Whether you’re looking for something spooky to watch for Halloween or you’re a genre devotee who enjoys watching scary stuff all year, there’s certainly no shortage of horror series available for streaming. But between all the ghosts, vampires, zombies, and slashers that are just dying for your attention, which eerie episodic deep dives are truly worth your time?
We asked ourselves the same question, which led us to creating this ultimate roundup of the best horror shows to stream this Halloween. Enjoy the read, fiendish friends.
Looking for more scares? Check out other Halloween-themed entertainment:
- The 10 scariest horror podcasts
- The best horror movies streaming right now
- The best horror movies on Netflix right now
Midnight Mass (2021)
75%
7.7/10Writer-director Mike Flanagan has become a horror legend over the last decade, delivering noteworthy original films like Oculus and Hush and scary cinematic and episodic adaptations of Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and Henry James’ The Haunting of Bly Manor (based on James’ novella The Turn of the Screw). Midnight Mass is Flanagan’s first all-original Netflix horror miniseries, and for all intents and purposes, it’s arguably the auteur’s best work to date.
The story follows the residents of the seaside community of Crockett Island, a nearly-deserted island township that becomes a boiling pot of evangelistic terrors when a youthful priest begins performing miracles. But as wounds are healed and old age reversed, it becomes clear that there’s something dark and mysterious operating behind the scenes. Midnight Mass effectively grapples with themes of life and death, religious zealotry, and redemption, set against an eerily atmospheric backdrop of wind, waves, and otherworldly wallows.
The Midnight Club (2022)
He’s at it again! Genre stalwart and Netflix darling Mike Flanagan is the man to call when it’s a pastiche of terrors you’re looking to have injected into your blood, and the director’s latest canonical creeper is The Midnight Club. Playing almost like a gorily-elevated version of Nickelodeon’s once-hit series Are You Afraid of the Dark?, The Midnight Club follows a group of terminally-ill teens living out their remaining days at a hospice facility.
Gathering together at the midnight hour, the group exchanges haunting tales with one another, along with the shared promise that whoever bites the dust first will find a way to converse with the others in the afterlife. An episodic adaptation of the 1994 Christopher Pike novel of the same name, The Midnight Club delivers arresting and horrific visuals across several anecdotal journeys, with each of the ghoulish stories exploring worlds of paranormal and other unexplainable occurrences.
Black Summer (2019)
6.5/10A spinoff of the SyFy series Z Nation, Black Summer follows Rose (Jaime King), a mother displaced from her one and only daughter in the wake of the zombie apocalypse. Joining the ranks of a group of survivors, the nomadic few set out on a horrifying pilgrimage across the country in hopes of building salvation amongst the undead ruins.
Relying less on narrative and character development and more on outright jump-scares, gore, and plenty of chilling sequences, Black Summer is essential viewing for genre aficionados who may want a break from more thematically-rich horror programs in favor of a zombified odyssey that gnaws and bites before it asks us to ponder and philosophize over the state of the decaying world onscreen.
Squid Game (2021)
69%
8/10Them (2021)
7.3/10Calls (2021)
65%
7.7/10Servant (2019)
68%
7.5/10Black Mirror (2011)
76%
8.8/10Dexter (2006)
76%
8.7/10You (2018)
75%
7.7/10Teen Wolf (2011)
66%
7.7/10Ash vs Evil Dead (2015)
76%
8.4/10Bates Motel (2013)
69%
8.1/10American Horror Story (2011)
65%
8/10This long-running anthology horror series that made Ryan Murphy a household name has terrified and puzzled viewers for almost a decade with its creepy, sadistic stories about everything from a house haunted by the ghosts of its former owners to a blood-sucking hotel matron. While every season has its own self-contained story, many actors have returned to play different characters, including Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, and Jessica Lange. The latest season, NYC, premieres on October 19, 2022 on FX (with all episodes heading to Hulu the day after airing), and will be the first season in the show’s long run to show two new episodes each week, as opposed to just one.
What We Do in the Shadows (2019)
83%
8.6/10Penny Dreadful (2014)
74%
8.2/10The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
79%
8.6/10The Vampire Diaries (2009)
57%
7.7/10Hannibal (2013)
77%
8.5/10Twin Peaks (1990)
83%
8.8/10The Walking Dead (2010)
79%
8.1/10Supernatural (2005)
60%
8.4/10Stranger Things (2016)
74%
8.7/10Lovecraft Country (2020)
79%
7/10Related Topics: Netflix | Hulu | Amazon Prime | More Streaming Services
