Spooky TV Shows to Get Into the Halloween Spirit: From AHS to Scream (2025)

Horror fans don’t have to rely on just horror movies during spooky season — there's also plenty of terrifying television shows that can get anyone into the Halloween spirit.American Horror Story has become a spooky season staple since it premiered in 2011 as an anthology series on FX. Each season follows a different set of characters in a new setting within the same fictional universe, which has previously led to crossovers. From Murder House to Freak Show to Roanoke to Apocalypse, American Horror Story has found a way to scare even the biggest horror fans.Meanwhile over at Peacock, Teacup is a newer horror series that relies on secrecy. Based on Robert McCammon's book Stinger, Teacup follows a group of people in rural Georgia who must come together to survive a terrifying phenomenon that is killing animals and humans alike. As new episodes aired throughout October 2024, viewers were left with more questions than answers about what was behind the danger."It's very astute that it feels like a movie because that is the idea of the shorter episodes," creator Ian McCulloch exclusively told Us Weekly at the time. "It is not only because we want to leave the audience wanting more — so they move on to the next episode — but there's an economy of storytelling. In the end, it should feel like a single piece, which is what a movie is."He continued: "We didn't have any extra fat [with the stories]. After a while you can't just tell one thorough story, you have to go off on some different avenues. We didn't want that sort of experience. We wanted people to just keep going and keep going. While at the same time, you want to make sure that you're not throwing things in just to do a twist or a turn."Keep scrolling for a guide to the spookiest TV shows to check out this Halloween season:

The horror anthology has often drawn inspiration from real spooky occurrences that have happened in the United States. American Horror Story has also allowed creator Ryan Murphy to work with the same cast members across multiple seasons, including Evan Peters, Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, Denis O’Hare, Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, Finn Wittrock, Billie Lourd, Leslie Grossman, Frances Conroy, Taissa Farmiga, Cody Fern and Zachary Quinto.

Bates Motel, which ran from 2013 to 2017, worked as a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho. Based on Robert Bloch's 1959 novel of the same name, both the show and the movie focused on Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and the motel that later served as the backdrop for his murders.

The television series offered fans a twist of sorts, introducing Norman as a teenager who made the move to Oregon with his mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga). The duo attempted to start fresh after his father's sudden death, but Norman's deteriorating mental health throws a wrench in their plans.

It wasn't until the final season of the show that the plot of Psycho came into play.

Despite building a cult following with six movies — and counting — The Exorcist series was largely underrated. The show, which ran for two seasons, debuted in 2016 and followed a pair of exorcists who investigate cases of demonic possession.

Mike Flanagan's reign of the small screen began with The Haunting of Hill House, which took inspiration from the novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson. The Haunting of Hill House introduced the Crain family during their move in 1992. Following paranormal phenomena, the family left the home and subsequently faced their trauma more than two decades later.

The Fall of the House of Usher introduced a CEO of a corrupt pharmaceutical company whose children started to die in brutal ways and as a result of his questionable past. Not wanting to just base the show off Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same name, Flanagan incorporated a wide range of Poe's written work within the show’s eight episodes.

Teacup follows an isolated ranch in rural Georgia where several people are forced to work together to survive a mysterious threat. The show stars Scott Speedman, Yvonne Strahovski, Chaske Spencer, Kathy Baker, Boris McGiver, Caleb Dolden, Emilie Bierre and Luciano Leroux.

Based loosely on a 1992 film, the supernatural series follows Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) as she fulfilled her destiny to destroy vampires, demons and other forces of darkness. Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head and Nicholas Brendon also star in the cult classic series.

David Boreanez brought the role of Angel to life during the show's run from 1997 to 2003. He subsequently starred in a spinoff that ran for five seasons on the same network. As Buffy's first love, Boreanez's character often found himself at odds with James Marsters's Spike, who was her other main love interest.

HBO adapted The Last of Us from the video game of the same name in January 2023, with Pedro Pascal playing Joel and Bella Ramsey bringing Ellie to life. The series followed the duo on a post-apocalyptic journey across the country, 20 years after a zombie-like fungus wiped out much of civilization. Ellie, however, is somehow immune to the disease and becomes the key to creating a potential cure.

The series, which ran from 1990 to 1991, introduced an investigation into the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) in the fictional town of Twin Peaks, Washington. After ABC pulled the plug on Twin Peaks, the 1992 prequel feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me was born. The universe expanded even more when Showtime revived the series for one season in 2017.

Kyle MacLachlan, Sherilyn Fenn, Mädchen Amick, Lee and David Duchovny all returned for the revival after appearing in the original series. The new season also featured some new — but familiar — faces, including Laura Dern, Michael Cera, Richard Chamberlain, Trent Reznor, Jessica Szohr and Amanda Seyfried in a wide variety of roles.

Flanagan's horror universe continued with Midnight Mass, which started streaming in 2021. The show follows the story of a man who returned to his isolated island community and quickly started to look into unexplained incidents, which started to happen after the arrival of a mysterious priest.

Following the success of the Scream movie franchise, MTV introduced a more long-term slasher concept in the form of a TV series. Scream premiered in 2015 as a separate entity based on murders that took place in the fictional town of Lakewood. Emma Duval (Willa Fitzgerald) found herself taunted by the killer due to her connection to the town's dark history.

The series was picked up for a third season in 2016 but that later turned into a reboot. The short-lived show — titled Scream: Resurrection — introduced a new setting and new cast members.

There will never be a show quite like Scream Queens, which premiered in 2015. The hit slasher series starred an ensemble cast that included Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis, Billie Lourd, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, Glen Powell and Keke Palmer. During the show's first season, Scream Queens focused on members of the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority that were getting killed off by the mysterious Red Devil killer.

In season 2, the satirical anthology introduced the Green Meanie that targeted a hospital and its staff — which included many of the cast members from the first season. Stars such as Kirstie Alley, Taylor Lautner, John Stamos and James Earl III rounded out the sophomore season.

For fans of gore, let Us introduce you to Slasher. The Canadian import is another anthology series where each season is centered on a masked killer with an unknown motive for killing their victims.

In 2016, viewers were introduced to the residents of Hawkins, Indiana. The series centered around the fictional town where a series of supernatural events causes mystery and mayhem.

Goosebumps took inspiration from R.L. Stine's popular horror novels of the same name. The spooky show focused on five teenagers who had to work together after accidentally releasing supernatural forces into their small town. While trying to recapture the evil spirits, the group unlocked secrets of their parents' pasts.

Goosebumps stars Isa Briones, Ana Yi Puig, Zack Morris, Miles McKenna and Will Price as the show's protagonists. However, when the series was renewed four months later, Disney confirmed there would be a cast and story shakeup with Goosebumps: The Vanishing.

Set in the 1980s, Hysteria! revolved around the era's Satanic Panic. At the center of the show is a high school heavy metal band of outcasts who realize they could capitalize on the town’s sudden interest in the occult by building a reputation as a Satanic metal band. The plan doesn’t go as expected when a bizarre series of murders, kidnappings and reported supernatural activity triggers a witch hunt that leads directly back to them.

Yellowjackets, which premiered in 2021, chronicles a high school girls soccer team that ended up stranded in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash. The survivors didn't return home for nineteen months, during which time they were driven to cannibalism. Yellowjackets also features a present day timeline that reintroduces the survivors and their complex lives more than two decades later.

The X-Files premiered in 1993 and left Us wanting to believe in the unknown ever since. The sci-fi series revolves around FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) — a believer — and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) — a skeptic — as they investigate unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena.

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