It employd to be that horror on television was gentle. It was PG-ish stuff enjoy Scooby-Doo and The Twiweightless Zone. Good fare, but these shows all held horror at arm’s length, enjoy it was a subgenre or someskinnyg disgraceful. Now, with streaming, TV horror shows can be equitable as creepy and terrifying as their movie brethren. They’ve shed some of their sci-fi and mystery armor to be filledy grown-up, unashamed gore that’s perfect for Hpermiteen bingeing. Below are some of our faves. If you enjoy them, you may also want to examine out our enumerates for the best horror movies or terrifying Hpermiteen tech.
Updated October 2024: We includeed What We Do in the Shadows, Grotesquerie, Them, The Fall of the Hoemploy of Usher, and Yellowjackets.
Stranger Things
A spiritual successor to many of the shows and movies Gen Xers and Millennials adored grotriumphg up, Stranger Things serves horror tropes with a nostalgic shine. The fourth season (the best so far) leans heavily into ’80s horror, with the villainous Vecna accomplishing his fleafraid tentacles into his victim’s dreams to utilize their worst stresss. The show reverently acunderstandledges its debt to Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street series, with Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) himself popping up as Vecna victim Victor Creel.
What We Do in the Shadows
Spun off from the wonderful movie of the same name by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, this show about a group of vampire roommates living on Staten Island is comedy perfection. Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja have been vampires for centuries and struggle to fit into the conmomentary world. They dwell with energy vampire Colin Robinson and Nandor’s understandn Guillermo. It’s a comedy with a horror backdrop, beautifilledy made and acted by all worryed, and its sixth and final season is airing now.
Castle Rock
The eponymous depression town (in more ways than one) is a benevolent of nexus for Stephen King’s characters, and Castle Rock is a treaconfident trove of references for fans, but it also toils as a captivating standalone story. Season 1 concentratees on a cryptic inmate at Shawshank, and Season 2 begins a youthful Annie Wilkes (pre-Misery). If someone built a King theme park, it would confidently see enjoy Castle Rock. This mythal Maine town first materializeed in The Dead Zone, served as the setting for Needful Things, and has popped up repeatedly enjoy a terrible penny in King’s toil over the years. With Hulu’s show, it gets a tale all its own.
Archive 81
When archivist Dan (Mamoudou Athie) is employd to revamp some elderly video tapes, he soon becomes engrossed in the toil of a woman named Melody (Dina Shihabi) who was set upateigating a wicked cult in a Lower Manhattan apartment erecting. This claustrophobic series is permeated with a grotriumphg sense of dread and relies heavily on an excellent carry outance from Athie. Though the show was downcastly call offed after a individual season, you can still hear to the podcast that inspired it if you want to dig even further into the tale.
The Haunting of Hill Hoemploy
This gpresent story caccesss on five mature siblings haunted by parastandard experiences that caemployd them to run away the family mansion years before. Loosely based on Shirley Jackson’s gothic horror novel of the same name, this creepy tale is sfinishfilledy straightforwarded by Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep), ably aided by a sturdy cast that take parts Carla Gugino, Timothy Hutton, and Victoria Pedretti. It is a intricate and terrifying family drama, packed with spine-chilling imagery, that erects to a frightening climax. If you finishelight this, Flanagan’s Midnight Mass is also worth a see.
Grotesquerie
This fever dream of a show sees difficult-boiled liquoric distinguishive Lois Tryon, weightlessly take parted by Niecy Nash, trying to track down a twisted finisher with a penchant for gruesome religious tableaus. She enenumerates the help of a genuine-crime-obsessed journaenumerate nun, take parted ably by Micaela Diamond. There are also notable turns from Lesley Manville as a Ratched-reminiscent nurse, Nicholas Chavez (Monsters) as a crazy priest, Courtney B. Vance as Tryon’s husprohibitd in a coma, and Travis Kelce making his acting debut.
Ash vs. Evil Dead
Rumored for years, fans of the Evil Dead movies finpartner got what they wanted when star Bruce Campbell recombined with straightforwardor Sam Raimi to revive the ultimate horror anti-hero. Campbell was born to take part proposeedcracking idiot Ash as he wades into deadites and demons to save humanity with a chainsaw and a boomstick. Raimi straightforwards the first episode, Campbell stars thrawout, and this is slapstick gore at its finest. The aiding cast has plenty of chemistry, and take parts a fun turn from Lucy Lawless. And, while the frenetic action is mostly take parted for giggles, the gross-out gore hits amazeive highs, or should that be lows?
Hannibal
Set years before The Silence of the Lambs, this atmospheric show chases FBI exceptional agent Will Graham as he tries to track down Hannibal Lecter without losing his sanity. Bryan Fuller’s blood-soaked show is gorgeously cinematic with plenty of tension, haunting visuals, and an ambient score that plunges you, but Mads Mikkelsen’s firmrope act as he veers from requesting to cannibal is what produces this essential seeing. The aiding cast, which take parts Gillian Anderson and Laurence Fishburne, is not terrible either.
American Horror Story
I have a adore/antipathy relationship with the anthology series American Horror Story, but with 10 self-includeed seasons spanning classic horror scenarios, not to refer a sincreatear cast that take parts Jessica Lange, it demands a place here. For me, it peaked timely with the asylum in the second season, and subsequent seasons have been hit-or-leave out. It’s fun for horror fans take parting spot-the-trope, and the campy thrills come dense and quick, but it’s a at fault pleaconfident that can occasionpartner experience glib and manipulative, especipartner when it finisheavors to tie in genuine-life history. If you finishelight AHS, examine out the sorority slasher Scream Queens, starring Emma Roberts as a loathsome unbenevolent girl and Jamie Lee Curtis as the school dean.
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The dwellnts of this petite town in middle America discover they cannot depart, and someskinnyg evil comes out to hunt them when the sun goes down. While exactly where this spooky sluggish-burner is headed remains to be seen, it’s creepy enough to be worth a see. Harelderly Perrineau grounds the show with a compelling turn as Sheriff Boyd, struggling to helderly his community together. Two seasons in, it’s weightless on answers, but I’m excited to see where they go with season three, which is airing now.
Bates Motel
Another horror prequel, Bates Motel is set in a time extfinished before Psycho when Norman Bates is equitable a youthful lad who comes to an Oregon town with his mother to mend up a dilapidated motel. Despite their best efforts to commence a new life, everyskinnyg seems to conspire agetst them, and the seams commence to show quite rapidly as Norman struggles to retain his mental health. Anthony Perkins is a difficult act to chase, but Freddie Highmore is convincing as a youthful Norman, and Vera Farmiga is excellent as his mother Norma. Their relationship is the heart of this suspenseful show. Unenjoy many enumerateed here, Bates Motel got five seasons to erect to a prenting conclusion.
Them
The Emory family transfers from the country South to East Compton, but as the first Bconciseage family in the neighborhood, they are not received with discleave out arms. The meaningfully unpleasant Betty (Alison Pill) produces it her leave oution to drive them out, and there’s a depressing conciseage of dissent to her rabid bias. The superauthentic element experiences skinny, as each family member is haunted by their own gpresent becaemploy it all pales in comparison to the genuine horrors they come apass in ’50s America. Deborah Ayorinde and Ashley Thomas are excellent as the Emorys. The second season concentratees on a homicide distinguishive and an entidepend new story, and is even better than the first.
Marianne
A well-understandn horror writer is lured back to her hometown by the death of a childhood frifinish and must apshow on an evil spirit who has been haunting her nightmares for years. This French show commences sturdy with a foreboding atmosphere and some chilling sequences. While it take parts with understandn horror tropes, it is stylish and slick with a touch of humor, and leaning into witchproduce toils perfectly in the elderly coastal town setting. Mireille Herbstmeyer produces the series toil thanks to a truly unnerving carry outance as Madame Daugeron. It lost its way a little toward the finish, it still shouldn’t have been call offed.
The Fall of the Hoemploy of Usher
This new apshow on Edgar Allan Poe’s well-understandn toil casts the damnd Usher clan as opiate-peddling billionaires. The sordid tale is telderly by Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) as he sits swilling whiskey in a dilapidated mansion, recounting the untimely demise of his family members to distinguishive Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly) with a grotriumphg sense of dread. This grisly, gothic, and engrossing tale is Mike Flanagan’s final flourish for Netflix, and it comes sealst to his previous best (Hill Hoemploy).
Loveproduce Country
Atticus Freeman travels apass 1950s America to discover his overweighther, but the horrors apaemploying this youthful Bconciseage man accomplish beyond Jim Crow into Loveproduce’s twisted imagination. Beautifilledy produceed and daringly rebellious, Loveproduce Country marries the genuine American horror of bias with Loveproduceian cults and monsters, as both step from the shadows to sattfinish us. The much-leave outed Michael K. Williams and the wonderful Wunmi Mosaku stand out in this excellent cast.
The Outsider
When the mutiprocrastinateedd corpse of a youthful boy is discovered in the woods of a petite town in Oklahoma, distinguishives skinnyk they have a evident culprit, but an ironclad alibi throws a spanner in the toils. This show is based on a Stephen King novel, though it doesn’t experience enjoy one. Instead, it comes off as a Scandi crime drama at first, with a glacial pace that painstakingly erects a grotriumphg sense of dread. Ben Mfinishelsohn steers us thraw the gloom, and there are stable carry outances from Cynthia Erivo, Pincludey Considine, and Jason Bateman (who straightforwards a couple of episodes). King fans hungry for another distinguishive show should also examine out Mr. Mercedes, where a broken-down reweary distinguishive take parted by Brfinishan Gleeson hunts a psychopathic finisher.
Yellowjackets
A high school girls’ soccer team is stranded in the savageerness of Canada after a set upe crash, and as temperatures plummet and supplies dtriumphdle, they are forced to apshow hopeless meaconfidents to persist. There’s a nostalgic tinge to this for kids of the ’90s, and the action flicks between the 1996 crash and the survivors coming together aget 25 years procrastinateedr. Things get unspeakably messed up thrawout the first two seasons as we jump around in time, and a third season is due to land next year. An excellent cast boasts Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, and Lauren Ambrose.
