These are the ten best horror TV shows you can stream right now on Netflix, but make sure you catch the ones that are leaving the service soon. Horror TV is not the easiest thing to pull off, with anxiety, tension, and futility being at odds with a series that needs to keep the story going for a long time.
So when a TV show does manage to be properly horrifying and properly well done, it’s worth celebrating. Netflix has made a name for itself as a home of horror, with plenty of unique and popular horror movies, as well as a large catalog of original and streaming horror TV shows.
10
Hellbound (2021-Present)
Demonic Beings Send Innocent People To Hell, And The World Claps
Hellbound
4/10
- Release Date
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2021 – 2024-00-00
- Network
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Netflix
Hellbound is a South Korean horror series that takes a lot from the popular Squid Games franchise. In the show, set in South Korea, the world watches, stunned, as a face forms out of the heavens and begins condemning people to hell, either very soon after the decree or maybe years in the future.
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At the time of their deliverance, demonic beings appear and tear apart the condemned person and incinerate them, often in public. In this new reality, a new culture of exploitation and grisly capitalism has resulted in the condemned being put on display in a game show. It’s wild, weird, and often terrifying.
9
Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet Of Curiosities (2022)
A Flavorful Selection Of Horror Stories
Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is one of many fantastic anthology series on Netflix right now. The eight-episode horror series features directors such as Catherine Hardwicke and Panos Cosmatos telling original tales, adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft, and even versions of webcomics.
The series features many notable actors as well, including Tim Blake Nelson, Rupert Grint, Eric André, Sofia Boutella, and Kat Micucci. Most of the stories are in the Gothic vein that Del Toro is so interested in, and the varied styles and stories mean there is at least one episode that horror fans will connect with.
8
The Terror (2018-Present)
Horror Stalks 19th-century Explorers In The Arctic
Based on Dan Simmons’ novel of the same name from 2007, The Terror is a period horror show that follows two HMS ships, Terror and Erebus, as they set course to discover a Northwest passage for British shipping in the 1840s. However, their travels eventually strand the crew in ice.
Only the first season of The Terror is adapted from Simmons’ novel.
As they work to free themselves from the frozen wasteland, they begin to suspect something otherworldly is stalking them. With a fantastic crew including Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies, Ciarán Hinds, and Adam Nagaitis, Terror is a beautifully produced and thrilling monster horror series.
7
The Haunting Of Bly Manor (2020)
An Au Pair Arrives At A Mysterious Manor
The Haunting of Bly Manor is a follow-up to The Haunting of Hill House with a similar tone and many of the same actors, but it is not a sequel. Instead, this 2020 Netflix miniseries is mostly based on the 1898 novella, The Turn of the Skrew by Henry James.
The series takes place in the eponymous manor in the United Kingdom, where an American woman is hired as an au pair for two strange children. It’s not quite as frightening as Flanagan’s previous show, but it’s still a chilling tale with a strong story that keeps you invested the entire run.
6
Interview With The Vampire (2022-Present)
An Updated Version Of The Classic Story
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A TV adaptation of The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, which was most famously adapted into a movie starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, the Interview with the Vampire TV series premiered on AMC and tells a much more rigorous version of Rice’s novel about a vampire, Louis (Jacob Anderson), and his encounters with the vampire Lestat (Sam Reid).
The TV show injects a much-needed breath of fresh air into the franchise, and does so with charm and a bit of humor that helps the more melodramatic moments of the series go down easier. Interview with the Vampire also does not shy away from the LGBTQ aspects of the story, of which there are many.
5
The Fall Of The House Of Usher (2023)
Edgar Allan Poe’s Stories Brought To The Screen
Despite the name, Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher is not only based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story. The series adapts several of Poe’s works into the miniseries, though it is primarily an updated version of the titular story, now set in 2023 with Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood/Zach Gilford) as the CEO of a pharmaceutical company.
It’s a very on-the-nose series, pointing a finger at the forces working in today’s world that seem to be concerned with accumulating wealth above all else. However, that in-your-face quality is never unpleasant because the dark storytelling and horror make it visceral and blunt in a way that’s grimly amusing.
4
Midnight Mass (2021)
Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass is the best “adaptation” of Stephen King’s Salem Lot you’re going to find. Of course, it’s not adapted from that book, but as far as TV shows about vampires in isolated communities, you can’t do much better than Midnight Mass, a haunting, beautiful, and sad miniseries.
The series is set on Crockett Island, a tiny, dying island where the people cling to memories of what they once had rather than moving forward. Enter a new, young priest by the name of Hamish Linklater as Father Paul Hill, who brings with him a gift to the community, one that turns out to incur a heavy price.
3
Marianne (2019)
French Storybook Witches Come To Life
Marianne
- Release Date
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September 13, 2019
- Network
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Netflix
The French horror series Marianne may have been canceled after only one season, but the ending is definitive enough that it’s absolutely worth your time to watch. In the show, a French horror author quits writing in the genre, only to discover that the witch in her books may actually be a real person.
It’s smartly constructed and refuses to take its foot off the gas pedal.
It’s an incredibly frightening series with some imagery that rivals any horror TV show or movie of the last ten years. It’s smartly constructed and refuses to take its foot off the gas pedal. Marianne never gives you a break, and the oppressive horror it conjures is startlingly effective.
2
Kingdom (2019-2021)
Zombies Vs Medieval Korea
Kingdom
- Release Date
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2019 – 2020-00-00
- Directors
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Kim Seong-hun, Park In-je
The Korean Period zombie series may seem like it has too much going on for it to be coherent, but it’s actually a beautifully told and shot story about 17th-century Korea and the court intrigue there. There’s the same sort of political machinations as a show like Game of Thrones, but with the promised zombies playing a part.
The story follows Lee Chang, the Crown Prince of Joseon, who is trying to defend his throne from interlopers and also uncover the mysteries behind an illness that is killing his subjects and raising them from the dead. The dead are out in force in Kingdom, and it’s never been so fun watching martial artists chop through legions of them.
1
The Haunting Of Hill House (2018)
Terrifying Childhood Memories Linger Decades Later
The Haunting of Hill House was the first of Mike Flanagan’s forays into horror TV and his best, which is saying quite a bit considering the quality of all his shows. Based on the Shirley Jackson novel from 1959, the miniseries follows the adult children of the Crain family still dealing with the trauma of their childhoods.
Decades earlier, the Crain family moved into Hill House, where paranormal activity terrified and scarred the family for years after. It’s an incredibly atmospheric show that has some of the most frightening moments and images of any recent horror production, Netflix or otherwise. It’s also a moving and grief-filled story about family.
