There have been horror TV shows since the first days of television. But for the most part, up until the advent of streaming services, the horror genre was best served by movies. Whether bound for the cinema or direct-to-video, movies typically had bigger budgets for special effects and weren’t handcuffed by television censors.
Streaming changed all that. Moving to streaming (usually) means bigger budgets, but most importantly, it means ditching those pesky TV censors. So read on for the best horror series on Netflix to watch right now.
International horror series on Netflix
When people (ie: English speakers) talk about international or foreign movies or TV shows, they typically mean shows and movies with English subtitles.
Hollywood (ie: America) doesn’t have a monopoly on horror TV shows. And if there’s one thing that Netflix does well, it’s support movie and TV production in other countries. In this section, we’ve got 4 of the best international horror series on Netflix right now.
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Ju-On: Origins (2020)
Based on the J-horror movie franchise Ju-On — which was remade and renamed The Grudge by Hollywood — a paranormal investigator teams up with an actress and a child welfare agent to investigate a haunted house.
Some people might say that after 15 films, 6 novels, 3 comics, 1 graphic novel, and a video game, that a Ju-On TV series isn’t really necessary.
But those people don’t work at Netflix.
While origin stories are supposed to clear things up and let you know where people (or things) came from and how it all started, Ju-On: Origins makes things more confusing. But fans of the original Japanese films (rather than the American remakes), will find something to like here.
Besides, the episodes are only a half-hour long and there are only 6 of them.
Country: 🇯🇵 Japan
Age rating: 🙈 16+
Bloodride (2020)
This anthology series follows a Norwegian bus driver as he drives through the rainy night. Each episode one of his passengers begins to bleed and their flashback becomes the story focused on.
The stories are quirky and bloody, if not particularly terrifying. Some posit moral and philosophical conundrums, but all offer a delicious little twist. So it’s a bit like a modern Scandinavian Twilight Zone.
The series consists of 6 episodes, with each being around just 30 minutes long.
⚠ Trigger warning for animal sacrifice
Country: 🇳🇴 Norway
Age rating: 🙈 16+
Hellbound (2021)
Based on the Korean webtoon of the same name, people are notified of their coming demise shortly before being visited by an angel of death.
The charismatic leader of a new religion tells people he has all the answers, while a homicide detective investigates and looks for answers of his own.
Packed with violent supernatural action, Hellbound is a mix of fantasy, drama, and supernatural horror.
Country: 🇰🇷 South Korea
Age rating: 🙈 16+
Mr. Midnight: Beware the Monsters (2022)
A group of teenagers in Southeast Singapore create a mysterious (and anonymous) online personality — Mr. Midnight — in order to investigate paranormal events.
Each episode is a standalone mystery, kind of like Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, but the ghosts and monsters are real.
Based on Asia’s best-selling children’s book series Mr. Midnight — with 130 books and counting — the show is filmed and produced in Singapore, but it’s in English. So it’s a great choice for kids not looking to read subtitles.
Country: 🇸🇬 Singapore
Age rating: 🙈 13+
Anthology horror series on Netflix
Getting into a new TV show can feel like a big commitment, especially if you don’t have a lot of free time on your hands. Sometimes you want something you can pick up and watch without needing to remember what happened last time or watch the next episode (or 10) to get some kind of resolution.
That’s when it’s nice to find a good anthology show rather than an episodic show that builds upon the same story with each subsequent episode. While some anthology shows have season-long character arcs or subplots, they take backseat to the standalone story of the episode.
Slasher (2016)
The anthology series tells a different story over the course of a season, with a different serial killer each time. The Canada-US co-production lives up to its name with a hefty amount of blood and gore.
The show launched on NBC’s Chiller network, which was shut down a year later. Netflix picked up the show for 2 seasons, then it moved to Shudder for its seasons 4 and 5. Therefore, you can only watch the first 3 seasons on Netflix:
- Season 1: The Executioner (2016)
- Season 2: Guilty Party (2017)
- Season 3: Solstice (2019)
Age rating: 🙈 16+
The Midnight Club (2022)
California 1994. Just as she’s preparing to go to Stanford, high school senior Ilonka is diagnosed with terminal cancer. So she hops on a Mac, fires up Netscape, and searches Yahoo! for surviving thyroid cancer.
Finding the Brightcliffe Hospice, she moves into the old mansion with a of other terminally ill kids. It isn’t long before she stumbles upon (and joins) The Midnight Club. The 8 kids gather each night to share terrifying tales with just one promise — whoever dies first must send word from the afterlife.
Loosely based on the Christopher Pike novel of the same name, the show brings in stories form his other books. The Midnight Club has season-long story and character arcs, but each episode can be enjoyed on its own.
Show creator Mike Flanagan was poached by Amazon Studios in multi-year deal, killing any plans (if they existed) for a second season.
Age rating: 🙈 15+
Cabinet of Curiosities (2022)
Officially titled Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, the anthology series has 2 episodes written and directed by the horror icon.
Each episode is a standalone story takes place in the 20th Century, while following the Gothic horror or Grand Guignol sub-genres. Therefore greed and grief permeate the plots with plenty of gore and grotesqueries to go around.
Age rating: 🙈 16+
Supernatural horror series on Netflix
This collection of shows could easily be called the Intrepid Pictures or Mike Flanagan horror series on Netflix section. The creative minds behind The Midnight Club (mentioned above) are also behind all of these shows.
The first 2 are part of The Haunting anthology series. The other 2 are unrelated, but just as good or better.
The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
During the summer of 1992, the Crains and their 5 kids move into a mansion (called Hill House) with plans to renovate and flip it. Tragedy befalls them and they’re forced to move out.
Fast forward 26 years to 2018. Now adults, the Crain kids and Dad return to Hill House on the heels of another tragedy. The show alternates between the 2 timelines, as past and present truths are slowly revealed.
Based on Shirley Jackson’s novel off the same name, this Netflix limited series is the first in Mike Flanagan’s Haunting duology and the first series out of the 5 he made for Netflix.
Age rating: 🙈 16+
The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)
An American young woman takes a gig as an au pair at a mansion in the English countryside. Her wards are 2 orphans and the uncle who would prefer to have nothing to do with the place.
It isn’t long before she begins to suspect strange things are afoot at the old sprawling house. And then she starts seeing ghosts.
Based on Henry James’ 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw, the 8½-hour limited series doesn’t feel novella-sized. But if you’ve got the time, and the patience, it’s worth a watch and is probably alright for tweens to watch.
Age rating: 🙈 13+
The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)
Loosely based on the short story of the same name by Edgar Allen Poe and a Poe-pourri of his other stories, the limited series follows the downfall of a wealthy pharmaceutical family. (The Usher family is different from Purdue Pharma’s Sackler family in name only.)
While the series is basically watching a different narcissistic scion die a gruesome death each week — which may be enough for some people — there’s an overarching story that’s just as compelling.
Out of all of Mike Flanagan’s horror series on Netflix, The Fall of the House of Usher is arguably the most intended for mature audiences. Drug use, orgies, and gore tend to have that effect.
Age rating: 🙈 17+
Midnight Mass (2021)
An inspiring young priest brings hope to a remote, impoverished island town. The townsfolk begins to experience miracles after his arrival. But as with all charismatic religious figures, something less than holy lurks beneath the surface.
Plans for a second season were scrapped after shows creator Mike Flanagan packed his bags and moved to Prime Video.
Age rating: 🙈 13+
Psychological thriller & horror series on Netflix
Getting into a new TV show can feel like a big commitment, especially if you don’t have a lot of free time on your hands. Sometimes you want something you can pick up and watch without needing to remember what happened last time or watch the next episode (or 10) to get some kind of resolution.
Brand New Cherry Flavor (2021)
Aspiring film director Lisa Nova embarks on a journey of revenge in the sweaty, seedy underbelly of 1990 Los Angeles.
This Netflix limited series is a blend of horror, thriller, and mystery topped off with the supernatural and a cast of unsavory characters.
It’s kind of like if James Ellroy dropped acid with William S. Burroughs and wrote a show for Netflix.
Age rating: 🙈 16+
Red Rose (2022)
Kids and their damned phones.
In another too-much-screen-time cautionary tale, a group suburban Mancunian teens look forward to one last summer of youth before shipping off to university.
Unfortunately, their carefree plans are derailed when they all download a mysterious app called Red Rose. What starts out as fun soon turns deadly. Just like social media.
The horror drama was created by BBC Three and picked up by Netflix for international distribution.
Age rating: 🙈 16+
Archive 81 (2022)
Archive 81 is a cauldron full genres, ranging from sci-fi to mystery to to thriller to horror — and even the found footage format.
Film archivist gets a new job restoring a collection of damaged Hi8 video tapes from the 90s. He watches tragedy unfold over years on a piece of New York real estate, falling down a rabbit hole about a woman who went missing decades earlier.
The sense of horror is a slow burn that builds with atmosphere instead of gore and jump scares. But unfortunately Netflix decided to cancel this uniquely intriguing horror series after just one season.
Age rating: 🙈 13+
Kid-friendly horror series on Netflix
Obviously most horror TV shows on Netflix are for an older demographic. And that makes sense, seeing as horror is more suited toward viewers who aren’t going to make someone check their closet at bedtime. But that’s not to say kids don’t like scary stories.
Most kids love ghost stories. So here are some of the best family horror series on Netflix for kids to watch. Obviously you know your kids better better than anyone else, so the age ratings are just a general target age.
Goosebumps (1995)
The original kids horror TV show premiered a full 3 years before Netflix even launched — as a mail-order DVD rental service.
Based on R.L. Stine’s wildly popular book series, this Canadian anthology TV show was also a hit. When the show hit VHS — yes, it’s that old — some of the tapes were among the best-selling children’s videos in 1998.
Age rating: 🙈 10+
DreamWorks Spooky Stories (2009)
A collection of 3 animated shorts by DreamWorks starring Shrek in 2 of them and the Monsters vs. Aliens gang in the third. The 3 stories are:
- Scared Shrekless (25 minutes)
- The Ghost of Lord Farquaad (12 minutes)
- Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space (27 minutes)
The standalone bite-size stories are good to throw on if you’re looking for something without a big time commitment.
Age rating: 🙈 6+
Wednesday (2022)
A supernatural coming-of-age comedy horror show about the the daughter from the Addams Family. What’s not to love?
After dumping killer piranhas into the school swimming pool, Wednesday gets expelled from school. So mom Morticia (played by Catherine Zeta Jones) sends her off to boarding school — her alma mater, evermore Academy.
Master filmmaker and executive producer of the show, Tim Burton directs 4 episodes of the first season of Wednesday.
Age rating: 🙈 12+
I Woke up a Vampire (2023)
Middle-schooler Carmie wakes up on her 13th birthday with one heck of a surprise present — supernatural powers. But it doesn’t take long for best friend Kev to help deduce that she’s a vampling — half human, half vampire.
Unfortunately for Carmie, a descendant of the Abraham Van Helsing has just moved to town. And staying true to the family name, he has one hobby and one hobby only — vampire hunting.
This is definitely the most kid-friendly horror series on Netflix, and it’s more comedy than horror. It’s not even half as scary as Teen Wolf.
Age rating: 🙈 7+
Other horror series on Netflix
There are more horror series on Netflix, but these are good starting point if you’re looking for a new show something to get into or to binge. Some of them, like Ju-On: Origins and Bloodride, have half-hour episodes, making them extra bingeworthy.
But are there any shows we’ve missed that you think deserve a place on the list? Let us know in the comments below!
And if you’re looking a horror fan in search of movies to push you to your limit, check out The 16 Most Disturbing Horror Movies You Can Watch For Free.
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