Horror on television has entered a golden era, leaving behind its niche status to become a dominant force in popular culture in the 21st century. Massive successes like The Walking Dead brought zombie apocalypse drama to a global audience, while anthology series such as American Horror Story reinvented horror for television with its seasonal resets. Elsewhere, prestige dramas like Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House combined profound family tragedy with chilling supernatural encounters, proving that horror could be both terrifying and deeply emotional. These shows, among others, have solidified television as a premier destination for horror storytelling, drawing in huge audiences and earning critical praise.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Despite this boom, the sheer volume of content available means that many exceptional horror series never find the wide audience they deserve. These underappreciated gems often take bigger creative risks, offering unique premises and genuinely unsettling atmospheres that stand apart from their more famous counterparts. Still, they remain underrated, despite being essential viewing for any horror fan willing to look beyond the mainstream hits.
7) Harper’s Island
Aired for one spectacular season, Harper’s Island was a thrilling experiment that brought the slasher genre to network television in the form of a murder mystery. The series follows a group of friends and family who travel to a remote island for a destination wedding, seven years after a brutal killing spree rocked the community. Soon after they arrive, the guests begin to get picked off one by one, reviving fears that the original killer has returned. The show was marketed as a 13-week event where at least one character would die in every episode, creating a relentless sense of suspense. Part Agatha Christie whodunit and part Friday the 13th, the series succeeded by fully committing to its high-stakes premise, making every character feel disposable and keeping viewers guessing until the very end. Though it never achieved high ratings, Harper’s Island‘s contained story makes it a perfect binge-watch for fans of classic slasher horror.
6) Fear Itself
Essentially a third season of the acclaimed Masters of Horror rebranded for a network audience, Fear Itself was a tragically short-lived anthology series that brought high-caliber horror to NBC in 2008. The premise was simple: each episode was an hour-long horror story from a celebrated genre director, including Stuart Gordon, John Landis, and Darren Lynn Bousman. The series delivered a fantastic variety of scares, from a gruesome monster story starring Elisabeth Moss in “Eater” to a twisted wedding day fable in “In Sickness and in Health.” Unfortunately, the series was a victim of its network’s poor distribution model. Buried in a summer slot and ultimately derailed by the 2008 Olympics, Fear Itself was unceremoniously canceled before its full season even aired. The show’s premature demise left a collection of inventive and chilling short stories that stand as a testament to what happens when ambitious horror is placed in the wrong environment.
5) The Enfield Haunting
While the Enfield poltergeist case has been adapted multiple times, most famously in a big-budget horror film, The Enfield Haunting British miniseries stands as the definitive version of the story. Based on the book by investigator Guy Lyon Playfair, the three-part series dramatizes the “true” story of the Hodgson family, a mother and her children who were allegedly terrorized by a malevolent spirit in their London home in the late 1970s. What sets The Enfield Haunting apart is its commitment to realism and character-driven drama. Timothy Spall gives a powerful performance as Maurice Grosse, a rookie paranormal investigator grieving the loss of his own daughter, who forms a deep bond with the targeted Janet Hodgson (Eleanor Worthington-Cox). The series forgoes jump scares in favor of a slow-burning dread, grounding the supernatural events in the emotional turmoil of a struggling family.
4) Dead Set
Before he created the technological dystopias of Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker unleashed his satirical genius on the zombie genre with Dead Set. This five-part miniseries presents a brilliantly simple premise: during a zombie apocalypse, the safest place to be is the camera-filled Big Brother house. The show follows the housemates, production crew, and host Davina McCall (playing herself) as the undead overwhelm the outside world, turning the reality TV set into a fortified sanctuary. Dead Set is a brutally effective horror story, filled with gore and genuine tension, but it also functions as a sharp satire of reality television and celebrity culture. The clueless contestants and the cynical producer (Andy Nyman) provide a darkly comedic lens through which to view the end of the world, making for an unforgettable horror experience.
3) Marianne
French-language Netflix series Marianne arrived with little fanfare but quickly earned a reputation as one of the most genuinely terrifying shows on the platform. The show follows Emma Larsimon (Victoire Du Bois), a successful horror novelist who discovers that the evil witch from her books is a real entity that has been tormenting her hometown. Forced to return home, Emma must confront the demonic spirit, which possesses the townspeople and brings her literary nightmares to life. Marianne is relentless in its scares, building suspense before unleashing truly unsettling imagery and shocking moments of horror. The witch, particularly when manifesting in the elderly Madame Daugeron, is one of the most frightening villains to appear on screen in recent years. Despite critical acclaim and a devoted fanbase, the show was canceled after one season.
2) Channel Zero
For four seasons, Syfy anthology series Channel Zero quietly adapted “creepypastas,” the internet’s version of campfire tales, into some of the most visually inventive and deeply disturbing horror on television. Each season told a standalone story based on a different online legend, from the tooth-stealing Skin-Taker of “Candle Cove” to the uncanny architecture of the “No-End House”. The series excelled at translating viral horror stories into compelling, character-driven narratives, all while maintaining an atmosphere of dreamlike dread. Unbound by the constraints of a single storyline, the show was free to explore different horror subgenres, resulting in a consistently creative and genuinely scary experience.
1) The Terror
Based on the novel by Dan Simmons, the first season of The Terror is a masterful work of historical horror that was largely overlooked during its initial run. The series tells a fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition to the Arctic in the 1840s, in which two Royal Navy ships, the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, became trapped in the ice. As the crew battles starvation, disease, and paranoia, they are stalked across the frozen wasteland by a mysterious predator. The Terror expertly blends its survival thriller elements with supernatural horror. The exceptional performances from its cast, including Jared Harris as Captain Francis Crozier and Ciarán Hinds as Sir John Franklin, anchor the story in a deep sense of humanity, making the ensuing horror all the more devastating. It is a haunting, beautiful, and profoundly terrifying series that stands as a modern classic of the genre.
Which underrated horror series do you think deserves more recognition? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Courtesy of Crunchyroll
