With autumn upon us and Halloween around the corner, it’s time to get cosy and catch up on this year’s TV horror shows. Luckily, 2025 brought plenty of eerie options, with more than enough recent releases to keep the Halloween spirit alive well past October.
The Last of Us
In the realm of apocalyptic horror, no recent release sparked more buzz than Neil Druckmann’s “The Last of Us”. The series, which harks back to “end-of-days blockbusters”, said Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian when it came out, does an excellent job in bridging the gap between television and its original video game “source material”. The action follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) on his dangerous journey across a “zombie-ravaged US” with Ellie (Bella Ramsay), a 14-year-old girl who “might be the saviour the world has been looking for”. The second season garnered 16 Emmy nominations and one win at the award show on 14 September, cementing its much lauded reputation.
Apple TV
The Institute
“The Institute” follows the “horrors of unchecked regimes and the children who dare to push back against them,” said Aramide Tinubu in Variety. The Steven King adaptation with “a memorable cast of characters” follows a group of adolescents displaying telekinetic or telepathic abilities, housed in an institution designed to help them aid in world-saving work. While the show isn’t perfect, it will “undoubtedly keep the attention of audiences desperate to uncover the mystery at the centre of the story”.
Amazon Prime
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Alien: Earth
“It’s usually a bad sign if you're wondering what the heck is going on in a drama when you’re two episodes in,” said Jack Seale in The Guardian. In this case, however, “you can happily ride on if you sense that, although you don’t know what it’s doing, the show definitely does.” The 10th instalment of the “Alien” franchise, taking place two years before the original film, it is a must-watch for those new and old to the saga. Set in 2120, the series “plays on our fears that our grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to live in hell”. Powerful corporations have “taken over the universe” when a Weyland-Yutani vessel containing dangerous extraterrestrial specimens crash-lands on Earth sparking a disaster. From “scuttling, leechlike” bugs to a parasitic eyeball with multiple tentacles, the aliens that emerge are “classic nightmare fuel”. With the season finale airing at the end of September, the show draws to a close at the perfect time to set a terrifying tone this October.
Disney+
IT: Welcome to Derry
The long-awaited prequel to the film adaptations of Steven King’s book “IT” follows a new cast of kids as they battle Pennywise the clown, said Diego Peralta in Collider. While the series initially began filming in May 2023, it underwent a “production hiatus” during the dual SAG-AFTRA Writer’s Guild strikes, contributing to the release’s already widespread anticipation. The show will premiere on Sky Atlantic and NOW on 27 October, one day later than HBO Max’s confirmed release date. Bill Skarsgård is returning to his iconic role as the terrifying Pennywise, guaranteeing a performance that will leave even the most veteran horror fans petrified.
Stranger Things
The fifth and final instalment does not come out until a month after Halloween, but it would be remiss to compile a list of highly anticipated horror shows without mentioning “Stranger Things”. Saying goodbye to the series and the cast we’ve gotten to know and love over the past 10 years is bittersweet. Even so, the release is shaping up to be a momentous one. Each of the season’s eight episodes has the “approximate length of an average feature”, which is likely the reason the series comes in three “batches,” said Brady Langmann and Eric Francisco in Esquire. Netflix has been relatively “tight-lipped” about the plot, but the action-packed trailer is filled with “dread, terror, panic, and potentially heartbreak”. It's a must-watch.
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