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I used to do be that the horror on television was tame. It was PG stuff like Scooby Doo and The twilight zone. Good price, but all of these shows kept horror at a distance, as if it were a subgenre or something embarrassing. Now, with streaming, television horror shows can be just as creepy and terrifying as their cinematic brethren. They’ve shed some of their sci-fi/mystery armor to become completely adult and unabashed gore that’s perfect for Halloween binge-watching. Below are some of our favorites. If you like them, you might also want to check out our lists of the best Halloween horror or scary tech movies.
Updated October 2024: we added What We Do in the Shadows, Grotesquerie, Them, The Fall of the House of Usher, and Yellow jackets.
stranger things
A spiritual successor to many of the shows and movies that Generation X and Millennials loved as children. stranger things It serves up horror tropes with a nostalgic sheen. The fourth season (the best yet) leans heavily into ’80s horror, with the villainous Vecna sticking his meaty tentacles into his victims’ dreams to exploit their worst fears. The show reverently acknowledges its debt to Wes Craven. Nightmare on Elm Street series, with Freddy Krueger himself (Robert Englund) appearing as Vecna’s victim, Victor Creel.
What we do in the shadows
Derived from the wonderful film of the same name by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, this show about a group of vampire roommates living on Staten Island is the perfect comedy. Nandor, Laszlo and Nadja have been vampires for centuries and struggle to fit into the modern world. They live with energy vampire Colin Robinson and Nandor’s relative Guillermo. It’s a comedy with a horror undertone, beautifully made and performed by everyone involved, and its sixth and final season is now airing.
castle rock
The depression town that bears his name (in more ways than one) is something of a nexus for Stephen King’s characters, and castle rock is a treasure trove of references for fans, but also works as a captivating stand-alone story. Season 1 focuses on a mysterious inmate at Shawshank, and season 2 introduces a young Annie Wilkes (pre-Misery). If someone built a King theme park, it would surely look like Castle Rock. This fictional Maine town first appeared in The dead zoneserved as a stage for Necessary thingsand has repeatedly appeared as a bad dime in King’s work over the years. With the Hulu show, it has a story of its own.
File 81
When archivist Dan (Mamoudou Athie) is hired to restore some old video tapes, he soon becomes absorbed in the work of a woman named Melody (Dina Shihabi) who was investigating a demonic cult in a Lower Manhattan apartment building. This claustrophobic series is infused with a growing sense of dread and relies heavily on an excellent performance from Athie. Although the show was sadly canceled after just one season, you can still listen to the podcast that inspired it if you want to delve even deeper into the story.
The Haunting of Hill House
This ghost story centers on five adult siblings tormented by paranormal experiences that caused them to flee the family mansion years before. Loosely based on the gothic horror novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson, this chilling story is skillfully directed by Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep), ably assisted by a strong cast including Carla Gugino, Timothy Hutton and Victoria Pedretti. It is a complex and terrifying family drama, packed with chilling images, building to a terrifying climax. If you like this, Flanagan’s Midnight mass It’s also worth checking out.
grotesque
In this fever dream spectacle, hardened alcoholic detective Lois Tryon, brilliantly played by Niecy Nash, attempts to track down a twisted killer with a penchant for gory religious paintings. He enlists the help of a true crime-obsessed journalist nun, ably played by Micaela Diamond. There are also notable turns from Lesley Manville as a nurse reminiscent of Ratched, Nicholas Chavez (monsters) as a mad priest, Courtney B. Vance as Tryon’s comatose husband, and Travis Kelce making his acting debut.
Ash vs Evil Dead
It has been rumored for years, fans of the Evil Dead The movies finally got what they wanted when star Bruce Campbell reunited with director Sam Raimi to revive the ultimate horror antihero. Campbell was born to play the wisecracking idiot Ash as he wades through the dead and demons to save humanity with a chainsaw and a boomstick. Raimi directs the first episode, Campbell stars throughout, and this is bloody slapstick at its finest. The supporting cast has a lot of chemistry and includes a fun role from Lucy Lawless. And while the frenetic action is mostly played for laughs, the gross gore reaches impressive levels – or should that be minimal?
Hannibal
Established years before The silence of the lambs, This atmospheric show follows FBI Special Agent Will Graham as he attempts to track down Hannibal Lecter without losing his sanity. Bryan Fuller’s blood-soaked spectacle is wonderfully cinematic with plenty of tension, haunting images and immersive ambient music, but Mads Mikkelsen’s high-wire act as he goes from charismatic to cannibalistic is what makes essential viewing. The supporting cast, including Gillian Anderson and Laurence Fishburne, isn’t bad either.
American horror story
I have a love/hate relationship with the anthology series. American horror storybut with 10 standalone seasons spanning classic horror scenarios, not to mention an all-star cast including Jessica Lange, it demands a spot here. For me, it peaked early with the asylum in season two, and the seasons since have been hit and miss. It’s fun for horror fans to play spot the trope, and the cheesy thrills come thick and fast, but it’s a guilty pleasure that can occasionally feel simplistic and exploitative, especially when it tries to tie into the real-life story. if you enjoy AHSwatch the sorority slasher scream queensstarring Emma Roberts as a nasty, mean girl and Jamie Lee Curtis as the school dean.
Of
The residents of this small town in the middle of America find that they can’t leave and something evil comes out to hunt them when the sun sets. While exactly where this creepy slow-burn video goes remains to be seen, it’s creepy enough to be worth checking out. Harold Perrineau grounds the show with a compelling turn as Sheriff Boyd, who struggles to keep his community together. After two seasons, there are few answers, but I’m excited to see where they go with season three, airing now.
Bates Motel
Another horror prequel, Bates Motel It is set in a much earlier time. Psychopath when Norman Bates is just a young man who arrives in an Oregon town with his mother to fix up a dilapidated motel. Despite his best efforts to start a new life, everything seems to conspire against him and the seams begin to show rather quickly as Norman struggles to maintain his mental health. Anthony Perkins is a difficult character to follow, but Freddie Highmore is convincing as a young Norman and Vera Farmiga is excellent as his mother Norma. Their relationship is the heart of this suspense show. Unlike many listed here, Bates Motel I have five seasons to reach a satisfying conclusion.
Them
The Emory family moves from the rural south to East Compton, but as the first black family in the neighborhood, they are not welcomed with open arms. The deeply unpleasant Betty (Alison Pill) makes it her mission to drive them out, and there’s a depressing lack of disagreement with their rabid racism. The supernatural element feels lacking as each member of the family is haunted by their own ghost because everything pales in comparison to the real horrors they encounter in 1950s America. Deborah Ayorinde and Ashley Thomas are excellent as the Emorys . The second season focuses on a homicide detective and a completely new story, and it’s even better than the first.
Marianne
A famous horror writer is drawn back to her hometown by the death of a childhood friend and must confront an evil spirit that has been haunting her nightmares for years. This French show starts strong with a foreboding atmosphere and some chilling sequences. While it plays on familiar horror tropes, it’s stylish and stylish with a touch of humor, and its slant toward witchcraft works perfectly in the ancient seaside town setting. Mireille Herbstmeyer makes the series work thanks to a truly unnerving performance as Madame Daugeron. It got a little lost towards the end, it shouldn’t have been canceled yet.
The Fall of the House of Usher
This new version of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous work presents the cursed Usher clan as billionaire opiate traffickers. Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) tells the sordid story while drinking whiskey in a ruined mansion, recounting the untimely disappearance of his family members to Detective Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly) with a growing sense of dread. This creepy, gothic, and fascinating story is Mike Flanagan’s latest flourish for Netflix, and it’s closer to his previous best (hill house).
Lovecraft Country
Atticus Freeman travels across 1950s America to find his father, but the horrors that await this young black man go beyond Jim Crow and into Lovecraft’s twisted imagination. Beautifully crafted and boldly subversive, Lovecraft Country combines the true American horror of racism with Lovecraftian cults and monsters, as both come out of the shadows to scare us. This excellent cast includes the much-missed Michael K. Williams and the wonderful Wunmi Mosaku.
The stranger
When the mutilated body of a child is discovered in the woods of a small Oklahoma town, detectives believe they have a clear culprit, but a solid alibi complicates the process. This show is based on a Stephen King novel, although it doesn’t look like it. Instead, it initially feels like a Scandinavian crime drama, with a glacial pace that painstakingly builds a growing sense of dread. Ben Mendelsohn guides us through the darkness and there are solid performances from Cynthia Erivo, Paddy Considine and Jason Bateman (who directs a couple of episodes). King fans eager for another detective series should also check this out Mr. Mercedes, where a broken retired detective played by Brendan Gleeson hunts a psychopathic killer.
yellow jackets
A high school girls’ soccer team is stranded in the Canadian desert after a plane crash, and as temperatures plummet and supplies dwindle, they are forced to take desperate measures to survive. There’s a nostalgic undertone to this for ’90s kids, and action movies between the 1996 crash and the survivors reuniting again 25 years later. Things get unspeakably complicated during the first two seasons as we jump around in time, and a third season is expected to arrive next year. An excellent cast features Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci and Lauren Ambrose.