Exclusive: The CW’s 'Two Sentence Horror Stories' tackles urban fable in season finale

The CW dipped its toe into the crowded anthology horror field this summer with the half-hour drama Two Sentence Horror Stories, and with the season coming to an end, we caught up with executive producer Vera Miao to show off a first look at the season’s final new horror story.

The new season wraps up on Thursday night with the episode “Little Monsters,” (next week’s episode will be a compilation of previously released online shorts) a story Miao told SYFY WIRE serves as an homage to adventure horror and the concept of a modern fable. 

“It is a little bit inspired by the classic adventure tropes in horror, and it centers on three young kids who live in a housing project, which is essentially the hunting ground for a demon who eats children,” she explained. “When one of them is snared by this demon … the two friends go on a journey to try and rescue their friend. It’s our take on a contemporary fable, basically, set in an urban environment." 

Check out an exclusive first look at “Little Monsters” below:

Looking back at the first season, Miao said they’ve tried to tackle some modern social issues through the lens of horror along the way — but first and foremost the goal has been to keep the story and characters at the forefront, then figure out how those elements intersect with the world we know.

“When you acknowledge there are fears and dreads and horrors, external and internal, and when you combine those and make them very specific a lot of stories open up for you,” she explained.

To make Two Sentence Horror Stories stand out from the Black Mirrors, Into the Darks, Twilight Zones and other anthology horror shows all on the air, Miao said they tried to lean into a shorter half-hour runtime (most anthologies typically run one-hour per episode) and literary premise (the show is literally based on two sentence horror stories, which are introduced and framed at the open and close of each episode).

“I think frankly a lot of our stories are so condensed, it’s a skill and a challenge — and a good one — to make sure we get to make complex characters, put them through their paces, and do it in a condensed time frame,” she explained. “I think the show itself has its own vibe, based on the literary device, that is very distinguishing and defines the structure of the episodes themselves. It’s more like a short story collection where each is a standalone. You really get to look into a lot of different worlds, and fears, all in one season.”

Two Sentence Horror Stories airs Thursdays on The CW, and is also available to stream on-demand on The CW app.