I, like many, lament the lack of primetime television horror, and hope that someone will crack the code to make the genre successful… but I’m not 100 percent convinced that Ari Schlossberg’s Harper’s Island is going to be the show to do it. And now that I’ve said that, watch me contradict myself.
The pilot script for CBS’s new 13-part horror/mystery Harper’s Island is an interesting read. Schlossberg uses a horror staple to get things going — isolate the main characters and let the carnage begin — but does so in a way that feels fairly fresh. We meet our heroes (and, potentially, villain[s]) as they party aboard a ferry. Everyone on board is there to attend the wedding festivities for Trish Wellington and Henry Dunn, and if the last few guests would hurry up and get there, they could finally set sail for the titular island where the wedding will take place. The characters are written clearly and distinctly, with discernible types (playboy uncle, nerdy groomsman, pampered bridezilla) that nevertheless leave room for growth and a bit of discovery as the story unfurls. Action is written in a visceral, frightening way, and there’s a palpable sense of ongoing tension and even dread to the proceedings. In a nice job, Schlossberg manages to make this tension come not only from the more horrific things that occur, but also by slowing parceling out the gruesome backstory (which everyone wants to forget) and by creating conflicts between the main characters that feel real. Simply put, beat-by-beat it reads very much like an intriguing horror/mystery.
But here’s the rub: as I read, I couldn’t help but feel like this just didn’t seem like a TV show… and that the reason it has that familiar horror feel is because, beat-by-beat, it really follows the horror movie formula. See if you recognize this:
- We meet our leads and quickly learn their (often amiable) sins, except for our female lead, who seems wholesome and more serious than the rest of the characters, perhaps even a bit haunted.
- Something happens to make sure that everyone is isolated from the larger world.
- Something horrific occurs that we see, but that the main characters are ignorant to.
- The main character witnesses a couple of seemingly ominous things that seem there solely to ratchet up tension.
- A specific character sins and is punished in a grisly fashion.
Textbook first act of a horror movie, right? Except that it takes an hour, and there are twelve more hours to go. How to fill that time? Will a character be offed every week? If so, will audiences find a season-long mystery killer plausible? How about if said killer uses a motor-powered hedge trimmer on his or her victims?
It may be that I’m looking at this all wrong and the writer in me is worrying unduly. Perhaps, despite some of the trappings of what feels like a slasher movie, this will settle down to become more of a mystery a la Ten Little Indians. There is certainly enough intrigue set up between the characters that I can imagine interesting things being uncovered all the way through to the end. The real problem for me, I suppose, is that I feel like the mystery aspect is somewhat at war with the slasher aspect, and so far I’m not seeing how those things will be reconciled with each other.
Here’s hoping, though. I’ll be watching with my fingers crossed — at least for the first few episodes.
Tune in to CBS tomorrow 10pm ET/PT, and tell us what you thought of the pilot in the comments.
Josh Roessler is one half of an aspiriting TV writing team in Los Angeles. You can read his TV spec scripts and other writing here. Josh also writes a blog called Boring Future Generations.
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Juliana Weiss-Roessler is a writer living in Los Angeles. To read more of her writing, visit WeissRoessler.com. You can also follow her on Twitter: @jul_weiss. 
