Horror TV Series for the Fall, Pt. II

Over the last decade or two, we've been absolutely blessed with an embarassment of riches in terms of great television to choose from. Granted, it's all stupid and spread out across various overpriced providers now, but at least the shows are there (for now...). 

Here are a few of the full shows that I've enjoyed during that timeframe that make for good watching during the spooky season. Is it all of them? No. I haven't seen every great show out there; I simply don't have the time for that. There will be plenty of great options missing from this list, but feel free to leave a comment about those worth checking out so others might know what else is good to put on the tube. 

Most of the titles mentioned below (save for the first one) are single seasons, and were meant to be, so you won't have any trouble enjoying them for what they are. They were written as is and all have solid conclusions that don't leave nasty cliffhangers to a second season that never got greenlit. 

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Love, Death + Robots (Season 3)

5/5

[Netflix]

The Netflix animation series is great every season, but this third season was easily my favorite of the bunch. There are a few nods to some Lovecraftian horror, but the animation? Girl. The animation is STUNNING. The final episode titled "Jibaro" is so lifelike and so...impactful...that it's hard to believe it's animation to begin with. Some feel like fables, some feel like stories told from other worlds, but every episode is a 7- to 20-minute jaunt through someone's nightmares and they are luscious to behold. 

A great series for those of you with shorter attention spans who still want something great to check out. 

Archive 81 (2022)

5/5

[Netflix]

A video archivist is hired to dig through video evidence of a building fire, salvage the evidence, and restore it. Soon he realizes that the events leading up to a woman's disappearance found on the tapes are far stranger than first expected and leads our protagonist down some disturbing narratives. 

This was a wild ride, and one that I loved because it went to some pretty dark (and supremely weird) places. A bit of a slow burn over the course of 8 episodes, but WELL worth the journey for those that stick it out. 

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The Mike Flanagan Shows:

Fall of the House of Usher | Haunting of Hill House | Midnight Mass | Haunting of Bly Manor

Even if you don't recognize the name, you definitely recognize the content. Mike Flanagan has been pumping out great television and movies for a good long while now, with some really exciting projects on the horizon. 

Fall of the House of Usher (2023)

5/5

[Netflix]

It can be incredibly difficult to translate literature into the visual medium when so much of what's written isn't dialogue. Flanagan does an absolutely stunning job of taking Edgar Allan Poe's stories, snippets, and poems and puts them all to great narrative use in this series, stitching them all together beautifully into one great big horrific tapestry. Like Wes Anderson and Tim Burton before him, Flanagan has a propensity to utilize the same actors in each series...and to great effect. 

This one I will watch over and over and over again. One of the best shows to come out on television in the last decade. 

The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

5/5

[Netflix]

Is this the story of a haunted family in a haunted place? Yes. But don't get it twisted; this is also a masterful story about grief and all the ways it can change us, ruin us, turn us into all the things we've ever feared. I watched this during a particularly emotionally tumultuous time in my life and it hit me very, very hard in all the right ways. 

After I finished the series, I did some digging online to see what others thought about it and found some really interesting insight into the characters that I'd totally missed. I'd recommend doing that after you watch it too. It'll really sweeten the deal on the finale. 

Midnight Mass (2021)

5/5

[Netflix]

There's no hiding the big bad evil in this one. You understand what it is pretty early on, but that doesn't detract from the enjoyment of watching how everything plays out throughout the season, watching how this town adapts and reacts to the happenings. A bit of a slow burn in places, but beautifully executed. 

There is one scene, on a boat, out in the middle of the ocean, that's gutwrenching in all the best ways. Probably my favorite from the all the episodes. Yet another one that's worth rewatching multiple times. 

The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)

4/5

[Netflix]

The most subtle of the Flanagan pieces here, this is just a really solid haunting. There are delicious twists and turns in the narrative that keep you guessing as to who's in the right and who's in the wrong and in what's actually happening around the house. 

Some people like this one better than Hill House, but as I said above, Hill House struck me in a more personal and visceral way than this one did. Bly Manor was perfectly enjoyable and had a ton of great creep-out moments, but ultimately didn't hit me as hard as Hill House did. 

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