The 18 best horror series on Netflix

Archive 81 (2022)

This short-lived horror drama follows Dan (Mamoudou Athie), a renowned conservator who is tasked with restoring tapes from 1994 that feature a grad student named Melody (Dina Shihabi) documenting an apartment building that eventually burned down in a fire. As he comes to find out, Melody was investigating the residents of the apartment, many of whom were part of a sinister cult. Additionally, it becomes clear that Dan was chosen to restore these tapes for reasons beyond his particular restoration skills. Based on the podcast of the same name, Archive 81 unfolds with suspense and well-earned scares. —Kevin Jacobsen

Where to watch Archive 81: Netflix

Cast: Mamoudou Athie, Dina Shihabi, Evan Jonigkeit, Julia Chan, Ariana Neal, Matt McGorry, Martin Donovan

Related content: Archive 81 star Mamoudou Athie on why his character's fate is so fitting: 'He's a man stuck in time'

Black Mirror (2011–present)

While technically classified as a science fiction series, Black Mirror deals enough in our existential fear of the future that we would rate this as one of the scariest shows on television. Each self-contained episode features some form of innovative technology gone too far, moral implications be damned. Some of the more horrifying episodes include "Playtest," about an augmented reality game that targets the user's fears; "Fifteen Million Merits," in which Daniel Kaluuya plays a man who must cycle on an exercise bike to generate electricity and earn a living; and "Metalhead," about a woman on the run from killer robotic dogs in a postapocalyptic world. The sixth season premiered in June 2023 with EW's critic observing how the show is "defying genre expectations" this go-round. The series has been renewed for a seventh season, which will drop in 2025. —K.J.

Where to watch Black Mirror: Netflix

EW grade: N/A (read EW's ranking of every episode)

Cast: Various

Related content: Black Mirror creator says season 6 almost had an AI-written episode

Brand New Cherry Flavor (2021)

Brand New Cherry Flavor stars Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel) as an aspiring filmmaker who arrives in a ramshackle, overgrown, pulp novel-ish, and illusory '90s Los Angeles, where her professional plans are quickly derailed with the introduction of a witch named Boro (Catherine Keener). Cue up a rogues' gallery of supernatural manipulation and bloody misadventures, milk baths that conjure evil doings, and spells that cause people to vomit kittens. A foray into the seedy underbelly of show business and the city itself, this horror series also includes dastardly curses, dreams bending into dark shapes of reality, and zombie henchmen who do their boss witch's bidding. Brand New Cherry Flavor was adapted from the Todd Grimson novel of the same name by creator and showrunner Nick Antosca, who previously helmed Channel Zero (now on Shudder), a horror anthology based on the Very Online legends and scary stories known as creepypastas. And while Cherry Flavor is definitely into fetishizing its horror side, what it loves most is blanketing its world in queasiness spiked with hyperactive drug euphoria. It's got scares, it's got style; it's also got Catherine Keener playing a wise and wily bad witch, which is really all you need. And if a weird door in the floor opens, why not go down it? —Johnny Loftus

Where to watch Brand New Cherry Flavor: Netflix

Cast: Rosa Salazar, Catherine Keener, Eric Lange, Manny Jacinto, Jeff Ward

Related content: Channel Zero creator says no CG was used to create terrifying clown contortionist

Cracow Monsters (2022–present)

If you're looking for a healthy dose of atmosphere with your horror, Cracow Monsters has you covered. The Polish series pits a band of university students against a host of paranormal threats — ancient evils, mysterious wraiths, demons with deadly vendettas — and doesn't cut away from the action whenever Alexsandra (Barbara Liberek) has to suddenly strike down whatever beast from beyond has shown up with an axe to grind. But, in Monsters, special effects and practical horror makeup combine with lighting techniques and a powerful sense of place to make Cracow itself a puzzle box of horror. In this show, everything is always wet, it's always the middle of the night, and all routes lead through dark corridors and into murky alleyways. And what goes bump in the night isn't just a nightmare, but your actual nightmare. Andrzej Chyra, Malgorzata Bela, and Stanislaw Linowski costar with Liberek on Cracow Monsters, and a disparate cast of youthful paranormal hunters rounds out the crew. —J.L.

Where to watch Cracow Monsters: Netflix

Cast: Barbara Liberek, Andrzej Chyra, Małgorzata Bela, Stanislaw Linowski

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Dracula (2020)

In this three-part miniseries, the world's most famous vampire is reimagined by Sherlock creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. Claes Bang (The Square, Bad Sisters) plays this version of Dracula as we follow his adventures from Transylvanian count to passenger on the ill-fated Demeter ship to aspiring member of English society. While clearly inspired by Bram Stoker's seminal novel, the series also charts its cheeky path. As Bang explained in 2019 ahead of the show's premiere, "Yes he's evil, but there's also so much more to him, he's charismatic, intelligent, witty, and sexy." —K.J.

Where to watch Dracula: Netflix

Cast: Claes Bang, Dolly Wells, John Heffernan

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The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)

Mike Flanagan and Edgar Allan Poe prove to be a match made in gothic heaven with this deliciously creepy miniseries. The eight-episode series not only adapts Poe's short story The Fall of the House of Usher but also several iconic works from the writer, including The Raven and The Pit and the Pendulum. Numerous Flanagan regulars appear throughout, including Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel, Katie Parker, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, Zach Gilford, and Bruce Greenwood, with the limited series centering on a pharmaceutical company CEO whose six children have all mysteriously died. Described by EW as "Succession meets Edgar Allan Poe fan fiction" The Fall of the House of Usher cleverly integrates Poe's fascinations with death and the corruption of man to tell a distinctly modern story that should delight fans of the writer who have devoured his stories through many a midnight dreary. —K.J.

Where to watch The Fall of the House of Usher: Netflix

EW grade: B (read the review)

Cast: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Mary McDonnell, Willa Fitzgerald, Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, Samantha Sloyan, T'Nia Miller, Michael Trucco, Carl Lumbly, Mark Hamill

Related content: Explaining the Edgar Allan Poe references in The Fall of the House of Usher

Feria: The Darkest Light (2022)

When it comes to Netflix, Feria: The Darkest Light co-creator Carlos Montero is probably best known for Élite, his Spanish private school drama that's more steamy than it is scary. But for this series set in the '90s, teenage sisters Eva (Ana Tomeno) and Sofia (Carla Campra) are plunged into the center of some creepy and culty goings-on in their mountainous Andalusian village when their parents become the apparent perpetrators of a mass suicide, an incident that connects to a multigenerational attempt to build a literal highway to hell. Would you travel to damnation and back just to see your mom again? One of the sisters in Feria is more than willing. "When we strip ourselves of our flesh, we find ourselves in the relief... You who preside over the hidden mysteries of the Supreme Triad, and shine during the night, Behemoth..." The rituals and testifying in Feria are full of bloodlettings, skin flayings, and people who were supposedly dead returning to their physical forms. And that's before we even mention the storm of supernatural elements that becomes a demonic gateway to the deep. In short, there's as much cult mystery in Feria: The Darkest Light as there is manifestation of the beyond, and it all makes for quite a horror story. —J.L.

Where to watch Feria: The Darkest Light: Netflix

Cast: Marta Nieto, Ana Tomeno, Carla Campra, Patricia López, Isak Férriz, Ernest Villegas, Ángela Cremonte

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Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022–present)

From Oscar-winning auteur filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, this horror anthology series delivers a new Gothic short story every episode, as curated by the director himself. Episodes center on such classic horror tropes as a haunted house, a secret gathering, mysterious objects, and alien inhabitants. Every installment is helmed by a noted director in the horror (or horror-adjacent) realm, including Jennifer Kent (The Babadook), Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night), Keith Thomas (The Vigil), and Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight). Like with other anthology series, some episodes of Cabinet of Curiosities stand out more than others, but del Toro offers a diverse selection of horror stories that should satisfy most fans of the genre. —K.J.

Where to watch Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities: Netflix

Cast: Tim Blake Nelson, David Hewlett, F. Murray Abraham, Kate Micucci, Martin Starr, Dan Stevens, Ben Barnes, Crispin Glover, Rupert Grint, Peter Weller, Eric André, Essie Davis, Andrew Lincoln

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The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

The Haunting of Hill House, the debut entry in creator Mike Flanagan's Haunting anthology, is adapted from Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel of the same name and set across two timelines: in 1992, when supernatural events plague the Crain family upon their move to (and eventual flight from) the titular home; and 26 years later, when the scares from way back are still living in the present, and the siblings and dear old dad must face the chilling frights of their collective past. Timothy Hutton and Henry Thomas both star as patriarch Hugh Crain, with Carla Gugino, Elizabeth Reaser, Kate Siegel, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Victoria Pedretti, Michiel Huisman, and Annabeth Gish rounding out the cast. "Hill house is the most iconic haunted house in literature," Flanagan told EW in a 2018 interview, "so of course the opportunity to spend some time there was irresistible. Those themes of paranoia, freedom, and confinement, the fragility of self, the ambiguity of the supernatural...those were all elements of the source material that I wanted to take a stab at." —J.L.

Where to watch The Haunting of Hill House: Netflix

Cast: Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, Timothy Hutton, Henry Thomas, Elizabeth Reaser, Lulu Wilson, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, Victoria Pedretti, Mckenna Grace, Paxton Singleton, Julian Hilliard, Violet McGraw

Related content: The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan on hidden clues, major scares, and a season 2

Hellbound (2021–present)

In the South Korean horror-fantasy series Hellbound, individuals learn of their fated, one-way trip to hell from an executor — an "angel," though it really isn't — and then, at the prescribed moment, whether it's minutes or months from the pronouncement, three bruising supernatural thugs appear to carry them off to the deep. It's a premise with roots in creator Yeon Sang-ho's webtoon, and one that translates to television with a flair for illuminating the garish ways our contemporary reality can often feel like a construct. When cult leader Jeong Jin-soo (Yoo Ah-in) posts footage of these extra-reality abductions on YouTube, Hellbound cleverly uses the limits of that platform to disguise the limits to its own TV budget CGI. The result is a series that explores how the unwanted entry of the divine into everyday life can become not miraculous but horrifying. As Hellbound unfolds, rival groups take action in the face of these frightening incidents. On the one hand, there's Jeong and the New Truth Society; on the other, there's Arrowhead, a violent youth gang. And caught in between are everyday people saddled with the realization that their existence and the world at large have become forever changed. Season 2 premieres in 2024. —J.L.

Where to watch Hellbound: Netflix

Cast: Yoo Ah-in, Kim Hyun-joo, Park Jeong-min, Won Jin-ah, Yang Ik-june

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Marianne (2019)

The French horror drama Marianne is full of murderous prose coming to life, straight up satisfying jump scares, cursed runes, and various personal cruelties inflicted on its characters. But what might be most cruel is that Netflix axed it after only one season, a move the streamer has made with more and more aggression as it deems a title unready or unsteady for prime-time fame. Marianne, which maintains its slow burn sense of dread, almost certainly deserved to explore that more in a second season. But, as it is, the series becomes one of the more artful and engaging one-and-dones in the Netflix horror series library. Victoire Du Bois (Call Me by Your Name) stars as Emma Larsimon, a novelist who discovers that the characters she's put on the page have emerged in real life, with a mixture of murderous, possessive, and demonic results. As Emma returns to where it all began for her, she confronts what she's created alongside her old friends and their collective dramas. But not everything is as it seems — not even words on a page — and, naturally, not everyone survives. —J.L.

Where to watch Marianne: Netflix

Cast: Victoire Du Bois, Lucie Boujenah, Tiphaine Daviot, Mireille Herbstmeyer

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Midnight Mass (2021)

When it came time to follow up his pair of Netflix horror hits — The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor — Mike Flanagan had something equally chilling, but a little bit different in mind. In the miniseries Midnight Mass, when Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) returns to his remote island hometown, his encounters with the mysterious Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater) quickly turn into an eerie stew of belief, resurrection, supernatural intervention, and bloodlust. It's a story Flanagan had been preparing to tell for years: "I don't know how long I could have gone without writing it," he told EW. "There's a very natural thing that happens where, if you're writing anything that tiptoes into a personal place, you find yourself vomiting up all sorts of things into it. It's happened to me with Hill House in a pretty big way. It happened with [Bly Manor]. This one, though, was the story I always wanted to tell." —J.L.

Where to watch Midnight Mass: Netflix

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Cast: Zach Gilford, Hamish Linklater, Kate Siegel, Kristin Lehman, Samantha Sloyan, Igby Rigney, Rahul Kohli, Annarah Cymone, Annabeth Gish, Alex Essoe, Rahul Abburi, Matt Biedel, Michael Trucco, Crystal Balint, Louis Oliver, Henry Thomas

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Parasyte: The Grey (2024–present)

A parasitic species invades Earth in this gnarly Korean horror series, based on the manga series Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaaki. The creatures infect and kill humans, then transform their heads into grotesque shapes (see above). Jeon So-nee stars as Jeong Su-in, a woman who develops a unique relationship with a parasite in which she learns to live with it after it fails to fully control her. For fans of body horror, Parasyte: The Grey should certainly satisfy, but the series also draws on compelling themes of humanity's response to threats in our environment. —K.J.

Where to watch Parasyte: The Grey: Netflix

Cast: Jeon So-nee, Koo Kyo-hwan, Lee Jung-hyun

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Santa Clarita Diet (2017–2019)

Before becoming one of daytime TV's sunniest hosts, Drew Barrymore spent three seasons on this Netflix horror-comedy as a cannibalistic real estate agent. The series follows Sheila (Barrymore) and husband Joel (Timothy Olyphant), who must reckon with her new undead condition, which leads her to develop a taste for human flesh. Complicating matters is their neighbors being involved in law enforcement, which doesn't exactly make Sheila's newfound eating habits very easy to cover up. While Santa Clarita Diet is decidedly more comedic than other entries on this list, EW's critic writes, "Diet's giddy, bloody hyperreality requires a decent tolerance for gore," calling it a blending of David Lynch and Desperate Housewives. —K.J.

Where to watch Santa Clarita Diet: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Cast: Drew Barrymore, Timothy Olyphant, Liv Hewson, Skyler Gisondo

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Slasher (2016–present)

The Canadian horror anthology series Slasher — which debuted in 2016 on the short-lived horror platform Chiller before migrating to Netflix — operates on a pretty conventional premise for the genre: Consider the masked killer, consider his victims, and consider their lack of intelligence for becoming slasher fodder in the first place. It's a trope that's generated reams of screams and gallons of fake blood for generations of horror films, and Slasher just carries the line across your throat a little further. Slasher isn't here to elevate, explore, or artfully stylize horror. It's here to put people — often sexy people — in situations where, for example, episodes of the anthology feature titles like "Digging Your Grave With Your Teeth," or the camp counselors' secrets make them dead meat, or a guy in a blue mask eviscerates the impossibly horny for perhaps unknown reasons. And sometimes, in horror, that's really all that needs to happen.

Note: The fourth season of the series, Slasher: Flesh & Blood, is streaming on Shudder and stars the one and only Canadian icon of body horror himself, David Cronenberg. Season 5, titled Ripper, debuted on Shudder in April 2023. —J.L.

Where to watch seasons 1–3 of Slasher: Netflix

Cast (for season 1): Katie McGrath, Brandon Jay McLaren, Steve Byers, Patrick Garrow, Dean McDermott, Christopher Jacot, Mary Walsh, Enuka Okuma, Erin Karpluk, Wendy Crewson

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Stranger Things (2016–present)

If you've been paying attention to the Stranger Things universe, you've witnessed the evolution of psychokinetic government lab escapee Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) as she bonds with Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin). You were there for the disappearance and reemergence of Will (Noah Schnapp), whose immersion in an alternate dimension known as the Upside Down eventually brings the horrors of the Mind Flayer monster to Hawkins, Ind. And you've seen a completely different monstrous entity, Vecna, get down with some grisly murdering of its own, as well as draw the plucky group at the core of the series into the alternate dimension itself. There's a lot going on in Stranger Things, and it's always intermixing horror, sci-fi, comedy, and teen drama. But that particular brand of Stranger Things horror is also a reflection of the '80s, a time when — from Fright Night and Cat's Eye to The Lost Boys and A Nightmare on Elm Street — it was always the youths who were getting into all kinds of supernatural trouble. "I love watching kids grow up on camera," Stranger Things co-creator Matt Duffer told EW in 2016. "So the idea of seeing where these kids and these characters are one year later is cool to me. And it allows us to explore the mythology of our nether." The fifth and final season is currently in the works. —J.L.

Where to watch Stranger Things: Netflix

EW grade: B (read the review)

Cast: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke

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Sweet Home (2020–present)

Monsters descend upon a South Korean city in this addictive Korean horror fantasy series. Cha Hyun-su (Song Kang) is a young man with depression living in an apartment complex, Green Home. Horrifying creatures soon threaten the lives of Hyun-su and his fellow residents, who try to survive and fight back against them. The series expertly explores how human fears manifest, with characters worth rooting for. The first two seasons are streaming on Netflix, with a third coming in summer 2024. —K.J.

Where to watch Sweet Home: Netflix

Cast: Song Kang, Lee Jin-wook, Lee Si-young

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The Walking Dead (2010–2022)

The Walking Dead (and its universe of spinoffs) has been around so long that it's safe to think of the pioneering zombie series itself as being pretty much undead. But that's not the case, as the postapocalyptic horror saga that debuted way back on Halloween night 2010 aired its 11th and final season on AMC in 2022. You can now stream every season as they chronicle the onset of the zombie mutation, the advance of the walkers, the collapse of society as we know it, and the rise of perpetual battles between bands of human survivors. From Norman Reedus' arrow-tossing hunter Daryl and Lauren Cohan as the fiery Maggie, to Danai Gurira's katana-wielding Michonne and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the villainous boss Negan, the ensemble cast of The Walking Dead features a deep, deep bench, which is all the more reason to dive back in and explore the fates of all its characters. Who made it through the initial fights? Better yet, who survives the horrific landscape of a world overrun by zombies and grinding human vs. human conflict all the way to the series finale? —J.L.

Where to watch The Walking Dead: Netflix

Cast: Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn, Steven Yeun, Chandler Riggs, Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan, Danai Guria, Scott Wilson

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