The Best Shows to Watch on Halloween, Ranked by Someone Who Doesn't Like Most of Them

If you only have one night and one show, put on The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix. It's the rare horror series where the ghosts are almost the least interesting thing in the room, because the show is really about a family of adult siblings who cannot stop hurting each other. Start with Episode 6, "Two Storms," a near-single-take episode that is the best hour of TV Mike Flanagan has ever made. If you don't feel anything by the end of that, Halloween might not be your holiday. Go carve a pumpkin.

Below: eleven shows, ranked, with the practical stuff. Starter episodes so you can bail. Time commitments so you know what you're signing up for. Verdicts so you know what I actually think.

Tier 1: Must-Watch

The Haunting of Hill House (2018, 1 season, Netflix)

Starter episode: Season 1, Episode 6, "Two Storms." It's a bottle episode in a funeral home, shot to look like one take. If it grips you, go back to Episode 1 and do the whole thing in order. If not, this show isn't for you and neither is the sequel. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked We Need to Talk About Kevin or Sharp Objects, yes. If you want jump scares and monster reveals, no — this is a grief show that happens to have ghosts. Time commitment: 10 episodes, roughly 60 minutes each. A long weekend. Status: limited series, done, no cliffhangers. Why it works for Halloween: because it's the show that makes you want to text your sister at 1 a.m. It uses the holiday's scaffolding — old house, dead relatives, things in the corner of the room — to sneak up on something much worse than a ghost, which is your own family. I've watched it four times. It gets better.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

Twin Peaks: The Return (2017, 1 season, Paramount+ / Prime rental)

Starter episode: Part 8. Yes, out of order. Everyone who watches this show tells you the same thing and they're right. Part 8 is the black-and-white nuclear-test episode, and it's the single most Halloween hour of television ever produced. If it lands, start over at Part 1. If not, walk away, no hard feelings. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked Mulholland Drive or you consider David Lynch a personal saint, yes. If you need a plot that resolves, absolutely not. This show ends by asking you what year it is. Time commitment: 18 hour-long episodes. A commitment. Not one weekend. Status: done, on purpose, in the most Lynch way possible — he passed in 2025 so this is the final word. Why it works for Halloween: it's the only show that feels like a real nightmare, meaning the scary parts don't obey rules and the boring parts are somehow scarier. Watch Part 8 with the lights off. Don't Google it first.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

The Fall of the House of Usher (2023, 1 season, Netflix)

Starter episode: Just start at Episode 1. It's Poe by way of the Sackler family, and it wastes zero time. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked Succession but wanted more corpses, yes. If you don't like Mike Flanagan's habit of letting characters deliver a five-minute monologue in the middle of a horror scene, you'll bounce hard around Episode 4. Time commitment: 8 episodes, roughly 60 minutes. Doable in three nights. Status: limited series, done. Why it works for Halloween: every episode is loosely based on a different Poe story, so the show is basically a variety hour of gothic set pieces. Carla Gugino chews the scenery, Bruce Greenwood does the best work of his career, and there's an orangutan. Trust me. It's the perfect thing to put on when you don't want commitment but you do want atmosphere.

✅ WORTH IT

Midnight Mass (2021, 1 season, Netflix)

Starter episode: Episode 1. But be warned: this show does not become a horror show until Episode 3. The first two episodes are a small-town drama about a recovering alcoholic and a new priest, and if you're not on board with that pace, you'll bail before the good stuff. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you grew up Catholic or lapsed Catholic, yes, yes, yes. If you want fast pacing, no. Time commitment: 7 episodes, roughly 65 minutes. A week of nights. Status: limited series, done. Why it works for Halloween: Flanagan again, because the man is a machine and this is his masterpiece. It's about faith and addiction and what people will believe when they're scared enough. Also there's a monster. That's all I'll say. Hamish Linklater's sermons alone are worth the seven hours.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

Tier 2: Worth Your Time

What We Do in the Shadows (2019-2024, 6 seasons, Hulu / Prime)

Starter episode: Season 1, Episode 1. It sets up the mockumentary format and introduces Colin Robinson, an energy vampire who works in an office, who is genuinely one of the great sitcom characters of the last decade. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked The Office and Christopher Guest movies, yes. If you cannot stand mockumentary-style comedy where the actors talk to camera, no. Time commitment: 10 episodes per season, 25 minutes each. Snackable. Status: ended in 2024 after six seasons, went out on its own terms, which nobody does anymore. Why it works for Halloween: if you want Halloween without the anxiety, this is the pick. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, an evil doll — but funny. It's the show you put on when your friend who "doesn't do horror" comes over and you still want theming. Matt Berry alone.

✅ WORTH IT

Interview with the Vampire (2022-present, 2 seasons, AMC+ / Prime)

Starter episode: Season 1, Episode 1. This show announces itself immediately — you know by minute 15 if you're in. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you loved the Anne Rice novels or the 1994 movie with Tom Cruise, yes, and this version is better than both. (The Vampire Chronicles books on Amazon.) If you want your vampires stoic and Nordic, no — these vampires are horny, cruel, and Southern Gothic. Time commitment: 7-8 episodes per season, roughly 55 minutes. Status: ongoing, renewed for Season 3, so you're jumping onto a moving train, but it's the good kind. Why it works for Halloween: it's the most beautiful-looking horror show on TV right now. Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid are doing career-best work as a vampire couple that has been failing at love for a hundred years, and the second season's Paris arc is genuinely upsetting. Perfect for the reader who wants gothic without cornball.

✅ WORTH IT

The Terror: Season 1 (2018, 1 season, AMC+ / Prime)

Starter episode: Season 1, Episode 1. Ignore Season 2 for now, it's a different story and it's fine but not this. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked Chernobyl or slow-burn dread over screaming, yes. If you want a monster on screen every episode, no — this show waits. Time commitment: 10 episodes, roughly 55 minutes. Status: anthology, Season 1 is self-contained, done. Why it works for Halloween: two Royal Navy ships get stuck in the Arctic ice in 1847 and something is out there hunting them. Based on Dan Simmons's novel (the book on Amazon), and it does the same trick the novel does, which is making the cold and the scurvy scarier than the creature. Jared Harris, Ciarán Hinds, Tobias Menzies. A murderer's row of British character actors freezing to death. Put on a sweater.

✅ WORTH IT

Channel Zero (2016-2018, 4 seasons, Shudder / Prime rental)

Starter episode: Season 1, "Candle Cove," Episode 1. Each season is a self-contained six-episode story adapted from a creepypasta, so if you don't like one season, skip to the next. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked Hannibal (the Bryan Fuller show), yes, because this has the same slow surreal energy. If you want the plot explained to you, no. Time commitment: 6 episodes per season, 42 minutes each. A long night. Status: cancelled after four seasons, but each season is self-contained so no cliffhangers. Why it works for Halloween: this is the off-the-beaten-path pick nobody talks about, and it's the scariest show on this list. Season 2, "No-End House," is about a house with six rooms and each room is worse than the last. Nobody I've recommended it to has been disappointed. Nick Antosca ran it before he became a big-shot showrunner, and it shows.

✅ WORTH IT

Tier 3: Only For Fans

Penny Dreadful (2014-2016, 3 seasons, Paramount+ / Prime)

Starter episode: Season 1, Episode 2, "Séance." Eva Green delivers a monologue in this episode that alone is worth watching the show. If you're not sold after that scene, you never will be. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you like Victorian gothic — Dracula, Frankenstein, Dorian Gray all in one show — yes. If you demand a tight ending, no, because the show got cancelled and the finale is a betrayal. Time commitment: 8-10 episodes per season, 55 minutes. Status: cancelled, and the last episode is genuinely infuriating. You've been warned. Why it works for Halloween: it's the most aesthetically committed Halloween show ever made. Every frame is a painting. Eva Green is doing operatic work as a woman possessed by something ancient, and Rory Kinnear as Frankenstein's monster will break your heart. Watch two seasons and pretend Season 3 didn't happen.

🛋️ BACKGROUND TV

Los Espookys (2019-2022, 2 seasons, HBO Max)

Starter episode: Season 1, Episode 1. Twenty-eight minutes. If you're not laughing by minute 15, this show is not for you. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you liked Nathan for You or absurdist deadpan comedy, yes. If you don't want to read subtitles, no — it's mostly in Spanish, and the show is smarter in Spanish. Time commitment: 6 episodes per season, roughly 28 minutes. Two afternoons. Status: cancelled after two seasons by HBO in the great Zaslav purge of 2022, which was a genuine cultural crime. Why it works for Halloween: it's about a group of friends in an unnamed Latin American country who run a business staging fake horror scenarios — a fake demon possession for a small-town priest who needs a career boost, a fake haunted castle for an inheritance dispute. Julio Torres is a national treasure. The show is what would happen if Twin Peaks was a workplace comedy and everyone was 24. Put it on and be sad it got cancelled.

✅ WORTH IT

Over the Garden Wall (2014, 1 season, HBO Max / Prime)

Starter episode: All of it. Start at Episode 1 and watch straight through in one sitting. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you like Studio Ghibli, autumn aesthetics, or 1930s Fleischer cartoons, yes. If you refuse to watch animated things because you're a grownup, grow up. Time commitment: 10 episodes, roughly 11 minutes each. Under two hours total. You can do this tonight. Status: limited series, done, perfect. Why it works for Halloween: the off-the-beaten-path pick I recommend to everyone. It's a Cartoon Network miniseries about two brothers lost in a spooky autumn woods, and it is genuinely, quietly, beautifully unsettling in a way that most "prestige horror" is not. Elijah Wood voices one of the brothers. The soundtrack sounds like it was recorded in 1912. If you have a partner who "doesn't like horror," this is the compromise pick and they'll thank you.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

Tier 4: Skip

American Horror Story (2011-present, 12 seasons, Hulu / Prime)

Starter episode: Murder House Season 1, Episode 1, if you insist. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: if you loved the first three seasons in college, sure, revisit those. Everyone else, no. Time commitment: 12 seasons and counting, roughly 10-13 episodes each. Nightmarish, in the bad way. Status: ongoing, somehow, against god's will. Why it doesn't work for Halloween anymore: the first two seasons — Murder House and Asylum — were legitimately good, ambitious, weird television. Then Ryan Murphy discovered you can make the same show for a decade and the algorithm rewards it. Every season now is the same cast doing accents at each other, a plot that abandons itself around Episode 6, and a finale nobody remembers. Watch Asylum if you've never seen it. Skip everything after 2015.

🐍 SLOP

FAQ

What's the scariest show on this list?

Channel Zero, Season 2 ("No-End House"). It's six episodes, it's on Shudder, and nothing else on this list will get under your skin the same way. Watch it with someone.

What if I hate horror but want something for Halloween?

Over the Garden Wall or What We Do in the Shadows. Neither will scare you. Both will make you feel like it's October. Over the Garden Wall is under two hours and it's on HBO Max, so there's no excuse.

Is Wednesday worth watching on Halloween?

It's fine. It's a Netflix show that thinks it's spookier than it is, and the second season is a step down from the first. If you have kids in the house it's a solid family pick. If you're an adult trying to be scared, aim higher.

What about The Haunting of Bly Manor?

Good, not as good as Hill House. If you loved Hill House and want more Flanagan, watch Midnight Mass first, then Bly Manor, then The Fall of the House of Usher. In that order. Bly Manor is the weakest of his Netflix run but the final episode is a gut punch.

What to watch tonight

If you've never seen it, put on The Haunting of Hill House Episode 6, "Two Storms," tonight, and if you like it, go back and start the show from Episode 1 tomorrow. It's an hour of television that will earn Halloween back for you. And if you already know Hill House by heart, put on Twin Peaks: The Return Part 8, turn off the lights, and don't fall asleep.

Happy Halloween. Don't watch American Horror Story.

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