I suppose 13 – Fear Is Real should be welcomed as evidence of the revival in the horror genre. Somehow I can’t feel that way.

13 Fear Is Real is – of all things – a horror reality show. As such it’s an unholy alliance between one of my favourite genres and one I loathe. I had hoped that the reality TV craze was dying out, however it seems that it’s still staggering on as an undead zombie.

The new show, which debuts tomorrow night on The CW in the US, sounds like a pretty standard reality elimination show. The twist is that instead of eating bugs or pretending to be cats the players have to “face their deepest fears” and “stay alive”. To attract the attention of cynical horror fans like myself the famed Sam Raimi is involved as an executive producer.

The show’s official site lists the contestants as “cast”. I’d like to think this means that the whole “reality TV” thing is a smokescreen for what will turn out to be a proper scripted drama. Unfortunately I suspect it’s more likely to be some union rule or simple network conceit.

Being in the UK I won’t get to watch 13 Fear Is Real tomorrow. I can’t say I’m upset.

As part of the ITV winter-spring season they’ll be showing a one-off spooky drama called Affinity. The story is set against the backdrop of a Victorian prison and centres around Selina Dawes (Zoe Tapper), a spiritualist imprisoned for assaulting a young girl during a seance. Selina claims to have been possessed by a malevolent spirit at the time.

The film is based on the novel by Sarah Waters, probably best known for Tipping the Velvet. According to Waters:

It was definitely inspired by the traditional Victorian ghost stories of authors like Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, which are often about people, especially woman, trapped in houses and institutions, not quite knowing how to get out while their repressed passions produce odd effects around them.

Affinity was adapted for TV by writer Andrew Davies who previously adapted Tipping…. Davies says:

Affinity is a ghost story, a love story and a mystery. It’s about a prison visitor in the 19th Century who falls in love with a young female prisoner who is in there for being a ‘fraudulent medium’.

I think it is an extraordinary mixture, and the spiritualism side of the story is fascinating. Selina has the power of communicating with the spirit world and has a spirit guide called Peter Quick. A huge part of the story is whether we are we convinced that she is a genuine medium and can genuinely overcome physical barriers.

It’s a very unusual sort of period drama – it’s very different from your typical TV drama.

No exact broadcast date available yet, however the DVD’s due out in the UK at the end of January 2009.

Should Survivors be classed as science fiction or horror? I wasn’t sure but in the end decided on SF, so you can read my review here: BBC Survivors Review.

The new BBC exorcism drama Apparitions starts this week – Thursday 13th November at 9pm on BBC1. The series is in six parts, each lasting an hour.

Apparitions stars Martin Shaw as Catholic priest Father Jacob. In episode one Jacob “is approached by a young girl who believes her father is possessed by the devil”.

The show has already been criticised by Mediawatch, so it’s almost guaranteed to get high ratings. Personally I’m really looking forward to it.

If Apparitions comes even close to the success of Dead Set then, taken with the renaissance of British SF/fantasy shows, we could be on the verge of a new golden age for genre TV in the UK.

I’ll write a full review after the whole series has been shown, for now I just want to say: brilliant. The concept is genius, the execution superb and the action appropriately frenetic. Even “Queen D” gets the thumbs up, a first for me.

The frequent ad breaks do rather ruin the atmosphere, so it’s a programme best recorded and watched later. That’s likely to be even more true of the rest of the episodes that are only half an hour long.

Well done Charlie Brooker!