TV Is Killing the Horror Game in 2020

If you’re craving something spooky to watch, your best bet may involve looking outside of movies. Surprisingly, television has risen as this year’s horror king. And it’s been working on its slate of scares all year — not just around Halloween.

Traditionally, horror isn’t a genre that’s been embraced by TV. Every few years an adaptation may pop up, like MTV’s Scream or USA’s The Purge. But for years the only consistently successful show in the genre has been FX’s American Horror Story.

That’s not the case this year. Two of the biggest shows of 2020, HBO’s Lovecraft Country and Netflix’s Ratched, are unapologetically odes to horror and have been the genre’s heavy hitters in 2020. Lovecraft Country is a monster-filled collection of nightmare fuel inspired by — and responding to — H.P.’s disturbing stories. It’s the high-brow horror masterpiece of this year. And then there’s its popcorn companion Ratched, a bloody take on the classic film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Both of these shows are packed with twists and frights. But more importantly both use horror to examine our society’s deeper problems from racism and homophobia to what it means to be oppressed.

Then there’s the second tier of horror shows this year, the binge watches that may not be essential viewing but have been specifically made for thriller fans. Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor, the sequel series to The Haunting of Hill House, has even more frights and more hidden ghosts than its predecessor. It also contains one of the most unexpected and satisfying twists of the year, transforming its ghost story into an homage to gothic romance.

On the sci-fi front there’s HBO Max’s Raised By Wolves, an ambitious and chilling deep dive into motherhood told through two androids trying to raise human children. The series inspired by ’70s sci-fi is responsible for some of this year’s most gut-wrenching on-screen deaths as well as its most disturbing scenes. There’s even something season-specific for scaredy cats. FX’s excellent What We Do in the Shadows takes one of the most terrifying monsters in history — vampires — and plops them in the center of a slapstick sitcom.

That’s only scratching the surface of what horror television has to offer this year. Hulu’s anthology series Monsterland is soulful and unexpected exploration into what it means to be a monster that will leave you on the edge of your seat every episode. Netflix’s thriller Dark finally concluded this year, one of the most stressful and nuanced examinations of time travel ever created.

And then there’s Shudder. AMC Network’s horror streaming service has long catered to fans of the genre. But this year it became an essential part of many streamers’ rotation, hitting one million subscribers. Part of those subscriptions came from Shudder’s niche series Creepshow, and over the year Joe Bob Briggs’ movie show That Last Drive-In has garnered a significant amount of attention on social media.

And if true crime fulfills your need for horror, HBO has had your back all year long. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark masterfully dives into one woman’s search for the truth to tell the story of the Golden State Killer. Similarly, for the past several weeks The Vow has explored the dark side of NXIVM and through its very format has mirrored what it’s like to become trapped inside of a cult.

Altogether that’s over 90 hours of new, excellent horror just waiting for you to binge watch. This October, skip scrolling through the movie section and jump straight to television. Your Halloween will thank you.