Netflix has been a home for horror for quite a while and boasts a number of stellar spooky series to jump into.
Whether your vibe is suspenseful dread or outright jump-scares, there is something for everyone on Netflix. Praises have been sung on high for things like “Midnight Mass” and “The Haunting of Hill House” but new hits like “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen” also deserve a spot in any horror fan’s binge cycle.
Here are the seven best horror series waiting to be streamed on Netflix right now.
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen
The Duffer Brothers are back with a new show on Netflix – but this time just as executive producers. Their new horror show “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen” follows a couple who deals with a series of shocking events in the days leading up to their wedding. While it isn’t a Duffer Bros. creation, the series has some of the same DNA as their mega-hit “Stranger Things” if you are in need of a new Netflix horror show to fill your Upside Down void.
If you’re looking for horror that has a very strong sense of place – and that particular place is deeply unsettling – then there will be a lot to like about “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.”
Midnight Mass
“Midnight Mass” was clearly the story renowned creator Mike Flanagan had been building up to telling for years, and he knocked it out of the park. The story follows a man who returns to his small island town off the mainland just as a darker threat follows a new pastor working at the community’s single church.
Despite being a (spoiler alert) vampire story, the larger tale being told is Flanagan’s long treatise on the benefits and failings of religion, morality, God and sobriety. His hands are on every frame and line of dialogue in “Midnight Mass,” and each subsequent rewatch manages to lend something new to the viewer – just like all the best stories do.
The Haunting of Hill House
Flanagan’s first horror series at Netflix also shot him into a new level of recognition. “The Haunting of Hill House” – adapting Shirley Jackson’s novel – tells the bleak story of a family ruined by their short time in a new home.
The story serves as a puzzle with it taking place across two time periods – in the past when the family moved to the house, and in the present with everyone scattered to the wind and picking up the pieces years after living through what happened. It employed viewers to figure out what was true among a variety of unreliable narrators. “Hill House’s” exploration into grief and how different individuals process their trauma hits much harder than it had any right to.
The Fall of the House of Usher
Flanagan left Netflix on a high note with “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Based on the many stories of Edgar Allen Poe, each episode centers on a different member of the cursed Usher family as they’re slowly and methodically killed off. The mainstay actors for Flanagan are back in force for this series, with many playing against type from their previous projects with the writer/director (looking at you, Samantha Sloyan). It’s a pleasure to watch them die.
The overall story might be a bit more conventional “horror” when it’s all said and done, but when it’s crafted this well, what is there really to complain about?
Marianne
“Marianne” is in the Netflix Hall of Fame of shows that just got lost in the shuffle. Dropping in 2019 to little fanfare, the show never made it past the first season because it got buried on the streamer’s more high-profile hits when it mattered most. Since its cancellation, “Marianne” has garnered a cult following as one of the scariest shows on the streamer.
It follows a horror writer who returns to her hometown and finds that the entity plaguing her dreams is now running rampant. If you want to watch a Netflix hidden gem and lose sleep at the same time, “Marianne” is for you.
Castle Rock
Stephen King was doing connected universes before they were cool, and “Castle Rock” serves as a love letter to his expansive work. The series takes place in the titular town, where so many of the writer’s stories have taken place. The series only lasted two seasons – with the second being a little too lost in the sauce of playing in King’s toy box – but the first season follows a man returning to town after years, right as a boy is discovered living in the abandoned wing of Shawshank Prison.
It’s a contemplative and horrific season of TV that features King alum Sissy Spacek in one of the best roles of her latter-half career. If you consider yourself a Constant Reader and have always wanted to see characters from “Misery,” “‘Salem’s Lot” and more interact, than this is the show for you.
Interview With the Vampire
“Interview With the Vampire” is one of the best shows currently airing on TV — but because it got its start on the faraway planet of AMC+, it is still criminally underseen. Seasons 1 and 2 are now on Netflix with Season 3 ready to start airing later this year so it’s a perfect time to jump into the horror love story of Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt.
The series follows their tumultuous, toxic love story through the ages and makes all the queer subtext in Anne Rice’s novel into overt text. Both Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid are mesmerizing in their roles, and Eric Bogosian as the titular interviewer getting Louis’ story steals nearly every scene. The show missing out on major awards love thus far is a crime.
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