; fewer viewers means fewer endorsements and fewer eyes on the channel means a smaller chance for increasing revenue of all kinds. Basically, the monster movies that made Saturday nights so dangerous just weren’t packed with punches anymore and people were tired of the onslaught of crap creature-features like Dinocroc and Ghost Shark.
SyFy tried to remedy this with the start of its rebrand, attempting to move away from horror to science fiction with other network produced or premiered titles like Christmas Icetastrophie, The Philadelphia Experiment and Stonados, but these movies saw even more depressing results.
While SyFy continues to air hit films of yesteryear like Dawn of the Dead, Final Destination and Resident Evil, horror fans like myself who are still glued to the network are left wanting more. We are part of SyFy’s core demographic, so can’t we get a little something to keep us on board with the rebranding? How about once a month SyFy airs a new cheesy horror flick to satisfy the masses? FEARnet has unfortunately gone the way of the dodo, so ChillerTV is primed and ready to become the biggest thing on the horror block. While ChillerTV and SyFy are both owned by NBC Universal, I don’t think splitting the demographic in half is such a wise decision. There is a way of giving fans what they want without jeopardizing the lucrivaty of SyFy’s master-plan. They just got to do some hard thinking and employee expert marketing executives. I know they can do it. Come on, SyFy. It’s time to Imagine Greater!
Until then, I’ll be waiting for Saturday’s to become dangerous again. Because I’d rather watch a hokey movie about a seven headed shark/octopus hybrid then watch no movie at all!
