Webseries by and large are a mixed bag. These short episode season formats are largely done on the cheap, featuring hordes of no name talent, poor writing, and green screen sets. It’s a venue where the likes of Roger Corman and Ed Wood would have thrived during their careers.
Regardless of the questionable content, webseries (or webisodes) have been on the rise in recent years, primarily due to increasing Hollywood budgets and the decreasing attention spans of the general American public, if not much of the world. Little nuggets of entertainment have found a home amongst the interwebs, even if they haven’t achieved mainstream success as of yet.
One such nugget found on YouTube is a nifty little horror anthology series entitled Silverwood.
Hosted by BlackboxTV, the first season of Silverwood features 11 initially unconnected episodes about ghosts, monsters, and aliens prowling the small mountain town of Silverwood, California. Creator Tony E. Valenzuela drew a lot of inspiration from found footage films, old X Files episodes, and even the Tales of the Darkside series to create these segments.
Pay close attention, though, because nothing is what it seems. The story continues after season one with Silverwood: Final Recordings, an 8 part miniseries that ties the entire first season together and answers many of your lingering questions. Anthology series have always been uneven at best. Only The Twilight Zone maintained a strong writing continuity, due entirely to the creative effort of Rod Serling. Tony Valenzuela may be no Serling, but he’s definitely channeling his talents when it comes to putting together a persuasive webseries.
Silverwood breaks the mold when it comes to online entertainment. What could have easily been a lazy series of stock horror and sci-fi stories instead transitions into a compelling narrative as each of the separate tales are deftly woven together into a single entity that slow burns to a rousing climax.
I can’t recall the last time I anxiously awaiting the next installment of a series, but Silverwood had me dutifully clicking the play button week after week. Aside from the writing, Silverwood also excels with decent production values (including on location shooting), and above average acting. Most notable are newcomers Bree Essrig and Tonya Kay, both of whom give credible, effective performances for this type of material.
In addition to the webisodes, Valenzuela also created a web comic that details the long history of Silverwood and how its bloodied past relates to its present events. This is a smart bit of marketing that helps expand the mythology past its YouTube constraints.
If you’ve got time to kill online, entertain yourself proper with Silverwood. This is one spooky mountain town you won’t soon forget.
To watch Silverwood Season 1 go HERE, or find Silverwood: Final Recordings HERE.
