There have been a number of great horror TV shows, but these are 13 of the best that sadly so few watched.
It’s no secret that there are a lot of great TV shows that sadly never get the audience they deserve. That includes numerous streaming TV shows, while networks have found horror TV trickier to pull off. Yet now and then, we get a show that’s not so much a cult favorite as falling so under the radar that many don’t know about it until it’s canceled.
There is a long list of such shows, but for any horror TV fan, these 13 series should be a must-watch for some wonderful scares and thrills, and each should have gotten far more eyes on it for horror buffs!
Harper’s Island
It’s amazing how this 2009 CBS series has slipped under the radar, despite being one of the best slasher stories ever put on TV. A wedding party heads to an island once home to a series of murders. One by one, the party is picked off by someone, with paranoia growing as to who’s really responsible.
The show packs a lot into its 13 episodes, as just when you believe you’ve found the murderer, they end up becoming another victim. It’s backed by a splendid cast with Katie Cassidy, Christopher Gorham, Matt Barr, and more. It nicely wraps the story up in one season and deserves to be rediscovered as a love letter to the slasher genre that gets better as it goes on.
Brimstone
A wonderful 1998 gem that Fox ended too early, Brimstone mixed horror with a film noir approach. In 1983, New York cop Zeke Stone (Peter Horton) takes brutal revenge on the man who assaulted his wife. When he’s killed in the line of duty, Stone is sent to Hell. Fifteen years later, a massive breakout sends 113 of the worst souls who ever lived to Earth. The Devil (John Glover) offers Stone a second chance at life in exchange for hunting down the damned and sending them back.
The show was amazingly dark, with Stone having to destroy the eyes (“windows to the soul”) to defeat the demons in tough fights. He was also haunted by his past with Horton selling the agony. Glover was the true reason to watch, with his delightfully evil Devil egging Stone on. Another show perhaps ahead of its time, this would be a hit in the streaming era and worth tracking down.
The Exorcist
A Fox TV adaptation of arguably the scariest horror film of all time seems like a bad proposition. Instead, this highly underrated 2015-16 show lived up to its legacy. The first season is a take on the original, with a priest investigating a young girl seemingly possessed, and Geena Davis as the mother. It amps up with a shocking revelation linked to the original movies and the last episodes go full throttle in the scares.
Season 2 has a new story that’s even more terrifying and delves into religious themes. For a network show, the effects can be surprisingly gory and often brutal to watch. Even non-Exorcist fans can enjoy this show, which should have gotten far more eyes on it.
Dracula (2013)
There have been quite a few TV takes on the most famous vampire in history. So it’s easy to forget NBC had its own version in 2013. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is the Count, reimagined as awakening in late 19th-century London and posing as an American industrialist. He’s really out to destroy the Order of the Dragon, a sinister group. This leads to the twist of Dracula working alongside longtime enemy Van Helsing.
Rhys Meyers is very brooding and wicked as Dracula with a modernized edge. He’s drawn to Mina (Katie McGrath), who’s the reincarnation of his lost love, with Victoria Smurfit stealing scenes as feisty Lucy. It’s very steamy with some actual bloody thrills and while it only lasted this one season, it’s one of the better television takes on the Count.
Freddy’s Nightmares
As iconic as a slasher franchise can be, A Nightmare on Elm Street always succeeded thanks to Robert Englund’s iconic performance as Freddy Krueger. This 1988 syndicated series has Freddy as the “host” for various stories that feature nightmares, both waking and sleeping, with intriguing stories. Some are linked to Freddy’s past terrors, while others are more original and still biting.
The Freddy framework scenes have Englund camping it up while still scary. The stories can have a dark humor, only to shift into absolute terror. It’s a forgotten part of the Nightmare lore, but worth tracking down as a reminder of how scary your dreams can be.
Teacup
This Peacock series was a tricky one to get into, which is likely why it only lasted one season. If you watched it, you were in for a dark and sinister ride that got more complex as it went. Set in a rural Georgia farm community, a dark threat combines with an inner one and horror master James Wan expertly crafts a moody show.
The performances by Yvonne Strahovski and Scott Speedman aid the series, which amps up the thrills in every episode, especially when the alien enemies are capable of possessing people. There are creepy kids, strange events and some wild deaths as well. It was setting up a better second season when it was cut short, yet it is worth watching now.
Hysteria!
Another one-season Peacock show that deserved a longer life, Hysteria is set in 1989 and plays on the “Satanic Panic” scare of that decade. A trio of high schoolers hit upon the idea of pretending to be devil worshipers in order to get attention for their band. It backfires when strange events lead the parents to start thinking they really are part of a cult.
What makes the show compelling is that while there are hints of supernatural evidence, the true terror is in how humanity has a horrible tendency to jump to the worst conclusions about people. This witch hunt gets more serious with a “deprogrammer,” who is worse than the kids, and horror icon Bruce Campbell as the town sheriff. Again, while there are teases of a supernatural influence, the show works by reminding you how humans can be the true monsters.
Werewolf
Way back in 1987, Werewolf was one of the original series when the Fox network was launched. It was thus its first genre TV show canceled too soon due to lack of ratings. It's too bad, as the show was quite good, with the plot centering on a young man who’s bitten by a werewolf. As he handles his transformations, he searches for the originator of his line in hopes of breaking the curse while pursued by a bounty hunter wrongly convinced he’s a monster.
The transformation scenes were crafted by none other than Oscar-winning makeup master Rick Baker, guaranteeing they look spectacular (especially for 1987 TV). The format going town to town may seem formulaic, but the subplot of the hero worried about losing his humanity every time he changes was well handled. This set the tone for so many great genre shows on Fox that should be tracked down today.
Hammer House of Horror
In horror movie circles, Hammer is a revered name. The British studio spent decades churning out beloved horror classics based on Dracula, Frankenstein and more. It can be forgotten that they tried their hand at TV with this 1980 anthology series that did a fine job replicating the Hammer formula for the small screen. Each tale is a mini-movie with all the dark turns, steamy scenes and fine acting Hammer fans love.
The stories revolve around haunted houses, cursed objects, sinister cults, ghosts and more. The twists are plentiful, with genuine surprises abounding, and the vibe of the retro setting for the stories adds to the mood. For any Hammer buff, this is a must-watch to remind you why they’re the first name in horror.
Night Visions
Amid so many horror anthologies of the 2000s, this Fox series didn’t get its due. Henry Rollins was an odd choice for the host, yet he couldn’t distract from 13 episodes of dark storylines with endings that were rarely happy for anyone. Each episode has two tales with the shorter lengths helping the stories come off tighter and thus scarier.
There’s a good pack of actors like Bill Pullman, Timothy Olyphant, Natasha Lyonne and many other familiar TV faces. The dark twists to each story can be jarring yet fit for a nightmarish collection of tales. For those who love darker anthologies, these Visions are a fine run to give you some bad dreams.
Constantine
A TV series based on DC Comics’ dark mage is a great idea, but 2014 NBC may not have been the best fit. It’s a shame the series had to be watered down for networks, as Matt Ryan was pitch-perfect casting. He is John Constantine, walking off the pages of the comic with his sardonic wit, haunted past, and as much a con man as a magician whose motives aren’t always heroic.
The series had a procedural format of Constantine traveling the country, facing demons and other threats, with some good special effects. The series nicely delves into the mythology of the character and plenty of dark action. It lasted just one season, but thankfully, Ryan got a better showcase playing Constantine in the Arrowverse to make this a good introduction for the famed character.
30 Coins
In 30 Coins, a former exorcist retires to a quiet village in hopes of escaping the pains of his past. Sadly, his retirement is short-lived as he’s pulled back into this supernatural world when dark events happen. That may be tied into the titular coins, which are supposedly the thirty pieces of silver Judas was paid for his betrayal.
The series has some Lovecraftian influences with shocking turns amid an often dark humor. It references other horror writers and directors while crafting a story of faith, religious aspects and human troubles. It never gained the widespread audience it deserved, so hopefully, it can build a cult following into a series that pays off its scares.
The Bondsman
The Bondsman arrived and left far too quickly on Prime Video earlier in 2025. It has a classic setup with Kevin Bacon as a bounty hunter who’s killed and then resurrected by the Devil (who appears via various intermediaries) to hunt down escaped demons and souls and send them to Hell. It sounds much like Brimstone, only using the freedom of streaming to be wilder and darker.
Bacon is in fine form as the not-so-heroic lead who gets ravaged but can’t die while carrying a sardonic humor about his circumstances. The action is gruesome in a good way, with Bacon the real reason to watch. Sadly, not enough did to axe it fast when this Bondsman deserved many more missions.