13 Hidden Gem Horror TV Shows to Stream This Halloween Season

It’s a generally good year for horror movies, but the 2024 Halloween season has been oddly lackluster in film. (“Terrifier 3” and “Smile 2” notwithstanding.)

Plenty of spooky features are available to stream now, and in the era of day-and-date releases, newer fare is arriving online even earlier than you’d expect. That means you can certainly cobble together a solid stay-at-home scary movie marathon if that’s what you want — but there’s something to be said for making this October all about enjoying terrifying television.

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Any small-screen aficionado worth their salt knows to watch all-time genre greats like “The Twilight Zone,” “Twin Peaks,” “Bates Motel,” and “Hannibal” among others. (Read IndieWire’s guide to The Best Horror TV Shows of the 21st Century.) Those creepy classics kill even when they aren’t the reason for the season, and considering their chilling legacies, they’re just as worth a watch in early fall as they are deep into the winter months. For this streaming guide, we’ve sharpened our taste-making stakes to instead stab at hidden gems that feel particularly appropriate for Halloween 2024.

Not only are we weeks away from a petrifying presidential election in the United States, but Hollywood’s unofficial political arm continues to exist on shaky ground. It’s anyone’s guess how the industry’s shifting priorities will impact what horror series get made in the future. Even more alarming is the specter of content slaughter — a monstrous cost-cutting tactic that can evaporate old favorites in the blink of an eye. (R.I.P. the once-great library of HBO Max… Warner Bros. Discovery didn’t deserve you.)

So, what to get the ghoul that’s got everything… for now? We’ve wracked our brains and combed through streaming catalogs to pull our top underrated picks from across platforms. These 13 shows represent an array of frightening television experiences, ranging from off-the-beaten-path anime to the most criminally maligned season of “American Horror Story.”

The days in October are numbered, and you’re unlikely to finish most of the shows before All Hallow’s Eve. But the longest-running selections are made of self-contained episodes (hello, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”!) and the ones that aren’t are pretty quick (greetings from “Castle Rock”). We’ve also taken this list as an opportunity to plug Peacock’s “Teacup,” which debuted on October 10 and is rolling out two new episodes each week.

Grab your clicker and steady your ticker… These are the best (lesser-known) treats to binge specifically for Halloween 2024.

With editorial contributions by Proma Khosla. 

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