The horror genre has always been most closely associated with the medium of film, but in recent years it has made long over-due in-roads into television.

The ratings behemoth that is The Walking Dead has proved that horror in the long-form format of television can be hugely successful, while other shows like American Horror Story, Bates Motel and Hannibal have proved critical successes. Now, Sky Atlantic enters the fray with Penny Dreadful – a co-production with Showtime in the US – a gothic, supernatural chiller set in Victorian-era London.

As the first episode was screened for us in the appropriately gothic St. Pancras Rennaisance Hotel earlier this month, the scene was immediately set upon arrival with a funereal horse-and-cart waiting to greet us. If that doesn’t give you a sense of the darkly theatrical nature of Penny Dreadful, nothing will.

The plot follows Josh Hartnett’s gunslinger in a travelling – and largely naff – Wild West Show, as he becomes embroiled in a nether-world of oddballs and monsters, courtesy of Eva Green’s mysterious medium and Timothy Dalton’s aging explorer.

The crux of the series is on Dalton’s search for his daughter, who has been taken from him by London’s resident vampires. Also caught up in the search is Harry Treadaway’s death-obsessed doctor and – albeit not seen in the first episode – Billie Piper’s ailing prostitute.

The first episode is primarily table-setting for the rest of the series – 8 episodes, all written by Skyfall scribe John Logan – and it does a reasonable job of setting the series’ tone. Penny Dreadful – named after the schlocky magazine that circulated in the era – has a fun, throw-anything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks attitude.

Thus, the first episode features possession, vampires, lots of spiders, cowboys, reanimated corpses and – perhaps most curiously – ancient egyptian leanings. It could easily have turned into a mess, but it’s all pulled off with enough panache to create a very entertaining ride, even if for the most part, the first episode fails to really stand out and grab you – until the end that is.

While the episode has several strong scenes – a monologue from Dalton about his explorer days, hunting a lion, and Treadaway’s impassioned enthusing about the nature of life and death chief among them (and that’s not to mention Simon Russel Beale’s riotous turn as an eccentric British Museum employee!) – it’s the final scene that gives indication that Penny Dreadful is capable of far greater things.

As Treadaway’s doctor returns to his secret lab (this is the sort of show where people have secret labs), all the horror tropes are present and correct to lead you to expect something to jump out at him – but that doesn’t happen.

The show zigs, when you expect it to zag. Instead, the scene turns into something altogether more disturbing, inspiring and affecting – a marriage of sensations that it’s tricky to pull off. It’s by far the most effective scene in the pilot, and holds the promise of a more unpredictable show than the rest of the trope-riddled, albeit effective, set-up might otherwise imply.

If Penny Dreadful can build on the solid set-up of its first episode, then the strong cast of Hollywood stars, young Brit up-and-comers and an old James Bond – as well as Eva Green, who is perfect for this sort of role – should see it safely become a success. The litany of literary characters who are scheduled to appear in this first series alone should attract a varied fan-base, and lord knows that Victorian England is riddled with plenty more they can draw on in future seasons.

With high production values, and a team of high quality directors – including horror maestro J. A. Bayona for the first two episodes – and a penchant for all things horror in the zeitgeist right now, Penny Dreadful looks like being a welcome addition to our screens.

Are you looking forward to Penny Dreadful? Let us know below…