It’s October, which means it’s time for an avalanche of spooky movie suggestions! I’m a big advocate of scary movie marathons, as you might be able to tell from the Jar of Spooky the partner and I are doing this year. However, we’re also living in a wonderful time for horror on television. With Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor, his follow up to 2018’s The Haunting of Hill House, just hitting Netflix, it feels like a good time to pick out 13 shows that I’ve loved in case you want to expand outside just the realm of scary movies. I’ll even add a “companion movie” suggestion for each one in case you still want a good movie.

The Strain

First episode aired: July 13, 2014
Types of Horror: vampire, apocalyptic
Seasons: 4
Available on: Hulu
Companion Movie: Cronos (1993)

The Strain was created by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, based off the book trilogy of the same name they wrote. As del Toro is still regarded today as a master of horror, it’s easy to deduce that this show is going to be a good one. It follows members of the CDC, a street thug, an NYC exterminator, and an aging vampire hunter as their paths cross during the onset of a vampire apocalypse. It has very strong antifascist themes running throughout the show, which makes it even the more poignant today. I just went through a rewatch and found that my love of it hadn’t diminished one iota, and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a wonderfully told story with a rich (almost decadently so) mythology that only del Toro can weave. Watching the first episode was all it took to get me hooked on this amazing show.

Ash vs. Evil Dead

First episode aired: October 31, 2015
Types of Horror: comedy, demonic, gore, supernatural
Seasons: 3
Available on: Netflix
Companion Movie: Army of Darkness (1992)

Bruce Campbell has been an icon to horror ever since he first screamed on the silver screen almost 40 years ago in Sam Raimi’s original The Evil Dead. Since then, pop culture has been inundated with Raimi’s playground of deadites, the Necronomicon, and the perpetual underdog, Ash Williams. Ash vs Evil Dead picks up almost 25 years after he returned from the Medieval era in Army of Darkness. Dealing with his own trauma with booze, bad jobs, and one-night stands, we come across a pitiful creature that is now a middle-aged Ash – and it’s wonderful. The script leans into him being the joke, which fully captures the spirit of the property and character. Oh, and the villain he fights is performed by Lucy Lawless. Yeah, that Lucy Lawless. The entire show is a blast.

The Exorcist

First episode aired: September 23, 2016
Types of Horror: demonic, supernatural, body
Seasons: 2
Available on: Hulu
Companion Movie: The Exorcist (1973)

William Friedkin’s 1973 seminal hit, The Exorcist, is still lauded today as a landmark film in horror. I was skeptical at the very idea of any show taking up the mantle of the movie but was delighted when I gave it a chance. The way the show builds layer upon layer of dread is almost masterful. If you’re a fan of possession movies, this is definitely going to be for you. Sadly, it was canceled after two seasons, so the show has a relatively abrupt ending, but as each season has a self-contained main story with a connected side story, it won’t be too much of a let down. It only acts as a sequel to the first film and ignores the other sequels, so don’t feel obligated to hunt down all The Exorcist films before checking this out.

Channel Zero

First episode aired: October 11, 2016
Types of Horror: anthology
Seasons: 4
Available on: Shudder
Companion Movie: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

creepypasta: (noun) horror-related legends that have been copied and pasted around the internet

As is the nature of a good creepypasta, the more I dug into Channel Zero, the more I was fascinated. The show is a horror anthology with self-contained six-episode seasons, each one based off of a creepypasta. Due to the nature of anthology, each season stands or falls on its own merits, which might have been the reason the show was canceled after four seasons. I feel the first two seasons (Candle Cove by Kris Straub and The No End House by Brian Russell) were the stronger seasons, but I know the other two also have their dedicated fan bases. All I can say is that among the cornucopia of horror that was Channel Zero, there’s something for everyone. Give it a chance, and you’ll find something that shakes you to your marrow.

Castlevania

First episode aired: July 7, 2017
Types of Horror: vampire, gore
Seasons: 3
Available on: Netflix
Companion Movie: Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)

Growing up in the Nintendo generation, the graphics weren’t the highest of resolution, leaving much to the imagination, which often added to the allure. It also became a trap; if anyone were to finally make a movie or show off an older property, how would it measure up against the collective imaginations of a generation of 8-bit addled brains? Enter Warren Ellis and Adi Shankar with the 2017 Castlevania animated show. Celebrated as somehow capturing the tone and visuals of Konami’s classic video game, it has been an absolute treat to watch. One watching it might think it’s visually lifting heavily off of Yoshitaka Amano’s Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Seeing how there are staff members that worked on both shows, that’s not an incorrect assessment. The show is bloody, hilarious, and for those of us that wanted to see a Dracula more akin to how he showed up in Symphony of the Night than over 20 pixels, this show is for you.

The Terror

First episode aired: March 25, 2018
Types of Horror: supernatural, survival
Seasons: 2
Available on: Hulu
Companion Movie: Sea Fever (2020)

The Terror is an anthology horror series based on historical events that then get a healthy amount of horror injected. The first season is based on Dan Simmons’s 2007 novel of the same name and follows the doomed expedition of the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus to find the fabled northwest passage in the early 1800s. The second season (dubbed The Terror: Infamy) follows a community of Japanese Americans as they try to survive the Japanese internment camps during World War II. Both have plenty of horror written into them that involve monsters (both figurative and literal), and each season swiftly builds a world you just get sucked up into. I don’t want to give much away, but “dread” is the emotion I most constantly felt through both seasons.

Castle Rock

First episode aired: July 25, 2018
Types of Horror: Stephen King
Seasons: 2
Available on: Hulu
Companion Movie: Maximum Overdrive (1986)

If it’s true that we’re living in a horror television boom, then we’re definitely living in Stephen King’s golden age for movies and shows. You can’t go too far without a King property getting the movie or television treatment. It was only a matter of time before a singularity would open up and all the properties would converge into one anthology show: Castle Rock. Based in the fictional northeastern city of the same name, in the first season we see references to The Shining, Needful Things, and even The Shawshank Redemption… and those are just the overt references. For the diehard King fans out there, this show is a treasure trove of Easter eggs sprinkled around a horror show befitting King’s universe.

Kingdom

First episode aired: January 25, 2019
Types of Horror: zombie
Seasons: 2
Available on: Netflix
Companion Movie: Train to Busan (2016)

I thought I was done with zombies. The zombie market had been so supersaturated that I thought there wasn’t a new way to make them interesting anymore. Enter Kim Eun-hee’s Kingdom. Based on his webcomic named The Kingdom of the Gods, the show takes place in the early 1600s in a Korea recovering from a recent invasion by feudal Japan. Just as the kingdom is entering a dynastic struggle to determine the new monarch, a plague is creeping over the land… well, running, really. I’ve got to say I love the feral zombies that seem to be the trend in South Korean media. Kingdom also does a great job of building a mythology as we follow the protagonists attempting to figure out the “rules” of the zombies. This is a great show if you’re looking for a fresh take on zombies, if you’re interested in period drama, or really anything between in that odd spectrum.

What We Do in the Shadows

First episode aired: March 27, 2019
Types of Horror: vampire, comedy
Seasons: 2
Available on: Hulu
Companion Movie: What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

In 2014, a relatively unknown Taika Waititi released the movie What We Do in the Shadows, a mockumentary along the veins of Christopher Guest, following a handful of inept vampires that live together in a flat in Wellington. The sneak peek into their dark realm was an absolute hit. Enter the 2019 show of the same name, following a different group of equally inept vampires living in a house in Staten Island. Equipped with a human familiar desperate to be turned and a purposefully banal looking “energy vampire,” I feel the show surpasses the movie in that it allows true development of the characters over time. We can see them on a trajectory, not just a series of punchlines. Both the show and movie are absolutely hilarious and a wonderful love letter to the vampire horror genre. I recommend watching the movie first to get a taste if this humor is for you.

Marianne

First episode aired: September 13, 2019
Types of Horror: psychological, supernatural
Seasons: 1
Available on: Netflix
Companion Movie: The Witch (2015)

I honestly just got goosebumps again thinking about this show. Marianne follows a horror writer who’s getting ready to end a very successfully series… only to start getting ominous messages allegedly sent from the villain of the series: the ghostly demonic witch Marianne. This show is filled with so many creepy and horrific moments that it’s hard to tear yourself away once you fall in. It was unfortunately canceled by Netflix as horror was not as popular in its homeland of France, despite a healthy overseas audience. It’s one of those shows that I recommend as much as I can and fear it would be a travesty if those who enjoy a truly atmospheric horror show didn’t get a chance to check it out.

Creepshow

First episode aired: September 26, 2019
Types of Horror: anthology
Seasons: 1
Available on: Shudder
Companion Movie: Creepshow (1982)

The 1982 Creepshow film was a really weird, wonderful, and spooky collaboration between Stephen King and George A. Romero, so I had high expectations walking into the show. I was blown away by the first episode and loved every minute of the first season of six episodes, each episode hosting a pair of unrelated episodes, silently hosted by the Creep from the pages of the Creepshow comic book. It runs the gamut of all kinds of horror, with the first episode hosting a creepy story by Stephen King and a story with a dollhouse which somehow out-creeped the King story. The best thing about this show is if you don’t like an episode, keep going and I’m sure you’ll find an episode that’ll linger.

Locke & Key

First episode aired: February 7, 2020
Types of Horror: supernatural
Seasons: 1
Available on: Netflix
Companion Movie: Hereditary (2018)

Whenever a horror friend of mine wants to get into comics, I immediately hand them my copy of Locke & Key volume 1, written by Joe Hill and drawn by Gabriel Rodriguez. For the uninitiated, Joe Hill is the son of Stephen King and it definitely comes through in his work. The recent Locke & Key show is a pitch perfect rendition of the comic, hitting all the creepy elements I loved in the book. It touches on the horror of grief and survival as well as a vast mythology you only get to peek at through a keyhole. If you haven’t read the comic, I won’t hold you back from watching the show. If you’ve already read the book, you’re definitely going to want to give it your time.

Lovecraft Country

First episode aired: August 16, 2020
Types of Horror: cosmic, supernatural, psychological, monster, body
Seasons: 1
Available on: HBO
Companion Movie: Eve’s Bayou (1997)

Like any other genre, the storytelling of horror resonates most when it’s reflecting back at us the horrors of our own life. Lovecraft Country is out here showing us how it’s done. Based on the novel by Matt Ruff, Lovecraft Country was developed by Misha Green and is a story that weaves the horrors of HP Lovecraft set in an America right before the Civil Rights era. There are Lovecraftian shoggoth monsters in the same scene as racist white sheriffs, and the racists are the scarier element of the horror in the best/worst way. Because that horror is real. Just as Lovecraft’s racism is acknowledged in this show, the horror of America’s racism is as well. Horror isn’t just monsters and mad scientists, and Lovecraft Country eloquently tells that story.