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Isolated small-town horrors tend to offer some of the most captivating, thrilling narratives—a unique atmospheric charm, vivid characters and their belief system, the community spirit, and most importantly, the sensation created by a distinctively cloistered setting—a number of factors help in conjuring a bewitching spooky effect. Legendary horror novelist Stephen King has found tremendous success in this subgenre, and his extensive exploration in this route began with his second novel, Salem’s Lot, published in 1975, which is arguably at the top among his best works. Inspired by classics like Dracula and Nosferatu, King brought modern-day vampire fiction to life and set the story in an idyllic small town that is full of secrets of its own—of both virtues and vices. The result was a revival of vampire fiction in mainstream pop culture, and Salem’s Lot attained popularity of such magnitude that it endured the ravages of time by...

(Welcome to Year of the Vampire, a series examining the greatest, strangest, and sometimes overlooked vampire movies of all time in honor of "Nosferatu," which turns 100 this year.)

Unlike vampires themselves, the best stories arguably don't go on indefinitely. Think about it: would you really want to keep watching the same vampire show (or any show), with no end in sight, for all eternity? At the very least, you'd probably want an intermission of a few years, some time to unplug, think about your life choices, and hibernate in your coffin.

In the Year of the Vampire series, we've been focused almost exclusively on movies. The one TV show we revisited back in March was "True Blood," but even that show lasted seven seasons and 80 episodes. It requires a real time commitment. And if you're new to a show, the prospect of that can be daunting, especially during the Peak TV era,...