17 Best Horror Shows to Binge for Halloween

It utilized to beryllium that fearfulness connected tv was tame. It was PG-ish worldly similar Scooby-Doo and The Twilight Zone. Good fare, but these shows each held fearfulness astatine arm's length, similar it was a subgenre oregon thing shameful. Now, with streaming, TV fearfulness shows tin beryllium conscionable arsenic creepy and scary arsenic their movie brethren. They've shed immoderate of their sci-fi and enigma armor to beryllium afloat grown-up, unashamed gore that's cleanable for Halloween bingeing. Below are immoderate of our faves. If you similar them, you whitethorn besides privation to cheque retired our lists for the best fearfulness movies oregon scary Halloween tech.

Updated October 2024: We added What We Do successful the Shadows, Grotesquerie, Them, The Fall of the House of Usher, and Yellowjackets.

Stranger Things

A spiritual successor to galore of the shows and movies Gen Xers and Millennials loved increasing up, Stranger Things serves fearfulness tropes with a nostalgic glow. The 4th play (the champion truthful far) leans heavy into '80s horror, with the villainous Vecna reaching his fleshy tentacles into his victim’s dreams to exploit their worst fears. The amusement reverently acknowledges its indebtedness to Wes Craven’s A Nightmare connected Elm Street series, with Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) himself popping up arsenic Vecna unfortunate Victor Creel.

What We Do successful the Shadows

Spun disconnected from the fantastic movie of the aforesaid sanction by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, this amusement astir a radical of vampire roommates surviving connected Staten Island is drama perfection. Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja person been vampires for centuries and conflict to acceptable into the modern world. They unrecorded with vigor vampire Colin Robinson and Nandor’s acquainted Guillermo. It’s a drama with a fearfulness backdrop, beautifully made and acted by each concerned, and its sixth and last play is airing now.

Castle Rock

The eponymous slump municipality (in much ways than one) is simply a benignant of nexus for Stephen King’s characters, and Castle Rock is simply a treasure trove of references for fans, but it besides works arsenic a captivating standalone story. Season 1 focuses connected a mysterious inmate astatine Shawshank, and Season 2 introduces a young Annie Wilkes (pre-Misery). If idiosyncratic built a King taxable park, it would surely look similar Castle Rock. This fictional Maine municipality archetypal appeared successful The Dead Zone, served arsenic the mounting for Needful Things, and has popped up repeatedly similar a atrocious penny successful King’s enactment implicit the years. With Hulu's show, it gets a communicative each its own.

Archive 81

When archivist Dan (Mamoudou Athie) is hired to reconstruct immoderate aged video tapes, helium soon becomes engrossed successful the enactment of a pistillate named Melody (Dina Shihabi) who was investigating a demonic cult successful a Lower Manhattan flat building. This claustrophobic bid is permeated with a increasing consciousness of dread and relies heavy connected an fantabulous show from Athie. Though the amusement was sadly canceled aft a azygous season, you tin inactive perceive to the podcast that inspired it if you privation to excavation adjacent further into the tale.

The Haunting of Hill House

This shade communicative centers connected 5 big siblings haunted by paranormal experiences that caused them to fly the household mansion years before. Loosely based connected Shirley Jackson’s gothic fearfulness caller of the aforesaid name, this creepy communicative is skillfully directed by Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep), ably assisted by a beardown formed that includes Carla Gugino, Timothy Hutton, and Victoria Pedretti. It is simply a analyzable and terrifying household drama, packed with spine-chilling imagery, that builds to a frightening climax. If you bask this, Flanagan’s Midnight Mass is besides worthy a look.

Grotesquerie

This fever imagination of a amusement sees hard-boiled alcoholic detective Lois Tryon, brilliantly played by Niecy Nash, trying to way down a twisted slayer with a penchant for gory spiritual tableaus. She enlists the assistance of a true-crime-obsessed writer nun, played ably by Micaela Diamond. There are besides notable turns from Lesley Manville arsenic a Ratched-reminiscent nurse, Nicholas Chavez (Monsters) arsenic a brainsick priest, Courtney B. Vance arsenic Tryon’s hubby successful a coma, and Travis Kelce making his acting debut.

Ash vs. Evil Dead

Rumored for years, fans of the Evil Dead movies yet got what they wanted erstwhile prima Bruce Campbell reunited with manager Sam Raimi to revive the eventual fearfulness anti-hero. Campbell was calved to play wisecracking idiot Ash arsenic helium wades into deadites and demons to prevention humanity with a chainsaw and a boomstick. Raimi directs the archetypal episode, Campbell stars throughout, and this is slapstick gore astatine its finest. The supporting formed has plentifulness of chemistry, and includes a amusive crook from Lucy Lawless. And, portion the frenetic enactment is mostly played for laughs, the gross-out gore hits awesome highs, oregon should that beryllium lows?

Hannibal

Set years earlier The Silence of the Lambs, this atmospheric amusement follows FBI peculiar cause Will Graham arsenic helium tries to way down Hannibal Lecter without losing his sanity. Bryan Fuller’s blood-soaked amusement is gorgeously cinematic with plentifulness of tension, haunting visuals, and an ambient score that immerses you, but Mads Mikkelsen’s tightrope enactment arsenic helium veers from charismatic to cannibal is what makes this indispensable viewing. The supporting cast, which includes Gillian Anderson and Laurence Fishburne, is not atrocious either.

American Horror Story

I person a love/hate narration with the anthology bid American Horror Story, but with 10 self-contained seasons spanning classical fearfulness scenarios, not to notation a stellar formed that includes Jessica Lange, it demands a spot here. For me, it peaked aboriginal with the asylum successful the 2nd season, and consequent seasons person been hit-or-miss. It's amusive for fearfulness fans playing spot-the-trope, and the campy thrills travel heavy and fast, but it’s a blameworthy pleasance that tin occasionally consciousness glib and exploitative, particularly erstwhile it attempts to necktie successful real-life history. If you bask AHS, cheque retired the sorority slasher Scream Queens, starring Emma Roberts arsenic a loathsome mean miss and Jamie Lee Curtis arsenic the schoolhouse dean.

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The residents of this tiny municipality successful mediate America find they cannot leave, and thing evil comes retired to hunt them erstwhile the prima goes down. While precisely wherever this spooky slow-burner is headed remains to beryllium seen, it's creepy capable to beryllium worthy a look. Harold Perrineau grounds the amusement with a compelling crook arsenic Sheriff Boyd, struggling to clasp his assemblage together. Two seasons in, it's airy connected answers, but I’m excited to spot wherever they spell with play three, which is airing now.

Bates Motel

Another fearfulness prequel, Bates Motel is acceptable successful a clip agelong earlier Psycho erstwhile Norman Bates is conscionable a young lad who comes to an Oregon municipality with his parent to hole up a dilapidated motel. Despite their champion efforts to commencement a caller life, everything seems to conspire against them, and the seams statesman to amusement rather rapidly arsenic Norman struggles to support his intelligence health. Anthony Perkins is simply a hard enactment to follow, but Freddie Highmore is convincing arsenic a young Norman, and Vera Farmiga is fantabulous arsenic his parent Norma. Their narration is the bosom of this suspenseful show. Unlike galore listed here, Bates Motel got 5 seasons to physique to a satisfying conclusion.

Them

The Emory household relocates from the agrarian South to East Compton, but arsenic the archetypal Black household successful the neighborhood, they are not welcomed with unfastened arms. The profoundly unpleasant Betty (Alison Pill) makes it her ngo to thrust them out, and there’s a depressing deficiency of dissent to her rabid racism. The supernatural constituent feels thin, arsenic each household subordinate is haunted by their ain shade due to the fact that it each pales successful examination to the existent horrors they brushwood successful ’50s America. Deborah Ayorinde and Ashley Thomas are fantabulous arsenic the Emorys. The 2nd play focuses connected a homicide detective and an wholly caller story, and is adjacent amended than the first.

Marianne

A celebrated fearfulness writer is lured backmost to her hometown by the decease of a puerility person and indispensable instrumentality connected an evil tone who has been haunting her nightmares for years. This French amusement starts beardown with a foreboding ambiance and immoderate chilling sequences. While it plays with acquainted fearfulness tropes, it is stylish and slick with a interaction of humor, and leaning into witchcraft works perfectly successful the aged coastal municipality setting. Mireille Herbstmeyer makes the bid enactment acknowledgment to a genuinely unnerving show arsenic Madame Daugeron. It mislaid its mode a small toward the end, it inactive shouldn't person been canceled.

The Fall of the House of Usher

This caller instrumentality connected Edgar Allan Poe’s celebrated enactment casts the cursed Usher clan arsenic opiate-peddling billionaires. The sordid communicative is told by Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) arsenic helium sits swilling whiskey successful a dilapidated mansion, recounting the untimely demise of his household members to detective Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly) with a increasing consciousness of dread. This grisly, gothic, and engrossing communicative is Mike Flanagan’s last flourish for Netflix, and it comes closest to his erstwhile champion (Hill House).

Lovecraft Country

Atticus Freeman travels crossed 1950s America to find his father, but the horrors awaiting this young Black antheral scope beyond Jim Crow into Lovecraft’s twisted imagination. Beautifully crafted and daringly subversive, Lovecraft Country marries the existent American fearfulness of racism with Lovecraftian cults and monsters, arsenic some measurement from the shadows to scare us. The much-missed Michael K. Williams and the fantastic Wunmi Mosaku basal retired successful this fantabulous cast.

The Outsider

When the mutilated corpse of a young lad is discovered successful the woods of a tiny municipality successful Oklahoma, detectives deliberation they person a wide culprit, but an ironclad alibi throws a spanner successful the works. This amusement is based connected a Stephen King novel, though it doesn’t consciousness similar one. Instead, it comes disconnected arsenic a Scandi transgression play astatine first, with a glacial gait that painstakingly builds a increasing consciousness of dread. Ben Mendelsohn steers america done the gloom, and determination are coagulated performances from Cynthia Erivo, Paddy Considine, and Jason Bateman (who directs a mates of episodes). King fans bare for different detective amusement should besides cheque retired Mr. Mercedes, wherever a broken-down retired detective played by Brendan Gleeson hunts a psychopathic killer.

Yellowjackets

A precocious schoolhouse girls’ shot squad is stranded successful the wilderness of Canada aft a level crash, and arsenic temperatures plummet and supplies dwindle, they are forced to instrumentality hopeless measures to survive. There’s a nostalgic tinge to this for kids of the ’90s, and the enactment flicks betwixt the 1996 clang and the survivors coming unneurotic again 25 years later. Things get unspeakably messed up passim the archetypal 2 seasons arsenic we leap astir successful time, and a 3rd play is owed to onshore adjacent year. An fantabulous formed boasts Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, and Lauren Ambrose.