Best Horror TV Series on Netflix to Watch Right Now

Finding good quality horror shows can be tough, especially if you can’t justify spending bags of bucks on the never-ending list of streaming services out there. However, Netflix is the OG streaming platform, and it’s safe to say that the popular service remains a staple among viewers. With beloved horror-themed shows like Supernatural and The Walking Dead either coming to an end, dropping off in quality, or both, fans may be craving a new horror rabbit hole to go down.

Netflix boasts a wide selection of movies, including international-language features, and binge-able original series, but it’s the horror TV series options that are on point. As such, here are the best horror TV series to watch on Netflix, ranked.

Updated on June 6, 2024, by Soniya Hinduja: This article has been updated with additional content to keep the discussion fresh and relevant with even more information and new entries.

30 Glitch (2015 – 2019)

Glitch is just what its name suggests – a slippage in the system. An Australian supernatural drama set in the fictional country town of Yoorana, Victoria, we follow six people who have recently died suddenly and mysteriously returning to life. They’re completely healthy apart from the recurring blackouts they experience. Their return disturbs the local community, and particularly the town’s policeman, James Hayes, who devotes himself to finding answers.

Layered with Mysteries

Showrunners Louise Fox and Tony Ayres have crafted a brilliantly chilling series that runs across three seasons. Infused with subtle undertones of psychological thriller, the show is overall terrifying and suspenseful. It leaves viewers wondering what caused the Risen to rise while still exploring questions about life, death, and humanity’s eternal search for a place to belong. Critics lauded the series for its unbelievable premise and stellar performances from Patrick Brammal, Emma Booth, and more.

29 Crazyhead (2016)

Horror that blends comedy into its narrative is probably the best kind of horror. Written and created by BAFTA-award winner Howard Overman, Crazyhead begins with a young Amy being attacked by a terrifying demon only she can see. She is saved by a self-taught demon hunter named Raquel. The two form an unlikely duo. As they slowly begin to accept their new reality as the only girls who can see demons, Amy and Raquel face genuine evil while trying to settle some scores.

Infused with Horror and Wit

Overman’s series perfectly combines jump scares and bonkers humor to offer a refreshing take on the possession horror genre. Cara Theobold and Susan Wokoma, who play Amy and Raquel respectively, bring their charm and magic into every scene and turn it around into a clever, brilliant, and quirky one. Despite the scarce budget and the six-episode length, the show managed to please even non-horror fans.

28 Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (2022)

Read Our Review

Described as “equally sophisticated and horrific,” Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is a spine-tingling anthology of horror stories consisting of eight standalone episodes. While two are created by the Academy Award-winning filmmaker himself, the others are helmed by acclaimed horror directors like David S. Goyer and Jennifer Kent. Each story features actors at the top of their craft as they explore macabre themes and nightmarish visions.

A Horror Anthology from the Best Minds

Del Toro has a passion for visual artistry. He brings the same to this anthology, which he creates with absolute care, along with current masters of horror. The unflinching and sumptuous storytelling leaves a chilling mark on the viewers as they anticipate the next scare or plot twist. The episodes dabble in genres like Gothic and Grand Guignol, which are difficult to pin down these days. Performances by Ben Barnes, Rupert Grint, Tim Blake Nelson, and Essie Davis elevate the same for new generations.

27 iZombie (2015 – 2019)

A loose adaptation of the comic book series created by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, iZombie is a supernatural drama that combines zombie horror with the police procedural genre. At the center is a medical resident named Liv Moore, who after turning into a zombie, takes a job at the coroner’s office to have free and fresh access to brains and human flesh. While she secretly feasts on dead bodies, with each brain she consumes, she also inherits the individual’s memories, which she uses as information to provide to Seattle PD to solve murder cases.

Pure ZomCom Perfection

With its perfect mix of horror, humor, and suspense, it is a surprise iZombie does not have a larger fan base. But for what it’s worth, showrunners Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright have done a fantastic job at turning the procedural genre on its head. Rose Mclver shines as Liv, charming us week after week with her dynamic performance alongside Malcolm Goodwin, Rahul Kohli, Robert Buckley, and more. Overall, the five-season horror drama delivers a casual take on zombies while also satirizing modern society.

26 The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)

Mike Flanagan has been dominating Netflix’s horror TV series scenario for years now, and towards the end of 2023, the director blessed us with yet another terrifying tale. The Fall of the House of Usher takes you to the ominous estate of the legendary Usher family and introduces you to identical twins, Roderick and Madeline Usher, who have successfully built a pharmaceutical empire and earned the family power and wealth like no other. However, when six Usher children suddenly die, the truth about their twisted ancestry comes out.

Flanagan’s Latest Masterpiece

Much like The Haunting series, Flanagan works his cinematic magic and brings the work of Edgar Allan Poe to life. The perfect blend of psychological terror, a jarring score, and magnificent production design makes the gothic aesthetic more chilling than it would be otherwise. Actors Bruce Greenwood, Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, and Mark Hamill give stellar performances and act as major components in weaving dread and decay into the narrative. Plus, there is an enormous unresolved question that hangs around in the end, leaving you thinking about it for days after watching.

25 The Sandman (2022)

A brand new take on the DC Comics character created by Neil Gaiman, The Sandman is definitely worth watching. The premise is laid out like this: when Morpheus, the dream king, is captured and held prisoner for over a century, his realm is in utter chaos. He finally escapes and tries to save his dreamworld, but first, he must retrieve certain stolen objects. Morpheus, known to some as Dream, journeys across different worlds and mends mistakes, makes enemies and mortal allies and ultimately regains his strength.

A Tale of Epic Proportions

Inarguably one of the best small-screen adaptations of a comic book series, The Sandman creates a dark, complex, layered, and innovative version of a story many of us already know. The series proves that long-form adaptations do not need to give up on the richness of the source material just for the sake of being accessible to mainstream audiences. With multiple directors lending their vision and Tom Sturridge leading a diverse cast, a mythology spanning time and space comes vividly to life.

24 Legacies (2018)

After The Vampire Diaries and The Originals came Legacies. It is set in the same supernatural world where mystical creatures like vampires and werewolves live among ordinary people. It follows 17-year-old Hope Mikaelson, the daughter of Klaus Mikaelson and Hayley Marshall as well as the descendent of a powerhouse of lineages, as she attends the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. With the other students, she learns to harness and control her power while forging her own path.

Continuing the World of The Vampire Diaries

Watching the beloved universe of The Vampire Diaries expand is nothing short of a delight, especially because the sequels are way better. Legacies instills new life into the familiar setting and gives it a refreshing and optimistic spin. Without toning down the pulse-pounding horror and rich mythologies, the series also focuses on the teenage angst associated with belonging to a legendary family and wanting to tread past it. The young cast of characters does great justice to Julie Plec’s direction and makes Legacies an amazing watch.

23 Girl from Nowhere (2018)

In Girl from Nowhere, Chicha Amatayakul plays Nanno, a mysterious girl with no real friends but the distinct ability to expose anyone’s deepest secrets and lies. Whenever she transfers schools, Nanno ends up revealing the dark and unsettling truths about the students and faculty and makes several enemies. But when a boy gets embroiled in her little game and unveils facts about her rare gift, she vows to get revenge and leave a trail of punishments in the process.

Hugely Underrated Horror

Girl from Nowhere is among those underrated gems on Netflix that you simply cannot look away from, especially if you’re new to Thai media. Gripping audiences with its novel take on psychological horror, the series elevates the delicate characters and gray moral space they leave behind as they grow old and move around. Nanno is a beautiful and unconventional heroine and Amatayakul’s maniacal laughter makes her even more menacing and likable. The series has two seasons, each of which has an interesting storyline.

22 Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (2023)

Akira Tendou is one of those relatable characters in anime, who, despite having an enormously fictitious narrative, makes you want to be him. Having graduated from a reputable university and landing a rewarding job, all Akira feels now is dissatisfaction and numbness. Because in his race of success, Akira never lived enough. Now, when he’s finally found the courage to pull out a bucket list of a hundred things he wants to do, the world is suddenly beset by a zombie apocalypse.

A Genre-Blending Zombie Series

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead delivers signature anime hijinks with a side of good-hearted zombie slaying. A gleeful and equally gruesome series based on a popular manga, it pays homage to some of the most iconic Hollywood zombie films by taking an ordinary protagonist and throwing him into a narrative ripe with action, panic, hilarious chases, and pure darkness. Beyond being absolutely outrageous in visuals, the series finds heart even in the horrific setting.

21 The Midnight Club (2022)

The Midnight Club is a series adaptation of Christopher Pike’s novel of the same name by Leah Fing and Mike Flanagan focused on eight adults living at the magnificent 20th-century Gothic palliative care facility, Brightcliffe Hospice. The eight teenagers are terminally ill, with some having some form of cancer and one with AIDS, and they are trying to live out their last days by keeping each other company. They meet every midnight to share scary stories with each other over a bottle of wine. As all this happens, there are present-day mysteries that need to be solved, like ghosts roaming the halls and a cult that believes the hospice is located on an ancient healing site.

Both Haunting and Heartwarming

As is with all of Mike Flanagan’s pathos-filled frights, The Midnight Club is another slice of spooky-season splendor, full of jolts and adventure. This half-horror anthology and half-serialized drama has unflinchingly poignant themes and a complex mystery that is slowly unveiled. Flanagan examines the impermanence of life from a new perspective in this master horror-weaver’s work. The result is a series that takes ambitious excursions down narrative side streets en route to a final destination that cuts to the core of our cultural fears and fixations around death.

20 1899 (2022)

Created by Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, 1899 is a dark, mystery-horror series full of puzzles, with both new and old pieces. The show is set in 1899, and it follows a group of European migrants who leave London heading to New York with hopes of a brighter future. However, each of the passengers holds their secrets which they do not want to share. When they encounter another migrant steamship that has been missing for quite some time, their journey takes an unexpected turn for the worse.

1899 Combines a Great Plot With Great Scares

One of the most significant appeals of watching this show that explores science fiction themes of time travel, parallel worlds, and fate is finding out what card each episode turns over and discovering what conflict awaits on the other side. Like many other twisty dramas that have come before it, 1899 has episodes that initially revolve around one person and the events that lead them to the Kerberos. Get ready for a mystery box enigma wrapped in a creepy ghost story when watching this thought-provoking show.

19 The Order (2019)

A fantasy drama show filled with secret societies, magic, and werewolves, The Order is a show starring Jake Manley, Sarah Grey, and Louriza Tronco. The plot follows a college student, Jack Morton, who is out to avenge his mother’s death by pledging a secret order that lands him in a war between werewolves and practitioners of dark magic. Jack joins hands with his grandfather to make it easy for him to join the secret society and punish his father. Jack is supposed to keep their plan a secret, but he is not so good at withholding information, leading to unexpected twists in the plot.

Schemes, Scares, and Secret Societies

If the world of mystical beasts, dark arts, and intrigue is your thing, then this show created by Dennis Heaton is right up your street. The plot is wholly unique, with plenty of humor and well-written dialogue to smooth out the rough edges. Not to mention, the engaging characters and the compelling paths set before its protagonist make for a character-focused series. The remarkably unique foray into the supernatural genre proves that The Order is worth your time.

18 All Of Us Are Dead (2022)

All Of Us Are Dead is a thriller zombie drama that takes place at a high school campus in a small town called Hyosan. It is a typical school day, but everything goes wrong when a student is bitten by a hamster infected with the Jonas virus and immediately turns into a zombie. The virus spreads within and beyond the school, and Hyosan turns into a zombie land in less than 24 hours. The military places the community in quarantine and leaves the students to fend for themselves. This forces the students to branch into two groups and strive to survive the chaos, but some do not make it.

High School Drama and a Zombie Outbreak Combined

Starring some of the most brawny and well-rounded Korean characters like Park Ji Hoo and Yoon Chan Young, All Of Us Are Dead is a thrilling show full of blood and gore. The story arcs are touching and interesting, as the students explore friendship, young love, and their fears and hopes for the future. The choreography and camerawork are also exemplary, providing plenty of jaw-dropping moments that let the series loosen up and introduce some variety.

17 Sweet Home (2022)

Based on a Korean webcomic of the same name, Sweet Home is a story that starts when Cha Hyun-soo’s family is involved in a fatal car accident. After his family dies, he moves into the Green Roof apartment building, which is an old, dilapidated apartment building filled with residents carrying heavy burdens from their past. Most of these characters are strangers to each other, but they are thrust together when horrific monsters overrun the country, forcing them to barricade themselves in the building. They are now forced to find a way to survive since the monsters have invaded the building, and they are in an apocalypse.

A Subversive Take on Apocalyptic Horror

Sweet Home takes a lot of story beats and character archetypes from other apocalyptic, horror, and zombie media, but it goes against expectations and gives a unique flavor to what is ultimately a familiar recipe. Instead of the cliche scenarios where monsters roam the streets, the monsters in the show are humans who have given to different horrifying desires. This, and its features of genre staples like the stoic leader, the antisocial high student, and the mysterious tough man make it easy to see why the show recorded over 2.1 billion net views.

16 Wednesday (2022)

Blending three beloved genres, namely supernatural horror, comedy, and coming-of-age, Wednesday follows the Addams clan’s daughter, Wednesday Addams, infiltrating Nevermore Academy for reasons more than just what seems apparent to the eye. While Wednesday is trying to sharpen her psychic abilities, she’s also caught up with friends and foes at the Academy, as well as a monster-fueled mystery that intertwined the fate of her family 25 years ago.

A Star-Making Vehicle for Ortega

Jenna Ortega manifests the deadpan wit, charm, and sheer smartness that Wednesday is known for with equal parts macabre delivery and fun. Not to mention the diverse gallery of rogue students and faculty who anchor the series in a shadowy way. Also worth mentioning is the incredible Bloody Mary dance that Ortega performed with finesse.

15 Supernatural (2005)

Arguably the most interesting, binge-worthy, long-running supernatural horror series out there, Supernatural has created a devoted fan base that continues to return and satiate their need for creepy crawly fun for 15 entire seasons. Centered around the Winchester brothers – Dean and Sam – the series follows their crisscrossed adventures across America as they embark on a monster hunting spree just like their father. The boys encounter everything, from vengeful vampires and formidable spirits to Lovecraftian beasts.

An Epic, 15-Season-Long Journey

Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles bring elements of shifting moralities as they ponder on life and battle horrors as teenagers. In a way, the actors breathe new life into the fantasy genre by placing a dark mirror into urban legends and humanity and proving that horror can be empathetic as well. Apart from that, Supernatural is among the few shows that are known for their consistency in having a strong plot, profound characters, and genuinely thrilling action.

14 Locke & Key (2017)

We all love a good puzzle; the anticipation of a prize hiding behind a set of clues is engrossing. Navigating the same territory is Locke & Key, a horror TV series created by Carlton Cuse, Meredith Averill, and Aron Eli Coleite. After the brutal murder of their father, three young siblings move into their ancestral estate. Soon, they realize that it hides grim keys that transport them into strange and majestic realms, awaken terrifying demons, and unlock their inner drama. As darker forces surround them, they must not only protect themselves but also get to the bottom of the mansion’s mysteries.

Gothic Family Drama

The series perfectly blends Gothic horror, outstanding action, and a moving family drama, ultimately becoming an imaginative and dark series that you cannot help but binge. With a terrific young cast including Connor Jessup and Emilia Jones leading it, the show has a vibrancy that lives up to its source material since it was based on a popular comic book series. It’s got style, heart, and some delicious creepiness.

13 The Uncanny Counter (2020)

Few South Korean dramas receive enough acclaim from critics and audiences alike to return with a second season. The Uncanny Counter is one such mystery-infused, action-comedy series that is sure to leave you thoroughly satisfied with its two seasons. When a harmless teen, So Moon, gets hired by a noodle soup shop, he also signs up for their demon-hunting side hustle. A group of people working together is called “counter,” and with a new addition to the team, busting the afterlife has never been spookier.

Excellent South Korean Horror-Comedy

As hunters, their job may be to catch evil spirits, but with each ghost-banishing mission, we’re transported to the team’s slapstick silliness and extremely relatable emotional arcs. As an ensemble drama, the series makes sure to balance light and dark, themes of regret as well as intense supernatural hijinks. Overall a genre-bending masterpiece, The Uncanny Counter is among Netflix’s most prized properties.

12 The Watcher (2022)

Do you ever find yourself indulging in those baseless mystery thrillers with no beginning or end, but the writing and atmosphere of dread are so sublime it’s hard to sit through all the episodes? Well, that’s The Watcher for you. Part guilty pleasure, part terrifying true-life-inspired story, this Netflix series created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan follows Dean and Nora Brannock, who have just purchased their suburban dream home.

Part Campy, Part Creepy, All Entertaining

The discovery of a sinister presence lurking within the nooks and corners, watching them pushes the show into a murky realm of fear. At times emotionally claustrophobic as it ramps up the suspense, the show is wickedly absorbing as it bathes the viewer in discomfort. With each chilling revelation, the tension builds. Featuring amazing performances from Bobby Cannavale, Naomi Watts, and Jennifer Coolidge, the series leaves you with unease, though in the best of ways if you’re a fan of creepy shows.

11 The Walking Dead (2010-2022)

When it comes to the zombie genre, The Walking Dead series is considered to be the gold standard. The show single-handedly created a separate zombie subculture for hardcore horror fanatics, resulting in 11 seasons’ worth of footage and a boatload of memories within them. Essentially an ensemble survival story following various groups of survivors after a zombie apocalypse, the show spawned a massive franchise that is still going strong today.

The Best of the Best Zombie Shows

What separates The Walking Dead from other run-of-the-mill zombie shows is its characters. Despite being put in an apocalyptic landscape festered with zombies, the show features many characters that have various shades of gray, making them immediately likable and relatable. Having premiered in 2010, AMC’s show has lasted over a decade, making it one of the network’s crown jewels along with Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.