Nothing says “kid’s show” like a lantern powered by the liquified souls of lost children!

While there are a few discrepancies when compared to the final show (such as the talking bird Beatrice being played by Natasha Leggero instead of Melanie Lynskey), the ingredients were all in place for a captivating series. Titled Harvest Melody, this charming yarn already features Elijah Wood and Collin Dean as our sibling protagonists, with the pair encountering a musical gathering of vegetable people and their natural predators. This project would slowly evolve into something completely different as McHale gained more experience working on other shows.Īfter repeated pitches, with project proposals ranging from a three-season TV show to a feature film, McHale ended up producing a pilot episode of Tome of the Unknown in 2013. Originally titled Tome of the Unknown, the series was meant to be comprised of self-contained “chapters” about a pair of brothers who make a literal deal with the devil. McHale first came up with the concept way back in 2004, though it wasn’t exactly the show that we know today.

And with Halloween now upon us, I’d like to take this opportunity to look back on how the show managed appeal to both pre-schoolers who enjoy singing animals and fans of vintage horror who pine for gothic narratives.Ĭreated by Patrick McHale, who’s best known for his work on Adventure Time and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Over the Garden Wall was a passion project that took a decade to hit the small screen. To me, the perfect example of this exceedingly difficult balance is Cartoon Network’s Over the Garden Wall, a 2014 mini-series that explores the horrors of the Unknown through innocent eyes. The ideal Gateway Horror story works on multiple levels, with creepy elements light enough to avoid traumatizing the casual viewer but ideas scary enough to entertain even the most jaded of horror hounds. That being said, a lot of horror fans mistake that sentiment for Gateway Horror not being allowed to be scary, which simply isn’t true. Like training wheels for spooky media, these stories are meant to introduce audiences to the recurring tropes and iconography of the genre without necessarily resulting in nightmare fuel. You don’t just watch a VHS copy of Cannibal Holocaust and immediately start loving the genre (or at least I hope not), and that’s why Gateway Horror is so important.

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