20 Scariest TV Shows Since the Year 2000
Add some fright to your night.
Just in time for Halloween, here’s a collection of 21st century TV shows that will light up your home theater in spooky shades of orange and red. You might want to keep the doors locked while watching these!
1. AMERICAN HORROR STORY (2011-PRESENT)
This continuing American horror anthology on the FX Channel consists of a dozen seasons (and counting), each of which follow different sets of characters in various fictional universes and locations. Actress Jessica Lange, in her first regular role on television, won two Emmy Awards® and a Golden Globe® for her performances. The first series, “Murder House,” was the most-viewed new cable show of 2011.
2. SUPERNATURAL (2005-2020)
An American dark fantasy drama on The WB, Supernatural starred Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as two brothers who hunt monsters, ghosts, demons and supernatural beings. To add to the spooky atmosphere, many episodes during the 15-year run were filmed in an old abandoned military base in Vancouver, British Columbia.
3. THE WALKING DEAD (2010-2022)
A post-apocalyptic horror drama based on a comic book series of the same title, this long-running series (177 episodes!) featured a large ensemble cast as survivors of a zombie apocalypse.
4. STRANGER THINGS (2016-2023)
This Netflix hit is set in the 1980s in the fictional small town of Hawkins, Indiana, where the residents face the horrors coming from an alternate dimension known as The Upside Down. A group of nerdy friends eventually discover that the phenomenon is caused by a government facility that secretly experiments with supernatural and paranormal energy. (Check out the top 10 scenes here.)
5. THE VAMPIRE DIARIES (2009-2017)
Based on the book series of the same name, this supernatural drama focuses on teenager Elena Gilbert, who, after losing her parents in a car crash, falls in love with a 161-year old vampire. We soon learn that Elena’s neighbors appear to spend all their time guarding the town from witches, werewolves, hybrid creatures and ghosts.
6. SLASHER (2016-PRESENT)
Created by Aaron Martin, this horror anthology premiered on Chiller but was later acquired by Netflix. Featuring an ensemble cast along with recurring guests, each series presents a masked killer with no known motive for murdering his (or her) victims.
7. THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (2020)
Ready for an eerie gothic romance drama? This Netflix series is based on an adaptation of the 1898 horror novella The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James. Its nonlinear narrative takes place in a haunted country manor in the United Kingdom, where a young American nanny cares for two children while dealing with the apparitions that reside in the home.
8. ATTACK ON THE TITAN (2009 -2021)
This highly successful anime TV series was set in a world where the residents live in cities surrounded by three giant walls that protect them from man-eating humanoids. These fearsome creatures, called Titans, are hunted by the central character, Eren Yeager, who has the astonishing power to turn himself into one of them.
9. YELLOWJACKETS (2021-PRESENT)
Part survival epic, part psychological horror and part coming-of-age drama, this Showtime production follows a talented girls high school soccer team whose plane crashes in the wilderness of Canada on the way to a tournament. As they fight to stay alive, they even have to turn to cannibalism at one point! The series has received seven Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
10. INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (2022)
Based on the Anne Rice novel of the same name, along with other elements of her Vampire Chronicles, this AMC series is set in early 1900 New Orleans and depicts the horrifying nocturnal excursions of affluent vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) as he seeks new victims.
11. THE LAST OF US (2023)
This post-apocalyptic drama is based on the 2013 video game of the same name. It stars Pedro Pascal as a smuggler escorting teen Bella Ramsey across the country. The show is set 20 years into a pandemic where a mass fungal infection has transformed its hosts into zombie-like creatures. HBO recently announced a second series, though no release date has yet been set.
12. THE TERROR (2018-2019)
The first of this two-part series opens with two Royal Navy ships in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago seeking the existence of a fabled Northwest Passage. The ships become trapped in the ice floes, and the uncertain weather conditions compound the unknown menace that stalks the crewmembers. The second season takes place during World War II, where another creature terrorizes a Japanese-American community in the internment camps of Southern California.
13. SCREAM QUEENS (2015-2017)
This satirical black comedy/slasher series (!) featured an all-star cast that included Jamie Lee Curtis, Emma Roberts, Lea Michele, Glen Powell and Skyler Samuels. The first series centers around a fictional sorority, where a 20-year-old murder mystery has a serial killer reemerge, dressed as a Red Devil mascot. In the second season, new serial killers ply their grisly trade in a nearby hospital.
14. THE OUTSIDER (2018)
This critically acclaimed psychological thriller was based on the novel of the same name by bestselling author Stephen King. It stars Ben Mendelsohn as Ralph Anderson, a detective and a struggling alcoholic who is investigating the murder of a young boy while coping with the loss of his own son. Classic Stephen King!
15. EVIL (2019-2022)
Starting on CBS before moving to Paramount, this series centers around Dr. Kristen Bouchard, a somewhat skeptical forensic psychologist in New York who allies with a Catholic seminarian and a technology contractor to investigate supernatural incidents.
16. THE WATCHER (2022-PRESENT)
This Netflix mystery thriller stars Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale as a married couple who buy their dream home in a suburban neighborhood … but soon after moving in, they find themselves stalked by someone who signs letters to them as “The Watcher.” Spooky events follow, such as empty rooms that play music and doorbells that ring with nobody there.
17. CASTLEVANIA (2017-2021)
This adult animated action series was based on the Japanese video game of the same name. It centers around a vampire named Vlad Dracula Tepes, whose wife is buried at the stake after a false accusation of witchcraft. Vlad summons demons to kill the people of the town where it happened, but a monster-hunting savior, aided by a team of helpers, takes the vampire on.
18. BATES MOTEL (2013-2017)
This psychological horror drama series was meant to serve as a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho. It explores the twisted relationship between creepy Norman Bates and his even creepier mother, but takes place in a modern-day setting. The show won three People’s Choice Awards, for Favorite Cable TV Drama and Favorite Cable TV Actress (Vera Farmiga) and Actor (Freddie Highmore).
19. THE STRAIN (2014-2017)
In this eerie series, the head of CDC’s fictional Canary Project, Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, has been tasked with investigating an airplane that lands in New York City with all passengers dead. He and his fellow scientists discover an ancient strain of vampirism in a viral outbreak, which begins to spread. War is soon waged to save humanity!
20. THE CHANGELING (2023)
This recently premiered Apple TV® horror fantasy is based on the novel of the same name. It presents the story of a man in search of his missing wife and abducted son in an alternate New York City. The answers he seeks force him to enter a magical world where mysteries await.
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