Arkham Asylum, the Gotham City “facility” for the criminally insane, has Horror in its very makeup, and has had since its first appearance. (As integral as it is to the Batman mythos, one would be forgiven for assuming it has an older pedigree, but Arkham Asylum only made its first appearance in 1974.) The asylum was named after the city of Arkham, Massachusetts created by H.P. Lovecraft, home to Miskatonic University, which Lovecraft modeled after Salem, home of the infamous Witch Trials. Moreover, an institute called Arkham Sanitarium featured in Lovecraft’s story “The Thing on the Doorstep” and was based on the real, and notoriously haunted, Danvers State Insane Asylum. So yes, Arkham Asylum is a right proper Horror show and always was.
It’s fitting, then, that the planned livestreaming series based on the Gotham City Police Department, a spinoff of the film THE BATMAN, has morphed into one focused on Arkham Asylum, and that the series will lean heavily into its Horror roots. There is so much story potential there, I can’t even.
Also, as the Joker has been depicted so frequently on film, it might be better if, instead of seeing him as the main villain in the sequel to THE BATMAN, he is instead featured as a character in this forthcoming series. A new environment would keep him fresh, and we’ve not seen the Joker running wild inside Arkham before.
