The Dead Hour is a new webseries from the creators of the indie horror film The Wretched. In the tradition of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and Tales from the Crypt, The Dead Hour is an anthology series that will bring new original webisodes from the horror, fantasy, thriller, slasher and sci-fi genres to the web each week.

Staff member, Errin Whitney, caught up with Daniel Iske to talk about the web series, The Dead Hour.

Horror News Network: What made you choose the medium of the internet to broadcast your show, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so?

Daniel Iske: We wanted a format that allowed us to build a fan base. A couple years ago we released a horror film called The Wretched that played a few festivals around the country. It allowed us to meet a lot of people, but we didn't have our next project lined up at the time and so we weren't able to capitalize on interest in the film. Now, with an ongoing series like The Dead Hour, we hope we can grow and keep an audience while at the same time meet other talented writers, filmmakers and actors who want to be a part of the show. Which will only make the show better.

Horror News Network: I noticed that you were credited as a writer as well as director. Who or what inspired the stories that you wrote?

Daniel Iske: Well, Scott Coleman is the head writer and co-creator. A lot of the ideas come from his evil genius brain. But, a fair number of the ideas are created in brainstorming sessions we have. Almost all of our story ideas have a social commentary to them. We like to ground our plots in real life situations and then twist them, because we feel that hits audiences more at the core. We both took a lot of film theory classes in college and actually took a "Horror Theory" class together and we watched a ton of horror films from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Those films are just dripping with social commentaries of the time. A lot of red scare stuff, fear of "others", I think we are influenced by those decades a lot. Not that we don't like our fair share of blood and gore, but we just like the old school Hitchcock & Castle style of suspense and pyschological horror even more.

Horror News Network: When I watched the season it almost seemed like an anthology in my opinion very similar to Creep Show. Did any other horror anthology inspire that kind of format?

Daniel Iske: It's definitely an anthology series. In 2008 after we finished The Wretched, we were trying to figure out what to do next and we couldn't agree on a feature idea, so we decided to do an anthology series where the format of the show would allow us to tell a bunch of different stories. It was a perfect fit for us. It allowed a lot of creative brainstorming which led to dozens of great episode ideas. Being more old school, "The Twilight Zone" was more of a model and inspiration than any of the other anthology shows.

Horror News Network: If you could cast anybody to be in the next season of The Dead Hour, who would be your ideal cast and why?

Daniel Iske: I hadn't thought about that before, so I'm not sure. We've been able to work with so many great actors in the first season. Now that more people are finding our show, we're very excited at the emails we're receiving from interested actors out there. So we hope to continue to hear from and meet creative and talented people who want to be a part of the series. That was our goal. That each season would get better and better as we branched out and were able to network.

Horror News Network: What has been the response of your viewers so far and what demographic are you trying to reach?

Daniel Iske: So far, the response has been great. People seem to like the format and that they can watch any episode at any time. It's just like On Demand really. The style of each episode is different and so I think it keeps people on their toes. We try to keep people guessing on what the next moment is going to be, a cringe moment, a laugh moment or a scare. We're still in the early stages of getting press and reviews so our views are just now starting to grow.

Horror News Network: What can we look forward to concerning the next season?

Daniel Iske: Well, we begin filming season two very soon. We hope to have 8-10 episodes for the new season, which will start in September or October. We will also be filming The Dead Hour movie this summer for a festival run in 2012. We hope the film will compliment the series by helping us grow our audience and vice versa.

Horror News Network: Follow THIS LINK for more about The Dead Hour.

Horror News Network: Thanks for your time, Daniel. Best of luck with season two of The Dead Hour! Comment on this interview on our forum.