Back from the ‘Dead’

With zombies taking over the earth in “The Walking Dead,” ghosts scaring everyone on “American Horror Story” and all sorts of supernatural creatures doing who knows what on “True Blood,” television has never been so frightening.

Sure, there have been creepy shows on TV before — everything from “The Twilight Zone” and “Tales From the Crypt” to “The X-Files.” But the convergence of a few factors has brought horror to television at a new level.

In fact, TV may have been a little late to the monster mash. Horror has long been a draw to moviegoers, and some of the most surprising box-office successes started as small movies to which no one was paying attention, a k a “The Blair Witch Project,” “Paranormal Activity” and all five “Final Destination” movies.

It’s taken the relaxed standards of cable networks to bring horror to TV in all of its spectacular blood and gore.

“There hasn’t really been a prevalence of horror on TV until a few years ago,” says Robert Kirkman, author of “The Walking Dead” graphic novels and executive producer of the hit AMC series. “Cable television has really broadened what you can do. On broadcast, I don’t think these shows would be possible.”

HBO’s “True Blood” kicked off the modern horror party, premiering in September 2008. Two years later, “The Walking Dead” premiered on AMC on Oct. 31, 2010. Unlike HBO, everyone knew that show was a hit on Nov. 1, opening to more than 5 million viewers. The Season 2 finale drew 11 million viewers.

Last fall, FX premiered “American Horror Story” to the network’s best numbers ever.

Broadcast television has tried to replicate that success. The CW’s “Vampire Diaries” is that network’s strongest series, and NBC has had luck with its horror crime series, “Grimm,” on Friday nights.

This fall, ABC premiered “666 Park Avenue,” but early ratings for that show aren’t promising.

Approaching Halloween, audiences crave horror stories, and programmers are there to serve. Here are our top horror shows, new and classic.

THE WALKING DEAD

Today, 9 p.m., AMC

When audiences last saw the beleaguered humans of “The Walking Dead,” they were escaping Herschel’s farm, which had finally been overrun with “walkers” (zombies in “Walking Dead” lingo) and burned to the ground. Led by Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), they’re on the run, but in the distance viewers glimpsed a nearby prison, which played a prominent role in Robert Kirkman’s graphic novels.

“Last season, viewers were lulled into a false sense of security,” says Greg Nicotero, executive producer. “Season 3 is an opportunity to see what our characters have become.”

Meanwhile, one survivor, Andrea (Laurie Holden), was separated from the main group during the finale and she fled to the woods to avoid the oncoming horde of walkers. Expecting to finally meet her fate, she is surprised to be saved by a fierce black woman wielding a samurai sword with two armless, jawless, walker “pets” manacled to her side.

That woman, Michonne (Danai Gurira), is iconic for fans of Kirkman’s novels. Together, she and Andrea stumble upon Woodbury, a gated community that’s secured with armed guards.

“If you spend seven months eating twigs and branches and taking two walkers with no arms and teeth around for protection and camouflage and then all of a sudden you find a place where the rules for survival don’t apply anymore, that’s tremendously seductive,” says Nicotero.

At the center of Woodbury is another iconic “Walking Dead” character: the evil Governor, played by David Morrissey.

“I love David Morrissey’s interpretation of the Governor,” says Nicotero. “He believes that everything he is doing is setting up life for future society.”

While Andrea and Michonne figure out Woodbury, Rick has assumed absolute leadership over the prison, where he and the other survivors are awaiting the birth of his wife Lori’s child.

“You can’t tell a baby to be quiet, so it’s a source of danger,” Kirkman says.

At the end of Season 2, survivors also learned that if you die, you turn into a walker, even if you haven’t been bitten.

Says Kirkman, “It makes for one heavy, dark season of television, which is what people are definitely expecting.” — P.A.

TRUE BLOOD

Summer 2013, HBO

In the “True Blood” universe, fairies, vampires, witches, werewolves, shifters and displaced gods all live together, although rarely in harmony. Vampires are still trying to figure out if humans are food or friends and werewolves get high off vampire blood.

About the blood: It sprays everywhere — the producers must have bought it by the barrel last season — and the show’s campy core keeps it from being treated seriously by critics. But it’s been popular with audiences, routinely attracting an average of 5 million viewers per episode.

The show’s core characters are mostly human, but as the series goes on, more of them are showing their supernatural sides — short-order cook Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) is now a medium and Sookie’s (Anna Paquin) best friend Tara (Rutina Wesley) is a vampire. Sookie herself is a fairy, which explains both vampires’ strange attraction to her as well as her telepathy.

As the show ages, its plotlines have gotten increasingly absurd, although its viewership remains strong. One of the highlights of last season was the performance of Christopher Meloni as Roman, the vampire authority. Next June, Rutger Hauer will appear as a series regular. — P.A.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY

Wednesday, 10 p.m., FX

For its second season, this anthology series introduces a brand-new story, with its Emmy-winning star — Jessica Lange — returning. Firmly established now after “Grey Gardens” as the go-to actress for TV lunatics, Lange is Sister Jude, a nutty nun with a carnal past — can we say cliche? — who runs Briarcliff Manor, a notorious insane asylum that used to be a tuberculosis ward. Sister Jude uses the cane to whip strayed followers into shape, but she can’t keep tabs on everyone. Briarcliff is home to a deranged serial killer (as opposed to the sane variety) vividly nicknamed Bloody Face ( he wears the complexions of his victims), some old Nazis, aliens and mutants. Lange has company here: James Cromwell is a dangerous doctor. Joseph Fiennes is a monsignor who performs exorcisms. Lily Rabe plays another nun, Sister Jude’s younger nemesis. Other roles are played by Zachary Quinto and Sarah Paulson. Adam Levine makes his acting debut as a young groom on his honeymoon (at an asylum)? The present season is set in 1964, the year before show creator Ryan Murphy was born. — Robert Rorke

DEXTER

Today, 9 p.m., Showtime

“Dexter” is a horror show masquerading as a crime drama. Dexter Morgan is a blood spatter analyst with the Miami-Dade Police Department, emphasis on blood. He’s also a serial killer and every season, there’s one criminal whose comeuppance is richly and grisly deserved. The Ice Truck Killer (Christian Camargo). The Trinity Killer (John Lithgow). The Doomsday Killer (Colin Hanks). Motivated by a force he calls the Dark Passenger, Dexter has avenged 275 deaths, most frequently by stabbing them. A methodical killer, Dexter begins his ritual of murder by sedating his victims, jabbing a long needle in their necks, and traps them, naked, to a table and then slices into their cheeks for his blood slides. Then the killing begins in earnest. In its seventh-season debut, “Dexter” received its highest rating for a premiere, more than 3 million viewers. — P.A.

NIGHT GALLERY

1970-73

The chills began when Rod Serling walked onto the darkened soundstage at the beginning of every episode to introduce three paintings that captured the horror behind each story. While some were gruesome like “The Caterpillar” where Laurence Harvey falls victim to a terrifying plan involving an earwig he meant for a rival and “Green Fingers” with Elsa Lanchester as an elderly gardener who gets her revenge against a unscrupulous businessman, the show’s most frightening episodes were often those where the viewer’s imagination was left to its own devices. The show was at its hair-raising best in the pilot in which Roddy McDowall stars as a murderous nephew who discovers unexplained changes to a painting of the family graveyard in “The Cemetery.” Truly terrifying. — Diane Clehane

TALES FROM TH E CRYPT

1989-96

When a horror anthology show is hosted by a talking skeleton known as The Cryptkeeper, fans of the genre know they’re guaranteed at least a few goosebumps and “Tales From the Crypt” did not disappoint. Based on the infamous EC horror comic series, the show premiered as a trilogy on HBO and then went on to log 93 hours on the cable channel long before its “Sopranos” glory days (reruns were shown on Fox). A wide-ranging sample of the show’s guest stars reveals that everyone apparently thought it was cool to sign on, among them Demi Moore, Tom Hanks, Roger Daltrey, Tim Curry and Brooke Shields. In 1993’s “Till Death Do We Part,” a young stud (John Stamos) involved with a mob boss (Eileen Brennan) romances a waitress and is ordered to kill her when the Mafia moll finds out about it.

The freedom that HBO has always had in matters of sex and violence allowed directors such as Robert Zemeckis and William Friedkin to go heavy on the gore. — R.R.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE

1959-64

The granddaddy of them all, Rod Serling’s compulsively watchable sci-fi anthology series remains the benchmark against which all other television horror shows are measured. Classic episodes like “The Masks” where a dying millionaire leaves his greedy family an unexpected inheritance and “The Hitchhiker” where death stalks a woman who can’t escape her fate are still scaring horror fans all these years later. The most frightening episode of all: “The Howling Man.” In the final scene, viewers can’t help but shudder knowing what’s to come when Satan is about to be turned loose on the world by an unsuspecting maid. — D.C.

THE NIGHT STALKER

1974-75

Werewolves, vampires, zombies and mummies were regular visitors to this short-lived cult hit about Las Vegas newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin), who, in the novel on which the series was based, tracked down a serial killer who turns out to be a vampire. In the televsion series, episodes were never repetitive. In “The Trevi Collection,” a witch desires to control the world of high fashion (and how was this unusual?). In “Chopper,” a headless motorcycle rider murders those who wronged him. — R.R.