It should come as no surprise that recent prequels based on iconic horror movies have proved high-quality television hits. Bates Motel is unmissable because we all know nice young Norman Bates is going to end up an unhinged psychopath who enjoys nothing more than dressing up as his dead mother and wielding a sharp knife. Likewise, Hannibal’s bloodthirsty thrills are just that little bit more chilling because we know Dr Lecter will soon be washing down victims’ innards with fava beans and a nice chianti.

Reports this week suggest the US network A&E, which developed Bates Motel, is now working on a TV series based on the 2008 Swedish horror Let the Right One In, itself based on the 2004 novel of the same title by John Ajvide Lindqvist. And there is also the upcoming Ash vs Evil Dead TV series to look forward to, which will return the legendary Bruce Campbell to his greatest ever role. There has even been plans for a TV show based on William Friedkin’s The Exorcist – so which other horror classics would make for great telly?

Spoiler warning: plot discussions follow.

28 Days Later

The Walking Dead may be showing few signs of fatigue despite recently moving into its fifth season, but if it ever runs out of zombies to kill, AMC could grab a ready-made replacement by adapting Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s visceral, engaging 2002 post-apocalyptic horror. Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris were at their brutal best as thrown-together couple Jim and Selena, and we never did find out what happened to them. The only problem with Boyle and Garland’s world is that it features lightning-fast zombies and a virus that can be caught by imbibing just a single drop of blood. What’s more, it takes place in the UK, where there are no guns to shoot down the offending denizens of the undead. Our heroes might not survive long enough to make it through more than a few episodes, so let’s call it a miniseries.

Jaws

Photograph: Universal/Allstar

Hold tight for a prequel based on the early adventures of great white shark hunter Quint, the hoary old sea dog who helps Roy Scheider’s terrified local police chief track down and kill the beast from the deep in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic. Each episode could focus on a new monstrous threat, with the action stretching from the California coast to the New England seaboard and beyond. The pilot might finally tell the full wartime tale of how Quint survived the treacherous shark-ridden Pacific (after being marooned in the sinking of the warship USS Indianapolis), as told by Robert Shaw to Scheider’s Martin Brody just before the former descends into full-scale Captain Ahab territory.

An American Werewolf in London

Photograph: Polygram/Allstar

Along with Evil Dead II, John Landis’s supernatural farce revamped and revolutionised the comedy horror genre for the 1980s. Its preposterous storyline sees two young US backpackers attacked by a lycanthrope somewhere up north, with survivor David (David Naughton) inexplicably waking up in a hospital in central London to the saucy attentions of Jenny Agutter’s posh English nurse. The film (which also boasts an insipid sequel, 1997’s An American Werewolf in Paris) never explained why the regulars at the Slaughtered Lamb knew all about the werewolf curse, where the disease came from and what happened to its earlier victims.

Cat People

Photograph: RKO/Allstar

On similar territory, Jacques Tourneur’s brooding 1942 proto-horror is the story of a beautiful young Serbian woman haunted by the belief that she is descended from slinky werecats. With people hailing from the nations of the former Yugoslavia now not considered quite so exotic as 70 years ago, the TV prequel might need some reworking. But with the current taste for Fifty Shades of Grey-style eroticism, it could possibly borrow from 1982’s much racier (and equally good, in a camp sort of way) Nastassja Kinski-starring remake.

Kill List

Photograph: Optimum Releasing/Allstar

Ben Wheatley’s darkly enigmatic 2011 chiller is another horror film that leaves the audience wanting more. The shadowy occultists who appear to be manipulating soldier turned hitman Jay’s murderous ventures could be set up to target a different ice-blooded killer each episode, with the season finale showing its leaders finally getting their comeuppance. Though, being members of an extreme death cult, they would probably just enjoy it.