26 shows similar to Game of Thrones to watch next

5. Castlevania

Netflix’s Castlevania show is based on the best-selling video game franchise of the same name, which has been around since the early days of the Nintendo Entertainment System and has seen various vampire hunters belonging to House Belmont climb Dracula’s castle to lay the old master vampire to rest. Unlike most video game adaptations, which don’t have a great track record on the whole, Castlevania takes the relatively simple premise of the games and expands it into a deeply satisfying story with memorable characters and excellent writing.

The story begins with Count Vlad Dracula Tepes falling in love with a human woman and marrying her, seemingly turning over a new and profound leaf. But everything goes to hell when the church burns Dracula’s wife as a witch. To get revenge, Dracula unleashes his hordes of monsters across the eastern European country of Wallachia in an effort to wipe humanity from the Earth.

Enter Trevor Belmont, the last scion of a fallen noble house. Trevor is pulled unwillingly from drowning his sorrows in beer and thrust back into the fray to combat Dracula’s creatures of the night — and in the process, reclaim his birthright as the last living descendent of the world’s greatest family of monster hunters. He teams up with a couple of other characters who we won’t discuss because spoilers, and together the found family team sets out to stop Dracula’s reign of terror.

Of course, the show wouldn’t be so intriguing if it were that simple. The inner politics of the vampire court plays a huge part as well, with various vampires seeking to gain favor or advantage over Dracula.

This is a dark show. If you’re not used to watching anime and are maybe unaware of how brutally gory the medium can get, you may be surprised by the amount of blood and guts on display. However, Castlevania balances it all out supremely well with a sense of humor that is every bit as sharp as Alucard’s blade. The show is as good as any adult live action horror adventure, and better than most.

All four seasons of Castlevania are available to watch on Netflix.