Horror certainly is popular, isn’t it? And poverty sure is horrifying when you’re caught in its grasp, so seeing the show title Penny Dreadful made me think of another possible horror show: Penury Dreadful. And this show could show a family whose fortune has seen better times, and like in Penny Dreadful, they are menaced by monsters, but in this case, they are metaphors made literal, like predatory lenders becoming literal “blood-suckers” as vampires, and with the expression “the wolf’s at the door” being literalized with bill collectors becoming ravenous werewolves trying to get in from time-to-time or trying to repossess their belongings or foreclose on their home. And our unfortunate heroes are constantly haunted by the specters of bankruptcy, homelessness and starvation, personified as ghosts. And their home becomes infested with little goblins (like from the movie: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark) representing ignorance and want and such things, like at the feet of the Ghost of Christmas Present from A Christmas Carol, just inside the hem of his robe. And because they have no money or healthcare, they have to consider selling their organs to Dr. Frankenstein types, in whose laboratories they see horrible creatures, metaphors for the misdeeds of organ trafficking and for the sins of society to chew people up and spit them out.
That’s Penury Dreadful: coming soon to a TV set near you! (Okay, probably not…)
Yes, modern horror can be horrifying, what with the ramped-up gore factor and the completely uncensored plotlines of late, but there’s just nothing more truly horrifying than real life, don’t you find? And there’s just so much real-life horror these days, sadly.
