The 10 Scariest TV Shows of All Time, Ranked

Watching a horror movie at midnight is one thing. Agreeing to spend ten episodes with something that terrifies you is an entirely different kind of bad judgment. Suddenly, the hallway outside your bedroom looks suspiciously familiar. That harmless noise from the kitchen deserves an investigation, preferably conducted by somebody else. And the next evening, despite promising yourself otherwise, you're back in front of the television. I know how ridiculous this sounds. I've done it countless times. The shows that frighten me most aren't necessarily the bloodiest. They're the ones that teach me to dread something ordinary, then make me care so much about the people involved that I practically beg them to recognize the danger. A familiar face, a childhood memory, a voice coming from the wrong room. Give those things the right meaning, and even turning on the lights stops feeling particularly reassuring. 10 'Archive 81' (2022) Image via Netflix Restoring damaged videotapes sounds like an exceptionally boring assignment until archivist Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie) begins watching footage recorded by Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi) in 1994. Her interviews with residents of the mysterious Visser apartment building grow increasingly disturbing, while Dan discovers strange connections between the recordings and his own family's history. Archive 81 traps him inside an isolated research facility where even his employer seems to know more than he's admitting. I hate those recordings. Absolutely hate them. Melody hears chanting through the ventilation system, encounters tenants whose friendliness feels rehearsed, and gradually understands that something dreadful is happening inside the building. Meanwhile, Dan keeps watching, and so do we. The whole series becomes an act of examining old footage into a frightening experience because every damaged frame seems capable of containing something that shouldn't be there. The cancellation still hurts. This deserved another season. Rebecca Sonnenshine created this masterpiece. 9 'Evil' (2019–2024) Image via Paramount+ Evil follows Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers), a forensic psychologist recruited to investigate alleged supernatural occurrences alongside priest-in-training David Acosta (Mike Colter) and technology expert Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi). The show sends them into cases involving supposed possessions, religious miracles, and increasingly disturbing behavior, while psychologist and manipulator Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson) takes a dangerous interest in Kristen's family. I adore the episode set in a monastery where the monks have taken a vow of silence. The characters must investigate something frightening while being unable to communicate normally, and the absence of dialogue makes practically every sound suspicious. Creators Robert and Michelle King are wonderfully cruel about keeping the supernatural explanations uncertain. A demon might be real, or somebody might be exploiting a vulnerable person. Kristen's nightmares and Leland's grotesque manipulations make that uncertainty increasingly personal. I love these characters, which makes watching their ordinary lives get invaded by something possibly demonic rather upsetting. 8 'The Exorcist' (2016–2017) Image via Fox Angela Rance (Geena Davis) becomes convinced that something supernatural is threatening her family and turns to Father Tomas Ortega (Alfonso Herrera) for help. Tomas eventually joins forces with the experienced exorcist Father Marcus Keane (Ben Daniels), whose confrontations with demonic forces have left him deeply scarred. The Exorcist expands the mythology of the famous horror film while grounding its first season in a family gradually losing control of its own home. The relationship between Tomas and Marcus is fantastic. Tomas possesses compassion and faith but lacks experience, while Marcus understands precisely how malicious the forces they're confronting can be. Their disagreements become increasingly desperate as Angela's household deteriorates. And the possession scenes are genuinely upsetting because the victims remain recognizable beneath the horrifying behavior. A parent can look directly at somebody they love and discover that the familiar face is no longer reassuring. The second season's foster-family storyline makes that fear even harder to endure. This show comes from Jeremy Slater. 7 'Channel Zero' (2016–2018) Image via SYFY Remember those strange children's programs that seemed harmless until you thought about them years later? Channel Zero builds entire nightmares around that sensation. Each season adapts a different internet horror story, beginning with “Candle Cove,” in which child psychologist Mike Painter (Paul Schneider) returns to his hometown and investigates a mysterious television program connected to disappearances from his childhood. The Tooth Child is among the most revolting creations I've encountered on television. An apparently human figure covered in children's teeth is already a horrifying visual idea, but the show makes it worse by placing the creature within a story about childhood memories and buried guilt. Later seasons introduce the impossible rooms of the No-End House and the grotesque imaginary companion Pretzel Jack. Every new story feels like somebody has discovered a completely different way to make ordinary reality unbearable. 6 'Marianne' (2019) Image via Netflix Successful horror novelist Emma Larsimon (Victoire Du Bois) has built her career around a terrifying witch named Marianne, a figure inspired by nightmares she's experienced since childhood. When an old friend confronts her at a book event, Emma returns to her hometown and discovers that the evil haunting her imagination has begun terrorizing people she knows. Marianne takes that already unpleasant situation and makes it considerably worse through the behavior of Madame Daugeron (Mireille Herbstmeyer). Oh, that woman's smile. I genuinely struggle to explain how disturbing Herbstmeyer is without sounding ridiculous. She can sit across from somebody and make an ordinary conversation feel like a direct threat simply through the way her expression changes. Samuel Bodin, who created and directed the French series, probably understood the power of holding on a face long enough for the audience to wish the camera would move elsewhere. Emma herself is abrasive and often difficult to like, but her fear feels horribly convincing. I haven't encountered many television witches who made me so reluctant to look directly at the screen. Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you. 😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger) 🧸Chucky(Child's Play) 📞Scream(Ghostface) 🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files) FIND YOUR NIGHTMARE → 01 Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you. ASomebody falling asleep when they really should not. BA toy that has moved, and nobody touched it. CA phone ringing in an empty house. DA child talking to somebody who is not there. NEXT QUESTION → 02 You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything. AI am exhausted and my mind is playing tricks on me. BSomething in this room is not where I left it. CSomebody is in here with me. DThis house has never felt entirely right. NEXT QUESTION → 03 Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does. ANever fall asleep. BNever leave it out of your sight. CNever answer the phone. DNever go down to the basement. NEXT QUESTION → 04 Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight. AConvince myself I imagined the whole thing. BTell someone, and brace for them not believing me. CWork out which person I know could be behind it. DGet everybody in the house into one room. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking. AFine during. Wide awake at two in the morning. BShouting at the screen that nobody is listening. CCalling the twist out loud before it lands. DThrough my fingers, holding on to something. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing. AFall asleep in a room I have never been in before. BKeep an old doll on the shelf facing my bed. CAnswer every unknown number that calls after midnight. DSpend one night alone in a house with a history. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do. ANot wanting to turn the bedroom light off. BNot trusting one particular object in my house. CLooking twice at people I have known for years. DFeeling like something came home with me. NEXT QUESTION → 08 Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare. AThat I am still asleep, and it knows it. BThat the thing nobody believed me about is here. CThat somebody with a key is downstairs. DThat something is in the doorway, watching us sleep. REVEAL MY NIGHTMARE → The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind. Elm StreetYour nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument. Freddy is horror's cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever. You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your own head is where this does its damage. These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose because they are weak. They lose because they are tired. You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep. ChuckyYour nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it. Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you. You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You know that feeling from real life too. The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you have met those adults. By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own. ScreamYour nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them. Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be somebody who was at the party. You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the same way you watch films. The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention. Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home. The ConjuringYour nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving. The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary room that quietly stops feeling ordinary. Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than personal, which is rarer than it sounds. This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are the ones who are not alone and refuse to be. Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one standing in the hallway. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 5 'From' (2022–) Image via MGM+ A family driving through the countryside encounters a fallen tree, turns around, and somehow becomes trapped in a town that refuses to let visitors leave. Its residents survive by remaining indoors after sunset, when smiling humanlike creatures emerge from the surrounding forest. From follows sheriff Boyd Stevens (Harold Perrineau) and the increasingly desperate community as they search for answers while trying to keep everyone alive. The opening episode made me furious with a fictional child. A smiling elderly woman appears outside her bedroom window, pretending to be her grandmother and asking to be let inside. The girl opens it. That's all the show needs to demonstrate how dangerous these creatures are. I find their politeness far more upsetting than their monstrous appearances. They walk slowly, speak calmly, and seem to enjoy convincing people to make fatal mistakes. Boyd's exhausted attempts to maintain order make everything more frightening because even the man responsible for protecting everyone is barely keeping himself together. I would never sleep in that town. Not once. 4 'Hannibal' (2013–2015) Image via NBC FBI investigator Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) possesses an extraordinary ability to reconstruct the thinking of serial killers, although experiencing their crimes so intimately places enormous pressure on his mental health. His supervisor Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) seeks help from psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), unaware that the sophisticated doctor is himself a murderer. Hannibal gradually develops their relationship into something deeply intimate and increasingly dangerous. Mikkelsen frightens me most when Hannibal is being perfectly courteous. He prepares elaborate meals, offers thoughtful psychological advice, and speaks with such calm intelligence that you almost forget what he's capable of. Then the show presents a grotesque arrangement of human remains, and that civilized exterior becomes even more disturbing. Bryan Fuller, who developed the series, makes Hannibal's influence over Will feel almost like a poisonous romance. He understands Will's loneliness and uses that understanding to manipulate him. The horrifying part is how desperately Will sometimes wants to be understood by the very person destroying him. 3 'The Terror' (2018–) Image via AMC In 1845, two Royal Navy ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, embark on an expedition to discover the Northwest Passage. Their crews become trapped in Arctic ice, where dwindling supplies, illness, and a mysterious predator turn the expedition into a nightmare. The Terror begins with this dramatization of the Franklin expedition before adopting a different historical horror story in its second season. I cannot recommend the first season strongly enough. Captain Francis Crozier (Jared Harris) watches discipline gradually collapse as the men realize they may never return home. The supernatural creature stalking them is terrifying, but the ice itself seems almost malicious. Every mile is exhausting. Every injury threatens survival. And when the expedition's carefully maintained social order starts disintegrating, the human behavior becomes uglier than anything waiting outside. David Kajganich developed the first season, drawing from Dan Simmons' novel, and its extraordinary atmosphere makes the Arctic feel like a prison without walls. I was genuinely relieved whenever somebody managed to find shelter, even knowing how temporary that relief might be. 2 'Midnight Mass' (2021) Image via Netflix Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) returns to the isolated community of Crockett Island after serving prison time for a fatal drunk-driving accident. His homecoming coincides with the arrival of Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater), a charismatic priest whose presence is followed by apparently miraculous events. Midnight Mass gradually explores how the island's residents interpret those occurrences, particularly as religious devotion begins encouraging increasingly disturbing behavior. Mike Flanagan, wrote and directed this miniseries. I find Father Paul almost impossible to look away from. Linklater gives his sermons such desperate conviction that I understand why the congregation believes him, even when something feels terribly wrong. But Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan) is the character who truly frightens me. She can justify practically any cruelty by convincing herself that she's serving a righteous purpose. Riley's conversations with Erin Greene (Kate Siegel) about death and the possibility of an afterlife give the horror extraordinary emotional depth. Some of these people want nothing more than reassurance that their suffering has meaning. Watching that longing get exploited is heartbreaking. 1 'The Haunting of Hill House' (2018) Image via Netflix The Crain family moves into an enormous old mansion intending to renovate and sell it, only to encounter terrifying phenomena that permanently alter their lives. Years later, the five siblings remain haunted by what happened there. The Haunting of Hill House moves between their childhood experiences and their troubled adult relationships, gradually connecting the supernatural events to the grief and resentment that have kept the family apart. I need to talk about Nell (Victoria Pedretti). Her terror of the Bent-Neck Lady is frightening enough before we understand how deeply that haunting has shaped her life. Pedretti makes Nell's loneliness almost unbearable, particularly when she reaches out to siblings who are too consumed by their own pain to recognize how desperately she needs them. And then there's the episode “Two Storms,” where Mike Flanagan's direction moves between the family's past and present through extraordinary extended shots. I adore the craftsmanship, but it's the family arguments that destroy me. These people survived the same house and emerged with completely different wounds. The ghosts can appear anywhere, yet the most painful moments come when somebody tries to explain their suffering and nobody listens. I've never found a television haunting more frightening or more devastating. Hill House has this vibe that makes me afraid of failing the people I love while they're still alive.