The 8 best horror series of all time
Lost voyages, haunted houses and the best scares in television history
Horror television has swung and missed much more often than it has connected — we’re looking at you, “Welcome to Derry.” But when a great concept meets a skilled showrunner, the results can be magnetic, as with these outstanding spooky series.
‘American Horror Story’ (2011–)
The first season of creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s FX horror anthology series was a huge hit and justifiably so. “American Horror Story: Murder House” was a kinetic and genuinely terrifying haunted house story.
Ben (Dylan McDermott) and Vivien (Connie Britton) move with their daughter, Violet (Taissa Farmiga), from Boston to a large, ominous Los Angeles house to escape recent tragedies, only to find that their new home has a troubled past and is beset by shape-shifting ghosts. “Dark, twisted and depressing,” it was a horror series “unlike anything else on TV” at the time, said Richard Chachowski at Fangoria. Subsequent seasons often recycled cast members in new roles, with each season its own mostly self-contained story. A 13th season is expected to premiere on Halloween night in 2026. (FX/Hulu)
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‘Les Revenants’ (2012-2015)
In an isolated French mountain town, people suddenly begin returning from the dead, seemingly unharmed and unaware of what happened to them, including teenaged Camille (Yara Pilartz), who was killed in a horrific bus accident years earlier. Their arrival triggers a series of bizarre events, including power outages and a potentially catastrophic decrease in the local dam’s water level.
The eerie, atmospheric “Les Revenants” has been frequently imitated, including by an American remake, and raises uncomfortable questions about what we might be willing to tolerate to be reunited with lost loved ones. A show about “how death, while awful, is also a baseline fact of life,” it is also “an expertly suspenseful thriller,” said James Poniewozik at Time. (Prime)
‘The Terror’ (2018-2019)
The first, brilliant season of AMC’s short-lived horror anthology fictionalized the ill-fated 1845 Arctic voyage of two British vessels searching for the Northwest Passage that became known as “Franklin’s lost expedition.” The series stars Jared Harris as Francis Crozier, the captain of the HMS Terror, and Tobias Menzies as James Fitzjames, captain of the HMS Erebus, whose crews are stalked by a spectral creature called a Tuunbaq after the ships are trapped in the ice.
The series also depicts in vivid and haunting detail the elemental plight of poorly equipped sailors trying to survive in unforgiving polar conditions. Viewers “feel the burning cold enveloping these men, and it adds considerable heft to the horror,” in an “exceptional series of surviving in the face of real yet unimaginable horrors,” said Ben Travers at IndieWire. (AMC+)
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‘The Haunting of Hill House’ (2018)
“The Haunting of Hill House” was one of the jewels in showrunner Mike Flanagan’s recent run of horror smashes for Netflix. An adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s pioneering 1959 gothic horror novel, the two-timeline series follows a group of siblings who return to their haunted childhood home after their sister Nell (Victoria Pedretti) dies there under mysterious circumstances.
Flanagan tends to cast the same actors in multiple projects, and a large ensemble cast featuring many members of his troupe, like Kate Siegel, play the siblings and their father, Hugh (Timothy Hutton), in the present, as their quest to understand the shared tragedy in their past endangers the whole family. The “first great horror TV show ever,” it “isn’t just scary but a seriously well-structured and well-considered story about the persistent insidiousness of trauma,” said Tom Philip at GQ. (Netflix)
‘Servant’ (2019-2023)
In showrunner M. Night Shyamalan’s “Servant,” Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) arrives to work as a nanny at the stately Philadelphia home of local TV reporter Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) and test chef Sean Turner (Toby Kebbell), a couple who is grieving the tragic loss of their infant, Jericho. Dorothy carries around a doll that Leanne is meant to “care for.” But soon the real Jericho — or is it? — is back.
Both Sean and Dorothy’s constantly drugged-out brother, Julian (Rupert Grint), try to figure out whether she’s a witch or a baby thief. That premise, along with effectively delivered droll humor to break the tension (Dorothy’s local TV segments are surreal and hilarious) delivered a riveting mystery box. Featuring some of Shyamalan’s “tightest and most intriguing storytelling ever,” the show “balanced relatable human behavior with WTF plot twists around every corner,” said Brian Tallerico at Roger Ebert. (Apple TV+)
‘Evil’ (2019-2024)
The best horror series are mostly streaming-era phenomena, with long production timelines and complex layered narratives that play out across multiple seasons. That is part of what makes “Evil” so refreshing. Its network-style, case-of-the-week structure is a throwback to an earlier era of television without sacrificing modern quality or ingenuity. Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) is hired by the Catholic Church to investigate paranormal events like possessions, where she works alongside seminarian David Acosta (Mike Colter) and tech wizard Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi).
Like “The X-Files,” the series draws energy and drama out of the sexual and scientific tension between the true believer David and the skeptical Kristen, as they gradually unravel a global network of demonic evil that threatens an apocalypse. A “rare show that operates with style and intelligence on every level,” across its four seasons it achieves a “level of profundity, even genuine intellectual insight, that most shows don’t even try for,” said Phillip Maciak at The New Republic. (Paramount+)
‘The Outsider’ (2020)
From the critically panned 1994 adaptation of “The Stand” to the 2024 HBO Max series “Salem’s Lot,” creators have sometimes fallen flat in their efforts to adapt Stephen King’s source material. But showrunner Richard Price’s “The Outsider” is a rare and happy exception.
Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) is a detective charged with investigating the grisly murder of a boy named Frankie Peterson, with chief suspect Terry Maitlan (Jason Bateman), a Little League coach and father of two, seemingly captured on video in two places at once on the night of the killing. The series introduces a supernatural element, an “active, almost tangible agent of chaos and destruction, pushing hapless lives into ruin” that may represent the “perceived sickness of the world,” said Vanity Fair, producing a “deliberate, ponderous mystery that grinds and allures.” (HBO Max)
‘Midnight Mass’ (2021)
Showrunner Mike Flanagan’s limited series about a priest who isn’t who he seems to be was the ultimate vampire horror slow burn. It debuted at the end of the “Hot Vaxx Summer” in 2021, a time when everyone was desperate for sunlight.
Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater) is sent to lead the only parish on economically depressed, windswept Crockett Island after its elderly leader disappears on a trip to Italy. Riley (Zach Gilford) returns to the island after serving time for a drunk driving tragedy and reconnects with high school flame Erin (Kate Siegel), but a series of sinister “miracles” soon raise suspicions about exactly what Father Paul has brought to the community. The leisurely paced beginning soon “unfurls into a nightmare of apocalyptic proportions,” making this “one of the best shows of the year,” said Miles Surrey at The Ringer. (Netflix)
David Faris is a professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of "It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics." He's a frequent contributor to Newsweek and Slate, and his work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Republic and The Nation, among others.