Compared to pretty much any other era of the medium, there’s more horrific programming today than ever before, and some of it is even pretty good.

Just a few years ago “horror” wasn’t even a genre on American television. The closest you could come ws “creepy” or “eerie,” whether it was The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, or The X-Files…and it seemed to be limited to one program at a time – not one per network, mind you, but one period. Any attempt at expanding the genre either never got off the ground (anyone remember The Lone Gunman? Or Kolchak: The Night Stalker?) or descended into cheesiness (let us not remember Tales from the Darkside, Tales from the Crypt, or Monsters!) or – worst of all – into parody of a genre that had never actually had a chance to flourish (The Munsters, The Addams Family).

But things changed a few years ago.

Blame The Walking Dead.

Really: nobody expected it to be that good. 

Obviously the horror genre had done more than simply survived in the movie theaters and DVD stores for all those years. It had actually expanded and diversified, so now there were slasher movies and Asian horror movies and supernatural thrillers and zombie movies and monster movies and all of the above set in the future and the past and on distant, unconnected worlds. And though there were some limp attempt and coy in-between shows (a moment’s silence for FreakyLinks, a fond remembrance of Buffy, a confused sideways glance at True Blood, and a shake of the head at Supernatural, the show that will not die), actual horror TV, a serious and consistent attempt at an episodic or anthology show that was supposed to scare the poop outta you, didn’t really last for more than a defibrilated heartbeat until The Walking Dead shambled onto the scene in 2010.

In the intervening four years, there’s been a bloody explosion of unflinching, unfunny attempt to fear you up. Look across the TV landscape today, and you’d think the genre had been around as long as the cop show or the medical drama. You’ve got the just-completed Dexter, the just-getting started Hannibal, American Horror Story, The Walking Dead, Being Human, Hemlock Grove, The Returned, Resurrection, Dracula, and a whole host of new “’tweeny terror” shows taking up the mantle of Charmed, God help us: Grimm, Sleepy Hollow, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Teen Wolf, Beauty & The Beast, Witches of East End, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum. Even the odd supernatural thriller, like Under the Dome or Orphan Black, seems to have found a home.

Some are indisputably strong, like this season’s American Horror Story and, thus far, Hannibal. Others show some surprising promise, notably Sleepy Hollow, while some have yet to show themselves, like Resurrection. But compare this slate to just a few years ago, when you were lucky to find a Night Gallery among the dross, and you have to admit: we are living in a Golden Age of Fear, at least as far as TV is concerned.

Yay for us.