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Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix)

 & Eric Griffith Senior Editor, Features

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With hours to fill, and billions to spend, horror shows are a no-brainer for video-streaming services. Buckets of blood don't cost as much as CGI special effects, and the stars can be complete nobodies.

Still, major streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video have churned out special-effects-laden horror spectacles akin to Hollywood blockbusters. It's always nice when the production value is as sky high as your internal anxiety when viewing these scary shows.

Because TV is so full of all-out horror, this list is limited to original shows from the streaming services. That means it doesn't include landmark terror TV programs like American Horror Story, Bates Motel, The Walking Dead, Ash vs. Evil Dead, Supernatural, Scream, The Strain, and on and on. While they may be streaming, they all originated on networks or basic cable. We do include premium cable here because, well, they all have their own streaming services.

As Halloween approaches, pick a show and pull the covers up to your chin. It's about to get spooky.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix)

This show, based on the comic book of the same name (the art in the titles is by the comic artist Robert Hack), was meant to be a companion to Riverdale on The CW, but moved to Netflix before it even got off the ground. In it, Kiernan Shipka of Mad Men fame plays Sabrina Spellman, half human, half witch, all teenager. She's not like the goodie-goodie, cheesy Sabrinas of decades past. This is more like True Blood with grim teens, where the main character happens to be a betrothed of the Dark Lord.

Lore (Amazon Prime Video)

Another anthology? Yes, because they're easy to do horror with—since by definition, most horror ends pretty horribly for everyone. LoreLore is based on the podcast of the same name, acting as a documentary about such topics as ice pick lobotomies, belief in werewolves, serial killers like Burke and Hare, and more. Two seasons are streaming.

Penny Dreadful (Showtime)

Showtime's Penny Dreadful almost sounds like Monster Squad on the surface, as it's clear early on that vampires, werewolves, and yes, Frankenstein's monster (and Frankenstein himself) are all here. In fact, it feels almost like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen done right for the screen, at least for a while. It all rests on the back of Eva Green as the heroine and Rory Kinnear as the monster who calls himself John Clare (eventually), who pack in more talent and pathos than you can imagine. It ended a bit abruptly after three seasons—fans didn't know it was over until it said "the end" on the finale—but you can't keep a brand name like that down. Showtime revived it last year with Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, also starring Kinnear.

Dark (Netflix)

Netflix doesn't only make originals in English. DarkDark is the streamer's first in German, and it's three seasons in. The show is all about the fractures in a town when children start to disappear. Throw in some time travel and you encounter problems that go far beyond the confines of a troubled German town.

Room 104 (HBO Max)

In Room 104Room 104, each episode is about different people staying in the same room at a hotel. It's not strictly speaking a horror show, as each episode is a different genre. Even the way 104 is created isn't consistent—one episode was shot entirely with an iPhone. But if you want the scares, check out the premiere episode, Ralphie, and see what you think about children with imaginary friends who stick around for life, plus episode three, The Knockandoo. Even when the show is not outright scary, that room is still creepy AF.

Stranger Things (Netflix)

To be honest, Stranger ThingsStranger Things is not really all that scary—but maybe that's just me. I long ago became somewhat inoculated against 80s-style spookiness in the Speilbergian tradition, even if there's a good modicum of Stephen King thrown in. If that combo terrifies you, this show will turn your guts to jelly. Three seasons are streaming; season four is coming in 2022.

Creepshow (Shudder)

This anthology show for Stephen King fans is on horror-only streaming service Shudder. CreepshowCreepshow was originally a film with five stories in it, all by King (including one starring King!), but later sequels had less and less King content. The new show, from The Walking Dead effects master, producer, and director Greg Nicotero, does feature at least one King short story adaptation (Gray Matter); others are adapted from tales by masters like Joe R. Lansdale, Bruce Jones, and King's son, Joe Hill—who as a child also played a part in the original Creepshow movie. Three seasons are streaming.

True Blood (HBO Max)

For seven seasons on HBO starting in 2008, True BloodTrue Blood told the story of Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her blood-sucking immortal paramours, and all the super-natural denizens of Bon Temps, Louisiana. And while there may have been a lot of times it jumped the were-shark and then almost/mostly recovered, it still had plenty of moments of sheer, out-and-out gross-out vampirism that were unforgettable. (That time the King of Louisiana went on the news and (SPOILER) ripped out the newscaster's spine? Legendary!) But, you could probably skip the last two seasons and feel complete.

Castle Rock (Hulu)

For decades, fans of Stephen King have known of Castle Rock, Maine. It dates back to The Dead Zone in 1979, and is the setting of so many of his stories that it gets its own Wikipedia page. So, to create an anthology show, Hulu teamed up with JJ Abrams/Bad Robot, and now gets to interweave all sorts of King-ery from Sheriff Pangborn (Scott Glenn) to members of the Torrance family (The Shining) to inmates at Shawshank Prison to a feature role for Annie Wilkes herself from Misery. Big stars, scary stories, in a world you know won't disappoint.

25 Streaming Horror Movies for a Creepy Halloween

Jack Nicholson And Joe Turkel in The Shining (Photo by Warner Brothers/Getty Images)

Halloween is right around the corner, and HBO Max, Netflix, Shudder, and other streaming services are happy to serve up some of the best scary movies around.

The Haunting of Hill House (Netflix)

Few ghost stories have been as re-told as Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill HouseThe Haunting of Hill House. This one is as loose as the rest, but has 10 episodes to do it right. Mike "Oculus" Flangan is the writer and director of all the episodes. The second "season" is The Haunting of Bly ManorThe Haunting of Bly Manor (based on The Turn of the Screw), with a new cast.

Lovecraft Country (HBO Max)

It's a crying shame that HBO cancelled Lovecraft Country after just a single season, but it still stands as one of the most unique and effective horror series of the 21st century. As Atticus Freeman travels the United States of the 1950s seeking his father, he encounters some even deeper darkness. Watch it on HBO Max.

Parasyte: The Maxim (Netflix)

One of the most legendary horror manga ever has an animated adaptation that will seriously squick you out. In Parasyte: The Maxim, young Shinichi is an ordinary teen until an alien creature bonds with his right hand and brings him into a deadly and disgusting invasion. Watch it on Netflix.

Swamp Thing (The CW)

Swamp Thing was the unlikely series that launched DC into a more mature era, with top-shelf writer Alan Moore transforming the muck monster into something much deeper and weirder. The 2019 show made for the short-lived DC Unlimited streaming service is now available on The CW's website.

About Our Expert

Eric Griffith

Eric Griffith

Senior Editor, Features

My Experience

I've been writing about computers, the internet, and technology professionally since 1992, more than half of that time with PCMag. I arrived at the end of the print era of PC Magazine as a senior writer. I served for a time as managing editor of business coverage before settling back into the features team for the last decade and a half. I write features on all tech topics, plus I handle several special projects, including the Readers' Choice and Business Choice surveys and yearly coverage of the Best ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs, Best Products of the Year, and Best Brands (plus the Best Brands for Tech Support, Longevity, and Reliability).

I started in tech publishing right out of college, writing and editing stories about hardware and development tools. I migrated to software and hardware coverage for families, and I spent several years exclusively writing about the then-burgeoning technology called Wi-Fi. I was on the founding staff of several magazines, including Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine. All of which are now defunct, and it's not my fault. I have freelanced for publications as diverse as Sony Style, Playboy.com, and Flux. I got my degree at Ithaca College in, of all things, television/radio. But I minored in writing so I'd have a future.

In my long-lost free time, I wrote some novels, a couple of which are not just on my hard drive: BETA TEST ("an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale," according to Publishers' Weekly) and a YA book called KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. Go get them on Kindle.

I work from my home in Ithaca, NY, and did it long before pandemics made it cool.

The Technology I Use

My first computer was a Laser 128, an Apple II-compatible clone with an integrated keyboard, matched with an eye-straining monochrome green monitor. I used it to type papers in college for other people for money...until I discovered the Mac SE in the college computer room. That changed my life. My first cellphone was a Samsung Uproar—the silver one with the built-in MP3 player from the Napster days (the pre-iPod era).

I use an iPhone 15 Pro hourly and an iPad Air infrequently (but I'm always in the market for a cheap Android tablet). I have a PlayStation 5 just to play Spider-Man, and several Windows machines, including a work-issued Lenovo ThinkPad. I talk to Alexa and Siri all day long. I do the majority of my computing on a 15-inch LG Gram laptop attached to a Thunderbolt hub to run a multi-monitor setup—I overdid it on the power needed to simply work from home.

I'm most at home in Microsoft Word after decades of writing there. More and more, I turn to services like Google Docs, using tools like Grammarly. I use Google's Chrome browser due to an addiction to several extensions I think I can't live without, but probably could. I use Excel extensively on data-intensive stories, but for chart creation, we've switched over entirely to using Infogram for interactive features that are hard to find elsewhere. I do a lot of graphics work for my stories, but limit myself to the free and amazing Paint.NET software to edit images.

I'm a firm evangelist for using the cloud for backup and syncing of files; I'm primarily using Dropbox, which has never failed me, but I also have redundant setups on Microsoft OneDrive, plus extra picture backups on Amazon Photos and iCloud. Why take chances? For entertainment, mine is a streaming-only household—my kid has never seen network TV and barely been exposed to commercials, thanks to Roku and Amazon Music. The house is peppered with smart speakers from Amazon for instant gratification and control of smart home devices like multiple Wyze cameras and Nest Protect smoke detectors. I've got accounts on all the major social networks, to my horror. I have a robot vacuum for each floor of the house. I want a 3D printer, but not sure what I'd use it for.

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