The 10 Best Horror Series on TV

For a long time, horror storytelling was almost exclusively kept to the movies. Aside from a few standouts, most of the best horror TV shows are rather recent outings. Here are the ten best horror series ever made—get ready to get scared!

Channel Zero

Channel Zero is a chilling anthology show with an interesting central conceit. It focuses each season on a different internet urban legend, called “creepypasta,” a commonly copied-and-pasted ghost story found on message boards. The show stretches these usually-short concepts into season-length thrillers that are genuinely scary.

Stranger Things

It’s easy to forget that Stranger Things is a horror series until a major character is eaten by an extradimensional monster. By combining the campy 80s energy of its setting with the Stephen King-inspired supernatural nightmares the kids battle, Stranger Things finds a winning formula.

The Haunting of Hill House

This harrowing Netflix exclusive is loosely based on the novel of the same name but modernizes the premise significantly. It’s a psychological show that sinks into your psyche and asks challenging questions about life, death, and family. And it’s extremely frightening, which is a big win.

Interview with the Vampire

The new adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire fully embraces the queer love story between Lestat and Louis, but don’t let its romantic side fool you. This show is also scary, opening with a church slaughter that will leave some viewers squirming.

Lovecraft Country

While star Jonathan Majors has been disgraced by recent accusations of domestic violence, the horror series Lovecraft Country is still a compelling sci-fi outing. The show tangles with Jim Crow-era American racism as Atticus Freeman (Majors) treks across the country to discover a hidden threat to reality.

American Horror Story

The long-running anthology series American Horror Story changes its premise and location every season to varying degrees of success. Some seasons are a bit better than others, but when the show finds its stride, it really cooks. Some of its seasons are among the scariest horror ever aired on TV.

Cabinet of Curiosities

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is a spooky anthology show. Unlike Channel Zero or American Horror Story, though, this series changes the premise each episode and finds unique scares in each one. From rats living under a graveyard to body-snatching aliens, there’s plenty of things that go bump in the night in this show.

Them

Horror just lends itself to anthologies, it seems. Them is a gripping horror anthology that centers black creators and stories. Racism is truly horrifying—and the horror genre offers a compelling lens for creators to unpack the generational trauma of prejudice.

Midnight Mass

This masterful Netflix miniseries focuses on an isolated island community that finds itself wrapped up in supernatural occurrences after a priest arrives from far away. A brief aside: as is the case with many Mike Flanagan shows and movies, there’s a lot of violence directed at cats. You’re a great showrunner, Mike, just stop hurting fictional cats, okay?

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks isn’t just one of the best horror shows ever made, it’s one of the best pieces of TV storytelling ever, period. The surreal and eerie vibe of the show is unlike anything else on TV. It’s iconic for a reason and has become one of the most respected shows of the 90s.