Scariest TV Episodes to Revisit on Halloween

There’s a long history of television shows playing dress up for Halloween. But it doesn’t always have to be an October episode or a straight up horror show to make for properly scary TV. Sometimes that helps, to be sure, but it’s not a hard and fast rule.

With that in mind, we rounded up a stack of stories from throughout TV history to assemble a list of the spookiest, weirdest, and yes, downright terrifying hours (and half-hours) to ever hit the airwaves, from The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits to Supernatural and American Horror Story and beyond!

Check ’em out below and let us know what terrifying episodic experiences we missed…

The Twilight Zone Season 1 Episode 34 “After Hours”

Original Airdate: June 10, 1960

Do you think mannequins are scary? No? Watch this Rod Serling masterpiece and you will. There is a bit of a farcical tone to this classic episode, but the way it takes the mundane and makes it unsettling is truly a remarkable thing to watch.

As the main character Marsha slowly is convinced the mannequins in a department store have come to life, her sense of desperation is powerful as she slowly unhinges from reality. When she is locked in the store with the mannequins, things get terrifying quickly. Watch this episode and then hit Macy’s. – Marc Buxton

Thriller Season 1 Episode 36 “Pigeons from Hell”

Original Airdate: June 6, 1961

How many Robert E. Howard stories were adapted to another media in the early ’60s? Not as many as there should have been. Stephen King once called “Pigeons From Hell” one the of 20th Century’s greatest horror stories, and in 1961, Thriller and Boris Karloff (yes, Boris Karloff) adapted the creator of Conan’s greatest horror story for television. The lack of music, the perfect usage of shadows and silence make this gem a must see for horrorphiles.

The episode’s greatest scare happens early in the episode when one of the brothers takes an ax to the skull but shockingly, still walks. “Pigeons from Hell” is not a swarm story like Frogs or Night of the Lepus, it’s a series of psychological horrors wrapped in a cinematic suspenseful masterpiece When they show the dead brother walking around, they only show his face, the rest of his ruined head hidden in shadows. The viewer’s imagination conjures worse images than any makeup artist could. Who knew that television horror came this potent in 1961? – MB

The Twilight Zone Season 3 Episode 24 “To Serve Man”

Original Airdate: March 2, 1962

Rarely is a pun scary. But the hilarity of this Twilight Zone classic’s play on words is the horror of them. When aliens come to Earth to offer an end to the Cold War and all famine with miraculous M.A.P. (mutually assured protection) force fields and cure-all vaccines, we think our ship has come in. And it has since huge swaths of humanity go to the aliens’ home world for vacation after they pass a polygraph saying that their indecipherable book of aide is intended “to serve man.”

Thus when the protagonist of the half hour gets on a spaceship to see what the fuss is all about, he was just a minute too late when his assistant cries from the rope line that they have finally translated the aliens’ book: “’To Serve Man:’It’s a cook book!” Alas, it’s too late for our hero as he is stuck on a spaceship with aliens telling him to eat his rations—all the better to fatten him up for his dinner date on another world. – David Crow

The Twilight Zone Season 3 Episode 33 “The Dummy”

Original Airdate: May 4, 1962

The Twilight Zone, while pretty sci-fi heavy, did have its huge share of monsters. The third season’s 33rd (!) episode featured one of the best monsters on the show: a dummy named Willie, who is actually alive and tormenting its human owner, Jerry. Of course no one believes Jerry when he claims the dummy is alive since he has a drinking problem.

Jerry tried to replace Willie with another dummy named Goofy Goggles, but the evil dummy slowly manipulates Jerry into destroying Goofy and becoming HIS dummy. By the end of the episode, Willie has become the man and Jerry is the dummy. It’s one of those terrifying episodes that you don’t forget. The Twilight Zone definitely dished out many of them. – John Saavedra

The Twilight Zone Season 5 Episode 3 “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”

Original Airdate: October 11, 1963

Yes, It’s been done to death, it’s become part of the culture, it’s a gimme, it’s been parodied on The Simpsons, but it’s earned its reputation. For all the scripts Richard Matheson wrote for The Twilight Zone, few can top his story of a man (William Shatner at his sweatiest) whose fear of flying can sometimes go a little haywire.

Sure we’ve all seen it a dozen times, but if you go in cold, that first vague glimpse of the gremlin hopping around on the plane’s wing in the middle of a violent thunderstorm, illuminated by flashes of lightning is still so beautifully done and so shocking it’s easy to understand why it’s become the classic it has. – Jim Knipfel

The Outer Limits Season 1 Episode 7 “O.B.I.T.”

Original Airdate: November 4, 1963

What if there was a surveillance device that could, with just a few simple keystrokes, bring up live sound images of anyone, anywhere, at any time? What would happen to people if they knew at any particular random moment they might well be under close scrutiny by unseen forces? Well, this is put to the test here as just such a machine is installed in a remote research lab to keep tabs on those smart-alecky scientists. Let’s just say things don’t go real well.

God bless The Outer Limits for always opting to take the dark way out. Now, when this first aired in 1963, audiences found it a little unnerving and disturbing, maybe. But there were no aliens in this one, and the very idea of a machine like that is so ridiculous and outlandish that, well,  let’s see what Andy and Goober and Barney are up to. But given what’s happened to the world over the past 50 years, taking a look at our present circumstances, the episode suddenly seems prescient, and much more deeply frightening. – JK

Dark Shadows Episode 366

Original Airdate: November 20, 1967

Although I was certainly aware of Dan Curtis’ vampiric soap opera and knew the overall gist (my cousins even had the Barnabas Collins board game), I was not a religious viewer. To me it was no different from The Guiding Light except, y’know, for all the vampires and witches. But there was one episode deep in the series run that got me.

Barnabas is losing his powrs, see, and no longer has the control over the family he once did. So much so in fact that they’ve started plotting against him, one sister even going so far as to place a voodoo curse on him. So anyway, Barnabas is up in his study late one night, pacing and fretting. Behind him through the tall windows we see a strange shadow swinging back and forth. Cut to outside the window, where we see something hulking, still in silhouette, swinging on a heavy chain. Cut back to the study where Barnabas continues weighing his options. Then all of a sudden a damned GORILLA smashes through the window and starts throttling him. I sure wasn’t expecting that! – JK

Night Gallery Season 1 Episode 3 “The House”

Original Airdate: December 30, 1970

A young woman has a recurring dream that she is driving to an unknown house. After she successfully goes through dream therapy, she thinks the dream is behind her, until she stumbles onto the house in the waking world, and the ghost inside.

Like all Rod Serling stories, the end twist is amazing, but it is the simplicity of repeating a progression of events that makes this story so chilling. By changing one element of a repeated scene, this episode takes the simple premise of arriving at a house and makes it horrific. – MB

Kolchak: The Night Stalker Season 1 Episode 15 “Chopper”

Original Airdate: January 31, 1975

When those who watched it at the time think back to Kolchak: The Night Stalker, they rarely focus on the one with Cathy Lee Crosby as a youth-sucking demon or the one with the evil Indian spirit haunting a hospital. but everyone rememnber’s chopper. As per usual when the aging members of a ‘50s biker gang start dying one by one, all neatly decapitated, the cops put it down as nothing but a routine biker turf war or some such. Our intrepid investigative reporter with a straw boater and a nose for monsters only gets involved when one terrified witness claims the killer is himself a headless biker with a samurai sword.

Yes there’s more than a little Legend of Sleepy Hollow at play in the script, and the makeup effects might seem a little slapdash and shoddy by modern standards, but still the reveal of that leather-jacketed headless biker speeding around the corner with sword raised is still a doozy. – JK

[Fun Fact: The episode was written by Back to the Future team of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale!]

Trilogy of Terror “Amelia”

Original Airdate: March 4, 1975

The Trilogy of Terror featured three horror tales each starring the great Karen Black. The tales were penned by William F. Nolan and the legendary Richard Matheson and they are all worthy of horror praise. But it was Amelia that stands out amongst the glorious yarns featuring Ms. Black.

In this brilliant piece of short fiction, Black plays a woman who uses a Zuni fetish doll to wreck vengeance upon her enemies. Just watch this little murderous doll in action, you’ll be checking under your bed for a month. The doll was creepy as hell and Black’s performance made this sick little bit of wonderful one of the ’70s bright points when it comes to dark fiction. – MB

M*A*S*H Season 8 Episode 22 “Dreams”

Original Airdate: February 18, 1980

When one thinks of MASH, one does not necessarily think of pure horror. Yes, the classic series dealt honestly with the horrors of war, but it did so with an undercurrent of humor and humanism. Not so in “Dreams.” When the members of the 4077 are deprived of sleep because of an onslaught of incoming wounded, their brief naps are filled with surrealistic horrors that will chill the souls even the most jaded freight fan.

The episode stands as a contrast to the rest of the series and some of the images will haunt a viewer long after the credits roll. When I first saw this episode, I was seven years old, I have not been able to watch it since. – MB

Hammer House of Horror Season 1 Episode 5 “The House that Bled to Death”

Original Airdate: October 11, 1980

Hammer Studios became a legend by thrilling gore hounds in darkened movie theatres across the world, but the studio did not have much of a presence on television other than the short-lived anthology, Hammer House of Horror. “The House That Bled to Death” was truly worthy of the name Hammer, and was really the only haunted house tale the studio ever made, sort of unbelievable when one considers Hammer pretty much mastered every horror subgenre.

This atmospheric terror fest hits every note a good haunted house story should and it does it was class. The set design is perfect as ever dusty corner of the house seems like it could be filled with something unthinkable. I dare you to watch this one with the lights out this Halloween. – MB

The Facts of Life Season 5 Episode 6 “The Halloween Show”

Original Airdate: October 26, 1983

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you have this spooky episode from the long-running 1980s NBC series’ fifth season. It’s Halloween in Peekskill, and the girls become convinced that Mrs. Garrett has chopped up a missing visitor and used him as the ingredients in her bratwurst (Edna’s Edibles was apparently well known for its sausage treats).

Just as Jo, Blair, Tootie and Natalie prepare to go all Salem Witch Trials on Mrs. G, the truth is revealed: Nat set up the disappearance for a horror film she was making as a school project…singlehandedly creating the found footage genre in the process. The Facts of Life was video comfort food, and this episode is slice of pure nostalgia that is make just that much more enjoyable when you realize that its premise of Mrs. Garrett being insane is quite plausible. That lady was intense. – Chris Cummins

Tales from the Crypt Season 1 Episode 2 “And All Through the House”

Original Airdate: June 10, 1989

In this reboot of a segment from the 1972 film, Mary Ellen Traynor reprises the Joan Collins role as a rotten, money-grubbing woman who, as luck would have it, murders her husband on the very night a crazed killer dressed as Santa escapes from a local asylum (why they aired this one in June is beyond me, given it makes for such heartwarming Christmas Eve viewing). What pushes this one above and beyond the original is the crazy Santa.

In the original, the murderous Santa looks so much like any run-of-the-mill shopping mall Santa it’s unclear whether he’s the nutty one or not until he starts doing bad things. The axe-wielding St. Nick here is so bedraggled and filthy and wild-eyed, rocking slowly back and forth on the front step that he’s terrifying long before he even has a chance to say boo. I forget how it ends (not well I’m guessing), but all I needed was that first, silent glimpse of nutty killer Santa through the window and I was gone. – JK

Stephen King’s It

Original Airdate: November 18, 1990

Whether you classify it as a movie, two-part movie, or miniseries, It debuted on TV, so this three hour-plus horror event belongs on this list. An inter-dimensional predatory life-form that can assume the identity of its victims worst fears starts feeding on children in the small town Derry, Maine. If that sentence doesn’t leave you intrigued, then obviously horror isn’t your bag.

Anyway, the creature, who typically takes the form of the horrifying Pennywise the Clown, is played with extreme gusto by character-actor extraordinaire Tim Curry, who delivers hair-raising threats with guttural, grimy menace. I usually tuned out after the story transitioned to the characters as adults, when things get melodramatic and Richard Thomas-centric, but the story’s first act is gripping, disconcerting, truly scary stuff. The big screen remake got the job done, but it’s tough to match the effortless terror Tim Curry created. – Nick Harley

Tales From the Crypt Season 2 Episode 12 “Fitting Punishment”

Original Airdate: June 19, 1990

Tales from the Crypt was all about comeuppance. Ezra Thorntonberry was cheap ass funeral home director who cut corners at every turn to save a buck. You can imagine the comeuppance he suffers, and holy shit, is the episode freaking gory with almost constant dissections, embalming, and corpse violation.

When Ezra’s nephew threatens to report Ezra for his unscrupulous practices, Ezra takes matters into his own hands, but the dead don’t rest easy. The fate Ezra suffers is satisfying yet shocking as the Crypt claims another bad, bad human. – MB

Twin Peaks Season 2 Episode 6 “Double Play”

Original Airdate: February 2, 1991

Although more a reasonably lighthearted mystery soap opera with some dark Lynchian elements than an actual horror series, Twin Peaks still had its deeply disturbing moments. Agent Cooper’s first dream of the backwards-talking Man From Another Place in the red room always creeped me out, but that dribbles to the “merely quirky” when compared with this episode.

Madeleine’s (Sheryl Lee) rape and murder, stylized as it is with the intense light and washed out colors, the slow-motion and industrial noise soundtrack, remains more savage and brutal than most anything to sneak its way onto network TV at that point. That it explodes so quickly and so unexpectedly only makes the whole extended sequence that much more terrifying—especially when you know who’s doing the killing. – JK

The X-Files Season 1 Episode 8 “Ice”

Original Airdate: November 5, 1993

“Ice” is an homage to John Carpenter’s The Thing if I’ve ever done seen one, and one of the best episodes of the earlier seasons of The X-Files. It was one of those rare monster-of-the-week episodes that also served as a bit of meat to the larger mytharc structure of the show. In this episode, Mulder and Scully are sent to an Alaskan research lab (always bad news in a horror anything) to investigate the violent deaths of a pair of scientists.

Little do they know that they’re about to encounter extraterrestrial parasites that take control of human organisms and turn them into raging maniacs. It’s pretty great once shit really hits the fan and Mulder and Scully become part of the crippling paranoia that comes over the remaining survivors in the lab. It plays out perfectly, too. This is a must-watch! – JS

The X-Files Season 2 Episode 2 “The Host”

Original Airdate: September 23, 1994

What’s scarier than a human fluke worm? Not a whole hell of a lot as the Flukeman went down in history as the X-Files’ most freighting and memorable nightmare. Seriously, we dare you to watch this one without washing your hands.

The episode takes place in the sewers of New Jersey, which is terrifying enough, when Mulder delves into the muck and mire of the Garden’s State underground, he finds the human fluke on a mission to reproduce by attaching flukes to peoples’ livers. – MB

Tales From The Crypt Season 6 Episode 2 “Only Skin Deep”

Original Airdate: October 31, 1994

Tales from the Crypt was the innovator of late night horror in the early ’90s, often living up to the standards of the EC Comic that set the bar for four color horror in the ’50s. When brutish bully Carl (Peter Onorati) meets a young girl with a strange mask on Halloween things get insane quickly.

The episode is a perfect little horror tale with the story quickly establishing Carl as an utter prick, but don’t worry, Molly and her creepy as Hell mask soon balance the scales of justice. The episode is driven by Molly, what is she, what does she want, and why does she want human faces so bad? Poor Carl. – MB

Are You Afraid of The Dark? Season 4 Episode 9 “Tale Of the Ghastly Grinner”

Original Airdate: November 19, 1994

Starting in 1991, Nickelodeon began running an anthology horror series imported from Canada titled, Are You Afraid of The Dark?. The series became a staple of the Saturday night Snick line-up, and boy, did it leave me sleepless most Saturdays as a kid.

My favorite episode, and a series highlight, is “The Tale of the Ghastly Grinner.” The story features a monster inspired by Batman’s villain The Joker and follows a boy who receives a special edition of a comic book titled The Ghastly Grinner, a book that featured a twisted, smiling ghoul who turns his victims into zombified, horrifically grinning idiots. Ghastly Grinner gets out of the pages and into the real world, where he starts wreaking havoc on the town. The most unsettling part is the blue ooze that seeps from the mouths of the Grinner’s victims. It was spooky stuff for a kid’s show. – NH

Goosebumps Season 1 Episode 1 “The Haunted Mask”

Original Airdate: October 27, 1995

R.L. Stine’s horror books for kids were hot commodities in the ‘90s, and it made sense that Saban Entertainment would want to cash in with a TV adaptation of many of Stine’s best novels. There’s many memorable episodes with some truly whacky twists, but none perhaps matched the scares of the first installment, “The Haunted Mask.”

After being bullied, a young girl decides she really needs to scare her tormentors on Halloween with an extra spooky costume and steals a particularly hideous mask. Once she puts the mask on, she realizes that she cannot take it off and its even changing her voice and causing her to act out violently. For young kids, the mask is really a sight that scares. The costume production for the series was always quite good for a TV show that assumingly had a modest budget. For horror entertainment for children, you really can’t go wrong with any episode of Goosebumps. – NH

The Simpsons Season 7 Episode 6 “Treehouse of Horror VI”

Original Airdate: October 29, 1995

There is perhaps no more important a series of spooky episodes in TV history than The Simpsons‘ recurring “Treehouse of Horror” installments. “Important to the sanctity of television” doesn’t always equate to “scary,” however. Most of The Simpsons spooky gags are just that: gags.

Every now and then though, something truly terrifying emerges from Bart’s treehouse in the Simpson family backyard. The season 7 “Treehouse of Horror” is one such example. The sixth iteration of The Simpsons‘ spooky-palooza features three genuinely unnerving tales. “Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores” brings Springfield’s advertisements and billboard to life to attack the town. “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace” is a Nightmare on Elm Street parody that casts Groundskeeper Willie in the role of Freddie Krueger.

But it’s the final entry that is the most unsettling… at least for this young viewer. “Homer³” brings the titular donut-loving father into three-dimensions and then eventually the real world. Something about seeing Homer Simpson rendered in an extra dimension triggers a fight or flight response, especially for an audience that is still two-to-three weeks away from Pixar ushering in the 3D animation era with Toy Story. We just simply were not meant to see new angles of Simpsons characters. – Alec Bojalad

The X-Files Season 4 Episode 2 “Home”

Original Airdate: October 11, 1996

When a deformed corpse of a newborn child shows up in a field. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully must investigate the crime and discover the true horrors of rural America. Their quests leads the two beloved FBI agents to three brothers who the local constabulary don’t want to disturb. The brothers were simple they said, they live alone.

When Mulder and Scully enter the house, the boundaries of television horror were pushed to the limit. The episode was so hardcore, Fox (the network, not Fox Mulder) refused to rerun it. For years, the only place to see the introduction of the Peacock Family was on syndicated cable. You’ll never look under a bed again. – MB

The X-Files Season 4 Episode 12 “Leonard Betts”

Original Airdate: January 26, 1997

The X-Files featured countless memorable murderers and monsters, but with “Leonard Betts,” the show that scarred the shit out of mainstream television, it reached a whole new level. The episode opens with Betts, a paramedic, being decapitated. At the morgue, Betts’ body eerily rises headless from the slab. When Mulder and Scully are called in, they find Betts’ head and perform an autopsy. During the procedure, the eyes suddenly open and when the episode originally aired, you could hear sphincters all across America slam shut.

You see, Betts was able to regenerate any injury and achieve long life by consuming cancer. Yes, X-Files introduced a cancer eater. When Betts confronted Scully and tried to consume something inside her, fans were left with the revelation that their beloved first lady of the paranormal was stricken with the deadly disease. Betts was one of the most disturbing monsters on television and the image of him rising from the morgue to find more tumors to consume was beyond scary. – MB

Boy Meets World Season 5 Episode 17 “And Then There Was Shawn”

Original Airdate: February 27, 1998

Boy Meets World was a staple of ABC’s T.G.I.F. line-up throughout the ‘90s. Having an older sister, I was subjected to every episode of the family-friendly teen dramedy, multiple times. Most fans can agree that the best episode of the show’s run is the Halloween episode “And Then There Was Shawn,” which aired in 1998.

When the students get stuck in detention after school hours, a killer begins picking off the kids one by one. Coming out during Scream-mania, the killer is a skull-masked baddie in a black cloak. The episode is genuinely frightening in parts, but with enough jokes and period South Park references to keep things light. Even ‘90s horror queen Jennifer Love Hewitt guest stars. – NH

Millennium Season 2 Episode 23 “The Time is Now”

Original Airdate: May 15, 1998

Everyone who watched the Chris Carter series religiously knew it was building to something, but no one could have predicted this. With a plague unleashed around the globe, our hero, forensic psychologist Frank Black (Lance Henrikson) plunges into the woods to find his wife and daughter and make sure they’re safe. From that moment on, the last 20 minutes of the show devolves into absolute chaotic, even breathtaking madness as the world presumably comes to an end.

Flashes of light, strange and vague images, Frank, treezs, rain, words, all in frenetic quick cuts. It’s incoherent and terrifying, and the entire mind blowing sequence is accompanied by Patti Smith’s “Horses,” played in its entirety on the soundtrack. In a perfect world, this is where the whole series would have ended, leaving viewers stunned. But no, the dummies had to come back for a third season and ruin everything. – JK

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 4 Episode 10 “Hush”

Original Airdate: December 14, 1999

Who can forget the Gentlemen? Those leering smiling freaks, they would give nightmares nightmares. The scariest thing about these well dressed ghouls is that they steal peoples’ voice so when they kill you, you can’t even scream.

The makeup, design, and concept were so out there, that the episode set a new standard for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Fans knew that the show could be hilarious, but this episode showed them that it also knew how to push the envelope of cutting edge horror. – MB

Angel Season 1 Episode 14 “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”

Original Airdate: February 15, 2000

We have all seen the demonic possession arc in many genre series and films. It’s old hat at this point, right? Not in this episode of Angel that saw an Ethros Demon possessing the body of a seemingly innocent child. When Angel and friends show up for an exorcism, one of the greatest twists in horror TV history occurs, a twist that is as bone chilling as it is surprising. What follows is an honest look into the nature of evil and mental illness that proves that real world horrors are always the most potent kind. – MB

Supernatural Season 1 Episode 5 “Bloody Mary”

Original Airdate: October 11, 2005

Supernatural in the early days was actually scary. Early in the first season, the Winchesters are confronted by the very famous ghost of Bloody Mary. All the pants-wettingly terror that we experienced as pre-teens is suddenly brought to life—but with a twist.

Not only does this spectral being make blood run from her victims eyes, she also brings about their greatest regrets, notably guilt towards accidental murder. This is the moment when we learn of Sam’s visions (hey, remember those days?) and the searing guilt of how he knew she would die, days before it happened. – Bridget LaMonica

Masters of Horror Season 1 Episode 1 “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road”

Original Airdate: October 28, 2005

Based on a short story by horror icon Joe R. Lansdale, “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road” takes the slasher genre and turns up the volume to 11. The episode introduces Moonface, a relentless killer that pursues a young woman who breaks down on a mountain road. The following 50 minutes are relentless as Moonface chases the girl through one horrifying set piece after another.

Director Don Coscarelli takes audiences on a road from hell as Moonface just cannot be stopped and will do anything to bring down his innocent victim. Did we say innocent? The episode contains a third act twist that will shock even the most jaded gore hound as well as a revenge sequence that can’t be forgotten. Not all killers are obvious, and this episode of Masters of Horror shows that killers can wear many skins. – MB

Masters of Horror Season 1 Episode 10 “Sick Girl”

Original Airdate: January 13, 2006

From the mind of May director Lucky McKee comes “Sick Girl,” a wonderfully gross romantic comedy about the love between a young scientist and her girlfriend, the exotic Misty Falls. The scientist is a bug collector and when one of her pets bites Misty, the romance takes a turn for the gross. The episode is as sweet as it is disgusting as McKee brings the grue and the tears.

The true horror of the episode is how quickly a romance can turn into an obsession, but at its heart, “Sick Girl” is the story of two lost souls who find solace in each others’ arms no matter how gross it gets. There is a surreal flavor and a humor to this episode that makes it a step above the usual anthology horror piece, plus the brilliant performance of Angela Bettis as the scientist solidifies “Sick Girl” as a part of the television horror hall of fame. – MB

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Season 4 Episode 19 “Insane in the Membrane”

Original Airdate: N/A but was supposed to be March 4, 2006

Usually, when Standards and Practices censors or outright bans an episode of a cartoon, we can’t help but think that they’re overreacting. They can’t show a real gun or say “kill” or whatever. In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode “Insane in the Membrane,” Fox’s suits were 100% in the right to pull the episode before airing because Jesus Christ, what were the 4Kids employees even thinking?!?

Throughout the series, Baxter Stockman would pay for constantly failing Shredder by having pieces of him removed off-camera and showing up in the next episode with an eye patch, missing arm, etc. By this point, he’s just a brain inside a robot. He does the logical comic book thing by just cloning a body and putting his mind into it. He’s a genius and this is a kids’ cartoon. Sounds reasonable. Only his body starts falling apart. Literally. And we get to see it with gory close-ups accompanied by Baxter’s horrific screams. Baxter spends the episode fruitlessly trying to find a cure while stitching and stapling his fingers and jaw and so on back in place, all while continuing to go more and more insane, to the point that he keeps reliving the death of his mother and can’t tell reality from memory. It’s pure nightmare fuel. – Gavin Jasper

Supernatural Season 2 Episode 6 “No Exit”

Original Airdate: November 2, 2006

When Jo beat the boys to a hunt, she happened to pick the location of America’s first serial killer H. H. Holmes. The terror comes from the feeling of always being watched. You know the ghost is picking his kills one by one and relishing the opportunity of wrapping decaying fingers around Jo’s blonde hair.

The cramped passageways between the walls of the apartment building give the episode title its weight. The visuals lead us to some uncomfortable claustrophobic moments. There really is no escape from the creepiness of this installment. – BL

Doctor Who Season 3 Episode 10 “Blink”

Original Airdate: June 9, 2007

Ah, the Weeping Angels, by far the best New Who monster created thus far. Again brought to you by showrunner Steven Moffat, “Blink” is one of those rare Doctor Who episodes that really deconstruct the structure of then typical New Who episode and then build something really special. There’s barely any Tennant in this hour. Instead, there are several threads that make up the story of a group of characters who have become the prey/victims of the Weeping Angels.

These monsters are brilliant: they’re basically gargoyles who can sneak up on you and send you back in time (they feed on your energy this way), leaving your loved ones distraught by your disappearance. Perhaps it’s not as scary as it is sad at its core. By the end, we’ve seen an episode in which monsters rip people away from their lives and force them to tie up loose ends with their loved ones once it’s way too late. – JS

Doctor Who Season 4 Episode 10 “Midnight”

Original Airdate: June 14, 2008

Sometimes, the best scary material is not a traditional horror story. Take “Midnight” for example. “Midnight” proved it could frighten viewers to the very core by the dark possibilities of the unknown. A group of passengers on a space shuttle have their vacation cut short by a otherworldly creature who takes over.

It’s a creature that at first mimics its victims, then says things at the same time, then steals a voice (the Doctor’s voice). It’s what it would do if it got back to civilization that scares the bejeesus out of us. This episode got away with never actually showing us the creature yet making it terrifying, and it did it well with suggestion and mystery. – BL

Fringe Season 2 Episode 2 “Night of Desirable Objects”

Original Airdate: September 24, 2009

Fox describes this episode with the following “A highway construction worker in rural Pennsylvania goes missing when he is mysteriously drawn into an underground tunnel filled with human remains.” What it doesn’t tell you is just how nasty and claustrophobic this episode is.

Something is dragging people underground, something that was born from a twisted experiment, something that should have died in childbirth. The episode explores what happens when a child goes bad. Very, very, grab innocent road walkers and devour them underground kind of bad. – MB

The Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 1 “Days Gone Bye”

Original Airdate: October 31, 2010

“Days Gone Bye” is the perfect introduction to the post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead and Rick Grimes, who slipped out of his coma at the most inopportune time. Why not wake up in time to run away, dude? The series premiere is expertly written, as we learn what had happened to the world alongside with Rick (Andrew Lincoln)

By the time viewers approach the door that reads “Do Not Open — Dead Inside,” no one is sure what the hell was happening, but are smart enough to yell at Rick to run away. It was a communal experience, and since the first episode, Walking Dead fans have come together to yell at Rick and the other survivors as danger creeps ever closer. – JS

Fringe Season 3 Episode 9 “Marionette”

Original Airdate: December 9, 2010

God, I miss Fringe, a series that was comfortable in any genre. When Fringe did horror, it did it right as evident by this haunting episode, “Marionette.” This episode centers on a thief who stole organs from innocent people to give to his marionette, a corpse made up of the parts of various victims. The organ thief has rigged the body to a series of string and delights as he makes it dance for him. Yeah, that’s unsettling.

Fringe’s take on Frankenstein was fraught with a dark beauty and a twisted sense of romanticism. When the marionette gets zapped with electricity, you can just imagine what happens next. Fringe had many unforgettable moments, but the image of the dancing amalgam of organs might be the most memorably twisted. – MB

Doctor Who Season 6 Episode 2 “The Impossible Astronaut”

Original Airdate: April 23, 2011

Not since the Weeping Angels back in series 3 had Doctor Who introduced a truly terrifying villain. That all changed in the series 6 premiere when The Silence stalked the corners of the White House and the dust bowl of Colorado. The Silence is a quintessential Moffat creation. The showrunner is all about introducing monsters that mess with our senses and/or physiology. This time around, it was the amnesia-inducing haunts of these mouthless villains that made for a very scary episode of Who.

The Silence have preyed on humans since the beginning of time. You would think that people would’ve noticed, but as soon as you catch a glimpse of the debonair monsters, you’re dead. And if you’re lucky enough to survive, you’ll forget the Silence as soon as you look away. The Silence were a constant threat throughout series 6 and make a smaller appearance in series 7. They remain one of Moffat’s more welcome creations. – JS

Supernatural Season 7 Episode 2 “Hello Cruel World”

Original Airdate: September 30, 2011

Sam is losing his marbles and being heckled by Lucifer. Or at least, he thinks he is. He doesn’t know what’s real, and that’s a bad thing for someone with a gun and paranoia. As Sam is assaulted by internal horrors, we are too. The disturbing transformation of our beloved Castiel into the bearer of the Leviathan leaves little room for hope.

The Winchesters have been at a disadvantage in their fights before, but never this bad. How can they hope to defeat monsters older than time itself? – BL

American Horror Story Season 1 Episode 1 “Pilot”

Original Airdate: October 5, 2011

The episode that began it all. Who can forget the first time they journeyed into the fevered world of American Horror Story? The first episode warned fans that this ride was for real and there was no turning back. This was the episode that taught the world that Jessica Lange was one of the greatest genre actors who ever lived and that this series would show fans things they never will be able to forget, no matter how much they want to.

The whole episode was a celebration of the horror genre, a mash up of ghosts, serial killers, medical nightmares, and monsters. The episode features the main cast moving into the most haunted house ever – an estate infected by generations of ghosts and something called the Leatherman. This is the hour that showed the world that on this show, there would be no taboo, no image or act that would too perverse, and no horror that would be too hardcore for exploration. – MB

Regular Show Season 3 Episode 4 “Terror Tales From The Park I”

Original Airdate: October 10, 2011

Regular Show is more often than not the best kid’s show of its era. Yes, Adventure Time may be more popular, but Mordecai and Rigby are relatable slacker heroes and the show features great throwbacks to ‘80s films and cartoons. Similar to The Simpsons, Regular Show does annual Halloween installments titled Terror Tales of the Park.

Most of them are pretty great, but season 3’s inaugural episode features one of my favorite vignettes, “Creepy Doll,” where supporting character Pops, the big-headed, gentlemanly softie of the group is terrorized by a doll from his youth. Forget Annabelle, Regular Show has been there, done that. – NH

American Horror Story Season 1 Episode 6 “Piggy Piggy”

Original Airdate November 9, 2011

The thing about Ryan Murphy shows is that they’re all so damn over the top that even at their most depraved, the best thing to do is smile and laugh along. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that the school shooting scene from American Horror Story’s first (and by far best) season is so damn creepy. For a half-dozen episodes, we have been led to think Evan Peters’ moody and troubled teenage heartthrob, Tate, is a ghostly victim of the house, and is definitely Violet’s soul mate.

But in this flashback, it finally dawns on us that this ain’t Glee, and Murphy never intended this kid to have a soul. The murders are crystallized with an irony-free coldness and detachment that would do David Cronenberg proud. It is ugly, unflinching, and stomach-churning in its realness. In fact, it might be the most horrifying scene ever put on a scripted TV fiction. – DC

American Horror Story Season 2 Episode 11 “Spilt Milk”

Original Airdate: January 9, 2013

Ryan Murphy’s ability to “borrow” from nearly every horror movie cliché and trope imaginable is what makes American Horror Story so much fun (at least during its first few seasons). And his use of Texas Chainsaw Massacre imagery in season two was one of the best. Clearly somewhat inspired by Leatherface, Bloody Face’s reign of terror all season in a human-skin mask was a repulsive joy to behold. However, it is not until the last few minutes before the big reveal that any viewer could piece together Zachary Quinto’s kindly and sole “nice guy” psychiatrist (the only seeming good person of the season) is actually the serial killer with mommy issues.

We quickly realize with Victoria that his candy bowl looks like it is made from bone, and that his lampshades have an eerie humanity to them. When the penny finally drops moments later that her savior is actually a serial killer, only then does Asylum enter its darkest and most grotesque cellars of despair. – DC

Black Mirror Season 2 Episode 2 “White Bear”

Original Airdate: February 18, 2013

Black Mirror garners enough well-warranted praise at this generation’s Twilight Zone successor. Charlie Brooker’s “speculative fiction” is the logical next step in our evolution as creatures growing alongside technology. In spite of the shallowness Brooker often conveys as a product of our online culture, the show at times reaches for far greater emotional depth than Rod Serling’s seminal anthology (Episodes like “Be Right Back” and “White Christmas” are absolutely gutting).

Black Mirror becomes more predictive as the years go on (several plots or tech ideas have become reality since the show debuted in 2001), yet season two’s “White Bear” is as cruel as it is far fetched. When a disoriented woman wakes with no memory, she’s confronted by a group of masked hunters who are trying to kill her. Looking for help all around, the public just stands idol and attempts to capture the killing on their smartphone.

In the interest of avoiding spoilers, Brooker plays a twisted game with the precision of a puppet master, ultimately taking the focus off the little black screen and to a place where the late Serling would be proud… a referendum on human decency. Truly frightening stuff. – CC

Hannibal Season 2 Episode 2 “Sakizuke”

Original Airdate: August 20, 2015

NBC’s Hannibal is a first ballot entrant into the “I Can’t Believe This Aired on Network Television” Hall of Fame. Through three seasons and 39 episodes, the Bryan Fuller-created show based on Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter novels featured multiple horrifying moments that would have been clocked as especially gruesome for pay cable, let alone for a network that airs its programs between toilet paper and perfume ads.

Still, even with its macabre reputation firmly in place, season 2 episode “Sakizuke” stands out as a particularly horrifying experience. This is the one where, and there’s no easy way to say this, a guy has to tear his own flesh out of a stitched-together human mural. And that’s how the episode begins! That’s not even the climax. Truly it’s all in a day’s work for fiction’s most deadly gourmand. – AB

Stranger Things Season 1 Episode 2 “The Weirdo on Maple Street”

Original Airdate: July 15, 2016

It’s easy to forget now that it has become treasured intellectual property at Netflix, but Stranger Things started off as a humble, unassuming little horror show. As the show got dragged further into the blinding light of pop culture’s center stage, Stranger Things lost a lot of its ability to properly pull off a scare. Thankfully, that was not an issue in the series’ excellent (and at times surprisingly mean!) first season.

We see that play out in the show’s second-ever episode “The Weirdo on Maple Street.” Not only does this installment feature our first real glimpse at (and naming of) the Demogorgon, it concludes with one of the most important moments in the Stranger Things canon: the killing of Barb. Yes, #JusticeforBarb would go on to be memed into oblivion so as to not be particularly impactful or scary anymore. But it really can’t be overstated just how surprising it was for a seemingly pleasant Steven Spielberg pastiche to violently kill an innocent child only two episodes in. – AB

Black Mirror Season 3 Episode 2 “Playtest”

Original Airdate: October 21, 2016

It may not reach the skin-crawling emotional heights of “White Bear,” but Black Mirror gives us reason to be skeptical about Virtual Reality in the chilling season three episode “Playtest.” A cash-strapped traveler agrees to let a VR company test a new horror game by using his memory to provide the game’s freights. What ensues is an escalating series of mindfucks that reduces a man to the mercy of the darkest corners of the human psyche.

The characters are a little thin here, even with the longer runtime with Black Mirror switching over to Netflix for season 3 The threats our character faces in VR are anything but holographic, however. It’s an episode that won’t leave your headspace for awhile after viewing, and apparently they had to dial this one back from their original plan. – CC

Atlanta Season 2 Episode 6 “Teddy Perkins”

Original Airdate: April 5, 2018 

Through its first season and a half, Atlanta taught viewers to expect the unexpected. While ostensibly a show about an underachieving Princeton dropout inserting himself into his cousin’s ascendant rap career, that was all just window-dressing for the show’s real purpose: to catch a vibe… a vibe that could be best described as “what if David Lynch grew up listening to Outkast and then wrote a Faulkner novel?”

Still, even with Atlanta‘s occasional flirtations with horror, no one could have anticipated anything quite as horrifying as “Teddy Perkins.” Arriving unassumingly in the middle of April, this season 2 installment finds Darius (Lakeith Stanfield) stopping by a clearly haunted mansion to inquire about a free piano. The mansion isn’t haunted by the dead, however, but by the titular Teddy Perkins: a wheelchair-bound, ghostly-white ex musician with a mask-like face and an apparent interest in human sacrifice.

Due to his pained, pale appearance (and the fact that Atlanta star/creator Donald Glover plays him in whiteface) Teddy Perkins drew numerous comparison to the latter day version of Michael Jackson. As such, there’s plenty of commentary to be mined in the episode about exploitation in the entertainment industry and the nature of Black celebrity. But above all else, it’s just a truly terrifying half-hour of television. – AB

The Haunting of Hill House Episode 5 “The Bent-Neck Lady”

Original Airdate: October 12, 2018

Sometimes excellent television horror just needs a monster and The Haunting of Hill House understands that to a terrifying extreme. The fifth episode of Netflix’s excellent horror series, “The Bent-Neck Lady” pulls double duty in exploring the tragic origins of both Hill House’s most horrifying specter and the sensitive youngest Crain sibling Nell.

“The Bent-Neck Lady” marks the de facto end of Hill House’s expository first half and it does so in terrifying, thrilling fashion. Very few horror scenes on television (or anywhere else) are as unforgettable as this episode’s final moments. – AB

The Haunting of Hill House Episode 6 “Two Storms”

Original Airdate: October 12, 2018

“Two Storms” a.k.a. “The One With That Awesome Single Take” immediately follows the also brilliant “Bent-Neck Lady” and somehow ratchets up the horror of The Haunting of Hill House, with only the benefit of two sets.

The Crain children (and father) have gathered at Shirl’s funeral home to say goodbye to one of their own. While there they confront the traumas of their past, issues with one another, and even a handful of ghosts along the way. “Two Storms” is both a technical and emotional achievement in TV storytelling. But don’t let that distract you from how terrifying it can be. “Two Storms” puts the viewer in the perspective of the Crain family, where rotting ghosts are always following you, just on the periphery of your vision. – AB

American Dad Season 14 Episode 4 “Rabbit Ears”

Original Airdate: May 6, 2019

As media left the analog era, in which movies and TV shows could actually become “lost art,” and entered the more permanent digital age, the horror genre naturally started to explore just how “lost” some of that previous era’s lost art was. Maybe the TV shows and movies you remember from your youth but can no longer find didn’t disappear because someone forgot to record them; maybe they disappeared because they were too dangerous and evil for further consumption. While this would form the creative backbones of projects like Archive 81, Channel Zero, and I Saw the TV Glow, one of the more effective uses of the concept actually came from the 14th season of Seth MacFarlane’s animated comedy American Dad.

“Rabbit Ears” finds Smith family patriarch Stan (MacFarlane) discovering a discarded TV set in the trash and then slowly becoming obsessed with a long-forgotten ’60s TV show called “Nighthawk’s Hideaway.” As he gets more into the lore of the show and further investigates the new set, he suddenly finds himself in a familiar black-and-white world and must struggle to get out of it. Also: Roger is a baby for some reason. “Rabbit Ears” is widely considered one of American Dad‘s best episodes, and it’s the commitment to the Shining-esque bit that makes it all work. – AB

Evil Season 1 Episode 5 “October 31”

Original Airdate: October 24, 2019

God bless Evil and God bless its creators Robert and Michelle King. As astute observers of TV history, the Kings (also creators of the legal drama The Good Wife and its subsequent spinoffs) just know when the medium is missing something. And come the year 2019, it was clear that television was missing an X-Files-style monster-of-the-week paranormal(ish) procedural. So they gave it Evil.

Following an unlikely trio consisting of a believer (David Acosta, a Catholic priest played by Mike Colter), a skeptic (Ben Shakir, a tech expert played by Aasif Mandvi), and someone in the middle (Dr. Kristen Bouchard, a forensic psychologist played by Katja Herbers), the show presents cases of demonic possession, hauntings, and imprints that could be truly supernatural… or could be nothing! Either way, it’s always scary.

The highlight of the show’s first season (and don’t worry: there are more to come on this list) is undoubtedly episode 5 “October 31” (which premiered, absurdly, on October 24.) While the main story in this hour follows an exorcism, the show’s bread and butter, it’s the B-story that stands out of truly terrifying. That’s where our hero Kristen’s four daughters are tormented by a simple campfire yarn that goes too far. – AB

Lovecraft Country Episode 8

Original Airdate: October 4, 2020

Lovecraft Country was a fascinating little experiment for HBO. Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Matt Ruff, the Black horror historical fantasy drama brought a lot of goodwill to the table thanks to the involvement of showrunner Misha Green, producers J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele, and an elite cast led by (a not-yet canceled) Jonathan Majors. It should have worked like crazy. But too often it did not thanks to a frustratingly inconsistent episodic format that had just as many duds as it did bangers.

The series’ eighth episode (which has a name, but it’s close enough to a racial slur to preclude me from including it here), however, was undeniably a banger. Centered around an instance of real life horror – the memorial for Emmett Till – episode eight follows young Diana “Dee” Freeman as she haunted by both the violent murder of her friend Emmett and the twin specters of “Topsy” and “Bopsy,” two ghoulish twin girls who resemble racist caricatures and move in an unsettling, herky-jerky fashion.

The combination of these truly horrifying monsters and the prospect of a young girl in danger makes the episode Lovecraft Country‘s strongest entry into the TV horror canon. – AB

Evil Season 2 Episode 4 “E Is for Elevator”

Original Airdate: July 11, 2021

As discussed in the previous Evil entry on this list, the CBS (and eventually Paramount+) series was one of the best “monsters-of-the-week” properties this side of The X-Files. Still, one of the scariest monsters the show ever put forth was not a monster at all, but a humble elevator. While there is no Greek-derived medical term like “elevatophobia” for a fear of elevators, there probably should be. These are tightly-confined windowless boxes that people trust will bring them safely to their destination in the sky via a series un unseen levers, pulleys, and cables. And that’s even assuming the destination can be trusted…

The season 2 installment “E Is for Elevator” finds the gang investigating a supposedly haunted lift that brings its riders countless floors down into a netherworld to never to be seen again. That’s a spooky enough concept to begin with but thankfully Evil isn’t the kind of show that leans into the actual paranormal. It’s not like there are literal monst….OH MY GOD THERE’S A ZOMBIE GIRL ON THE BASEMENT FLOOR! HELP! HELP! – AB

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 6 “On the Inside”

Original Airdate: September 26, 2021

As is the case for any show that’s nearly old enough to drive, The Walking Dead was feeling a bit rickety entering its 11th and final (give or take a couple dozen spinoffs) season. Still, even if an old dog can’t learn any new tricks, it can at least prove that it’s still really good at its oldest trick. “On the Inside” is an unabashed return to the horror format that made the show a hit in the first place.

The hour follows two side characters – Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Virgil (Kevin Carroll) – as they take refuge in an abandoned house amid a storm. When strange things start to happen in the house, the viewer can’t help but wonder if it’s actually haunted. After all, in a world filled with reanimated corpses are ghosts really that much of a stretch? But “On the Inside” has a much more satisfying answer to the horrors than ghosts or even zombies. And due to Connie being deaf, much of those horrors are depicted in eerie total silence. It’s a simple concept, executed brilliantly. – AB

Evil Season 3 Episode 4 “Demon of the Road”

Original Airdate: July 3, 2022

Statistically-speaking, driving a car is the most dangerous activity that Americans undertake on a daily basis. Despite that, however, you don’t see many horror stories set on the road. The “Born to Run” style freedom of movement promised by an automobile is often too strong in the collective unconscious to make it truly terrifying. Thankfully, Evil didn’t let that stop it from taking to the highway for some scares.

Season 3’s “Demon of the Road” finds the team investigating the death of a long-haul trucker on the so-called “Ghost Highway” in lower New York. As they try to retrace the trucker’s steps after dark, the episode presents us with a greatest hits of road hauntings: uncontrollable radio transmissions, ghostly headlights, and disembodied screams. All in all, it’s an hour of television that would make Art Bell proud. – AB

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 7 “The Viewing

Original Airdate: October 27, 2022 

Netflix horror anthology series Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities was one of the easier layups in the history of both Netflix and horror anthology series. The idea could not possibly have been more simple: find filmmaking legend Guillermo del Toro and give him and his directing friends some money to produce horror stories that share no connection other than del Toro’s own Rod Serling-style intros. As such, there is a lot of talent and creativity to choose from when it comes to highlighting one of Cabinet of Curiosities‘ eight installments. The scariest option of the bunch, however, is undoubtedly “The Viewing.”

Directed by Panos Cosmatos (Mandy), this short installment centers on a wealthy recluse (played by RoboCop Peter Weller) who invites some of his famous and successful friends to a “viewing” of a mysterious object at his mansion. To say that that “viewing” goes poorly would be an understatement. Even before the horror truly begins, “The Viewing” is already an eerie, disquieting experience. Shot in Cosmatos’ trademark hypnotic style, the episode plays feels like David Cronenberg directing Drive in the best way. – AB

The Fall of the House of Usher Episode 2 “The Masque of the Red Death”

Original Airdate: October 12, 2023

Horror film auteur Mike Flanagan burst onto the streaming TV scene in 2018 with The Haunting of Hill House, an ingenious, terrifying loose adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s classic novel. While his subsequent TV projects haven’t quite reached the same horrifying heights as that first offering (truthfully: very few TV shows do), they all bring some creative scares to the table nonetheless. Nowhere is Flanagan’s blend of horror sensibilities and skill in remixing classic texts more apparent than in The Fall of the House of Usher. The 2023 Netflix series updates Edgar Allan Poe’s seminal short story to the modern day and ties the downfall of the Usher family to the real world opioid crisis.

While the titular Poe story operates as a frame narrative for the show, every episode is titled after and loosely based on a different Poe tale. Some of these adaptations are better than others, naturally, but the best by far is “The Masque of the Red Death,” a grisly, diabolical take on the Poe story of the same name. Not even Poe scholars can guess where this sordid saga involving an orgy and highly acidic chemical waste will go. And the fact that it’s the second episode in the run makes it a solid standalone watch. – AB

It: Welcome to Derry Season 1 Episode 1 “The Pilot”

Original Airdate: October 26, 2025

Stephen King’s It is an undeniable titan of horror literature. Not only is the doorstopper of a tome one of the horror King’s longest and most successful books, its influence looms large in everything from Stranger Things to Terrifier. And that’s not even to mention the two-part It film series or the TV miniseries featured earlier in this list! If anything, it’s a bit of a surprise that it took until 2025 for It to become a proper franchise with its own prequel. And even then, it’s not like an It prequel could be all that scary since we know how the story turns out. Well… about that.

Developed Jason Fuchs alongside It and It Chapter Two producers Andy and Barbara Muschietti, HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry does not phone “it” in. Perhaps self conscious of its prequel status, the show goes above and beyond in bringing some truly horrifying imagery and concepts to life. That becomes apparent from the first episode. Here is an hour of television that features: the bloody birth of a monstrous demon baby, multiple horrifying visions (one involving a human lampshade), and the a truly upsetting final scene. There may be scarier episodes of television but there are very few that go this hard, this early on. Pennywise has our respect for that… and nothing else! – AB

Widow’s Bay Episode 2 “Lodging”

Original Airdate: April 29, 2026

Comedy and horror. They’re two great tastes but do they taste great together? Widow’s Bay makes one hell of an argument that they do. Created by Literally the Babadook Katie Dippold, the Apple TV horror comedy is set in the titular Widow’s Bay and follows Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) as he tries to market the humble New England island town as the next Martha’s Vineyard. There’s just one problem: Widow’s Bay is haunted… like super haunted: curses, boogeymen, sea hags, the whole nine yards.

The comedy is always on point on the show, which is to be expected given its creator’s sitcom bona fides (the series was originally conceived as a Parks and Recreation spec script after all), but sometimes the horror can be hit or miss. The second episode “Lodging,” however, is all hit. This is your classic haunted hotel story in which Mayor Tom checks in to the Breakwater Inn in a vain attempt to prove that it’s not haunted. Cut to: one of the most terrifying killer clown specters you’ll ever see. – AB