Horror.The lovely horror genre. Some of us just can’t get enough of it and we certainly don’t need Halloween to get in the mood for some good scares and goose bumps. We have our bookshelves full of dark novels – from classics like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and from R. L. Stein’s Goosebumps series to Stephen Kings’ masterpieces.
Our computers’ hard drives and DVD cases are decorated with jewels like The Innocents, Psycho and The Shinning; there are even a few bad apples like The Amityville Horror, the Paranormal Activity franchise and Drag me to hell, but hey! Horror is horror!
Yet sometimes we are just too lazy or tired to read and the movies lack substance or sequels. And just to be sure that we are “frightentertained” for more than an hour and a half, we need TV series; TV series that give us enough information and character development and that save us from the infamous five – the jock, the nerd, the loser, the promiscuous one and the innocent one.
All Monsters Are Human
More or less. What the TV series belonging to the horror genre have brought us are some magnificent well-built characters with a fascinating background and who make us love them and hate them at the same time. We just can’t help it falling for demonic creatures, kings of hell, sadistic cannibals, cruel vampires, psychotic murderers and various disturbing human or non-human beings.
Though, in parallel with the antiheroes and villains, there are some heroes who make us wonder how they manage to survive in their crazy worlds. Either being victims who abandon the show in a dramatic way, which leaves us emotionally scarred for a while, or fighting for their lives and cause like the bravest and boldest Norse warriors, these characters bring out our inner courageous selves, teaching us not to be afraid and to not give up, to survive and to kick some butts – especially the last part.
The Cribs
There are no TV series without some good eerie and creepy settings. With them taking place in haunted houses with furniture covered with white sheets or in cobwebs, creepy castles where former queens still haunt the halls holding their decapitated heads in their arms, abandoned factories or schools where you can still hear the rusty machines working and children laughing although they are not there anymore, mysterious hotels which make it quite clear from the start that the 13th floor or suit is not for booking, disturbing amusement parks where you can still smell the cotton candy in the air and the carousels start on their own or ghastly asylums that despite their grotesque and unorthodox methods, do not convince you that everything is just in your head, one can only suspect correctly right from the beginning that something bad is about to happen sooner or later.
Of course, there are cases when the entire town is haunted or, in a better case, just parts of it such as a forest where soldiers were hanged, a lake in which fools have adventured themselves, despite of the legends regarding the marine creatures, or a cave hiding creatures more scary than the adorable bats.
The Chosen Ones
We, the 6TopLists team, have done our research and made a list with fifteen of the most amazing TV series belonging to the horror genre. Attention! We reduced the list strictly to live action original TV series, so no documentary shows such as The Haunting or Scariest Places on Earth, no cartoons like Scooby Doo or Courage the Cowardly Dog, no TV series for children like Are you afraid of the dark? or Goosebumps, no anime like Shiki or Death Note and of course, no movies – for those we have another list and be sure to check it out if you haven’t done it already.
Also, to reduce the list even more, we stopped at TV series from the 21st century, so despite its long run, no Buffy the Vampire Slayer and no The X-Files. If you are not sad because of our strict classification but curious and willing to see what has brought the 21st century to the horror genre, we invite you to start the haunted tour now.
Read more:
- Top 15 Best Horror TV Series 15th-12th
- Top 15 Best Horror TV Series 11th-8th
- Top 15 Best Horror TV Series 7th-4th
- Top 15 Best Horror TV Series 3rd-1st