In every medium, across every platform, horror thrived in 2018. On the heels of a record-breaking, Oscar-winning year for the genre in 2017, horror hung on just as strong this year, with a huge presence at the box office, in print – miracle of miracles, Fangoria is back! – and arguably better than ever on TV.
Goodness knows there’s no shortage of great TV out there these days. In this our age of Peak TV, somehow quality has endured and there’s suddenly more good television out there than any one person can enjoy. Across streaming broadcast, cable, and the ever-growing list of streaming platforms, people just keep turning out great new series
This year, an unusual amount of the best new series were horror shows; be it AMC’s critically-celebratedThe Terroradaptation, or the social media sensations that were Netflix’sThe Haunting of Hill HouseandThe Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. At the same time, we had a number of strong returns for existing horror series, some expected and some as surprising as a creative comeback for a show I never thought I’d enjoy again. Everywhere you turn, it’s been a good year to be a horror fan, and with that in mind let’s look back on the best horror TV shows of 2018.
American Horror Story: Apocalypse
Bringing back the casts ofMurder HouseandCovenfirmly put into focus thatAmerican Horror Storyis a very different show now. Long-removed from the more traditionally dramatic origins of the horror hit’s first few seasons,AHShas become pure camp indulgence, delivered with non-stop winking and cheeky grins. Which brings us toAmerican Horror Story: Apocalypse, theMurder House/Covencrossover that ended up being more of a Murder House detour on a surprisingly focusedCovensequel. Unfortunately, the season structure was fairly infuriating, often un-writing itself as it went, butApocalypsestill manages to scrape by with a spot on the list purely for the thrill of watching the mythology of the existing AHS universe expand, explore and implode.Apocalypseis a mind-bending end of the world origin story in reverse, which assembles all the fan favorites for a wild, orgiastic crossover that loops in witches, ghosts nuclear bombs, tech bros, cannibalism, robots and Satan babies.
The Walking Dead
Somehow, in its ninth season,The Walking Deadshuffled back into my good graces byfinallydoing something different. Warning: there are spoilers for Season 9 herein, though if you’ve managed to avoid them, I genuinely have no idea how. At long last,Andrew Lincolnhung up his grey beard and cowboy hat as Rick Grimes – well kind, of. In a refreshing change of pace for the famously blood-thirsty series, Rick didn’t die, but he’s gone, heading off to his own trilogy of TV movies at AMC. Meanwhile, the story on the flagship show fast-forwarded six years, giving the long-running series an infusion of new storylines and characters it desperately needed after circling the drain of the same narrative loops for the past six seasons. We’ll have to stay tuned in Season 10 to see if they can keep the thrill of the time jump alive long term, or if they’ll eventually all back into the same patterns, but for now, the series is the best its been in years, brimming with potential instead of dragging under its own weight.
Ash vs. Evil Dead
In terms of bang for your buck, you’d be hard-pressed to find another horror franchise that delivers the goods as consistently asEvil Dead, from the original film trilogy, through the brutal remake, and most recently in the goofy/gory Starz seriesAsh vs. Evil Dead, which delivered serialized Spook-a-Blast thrills with all theBruce Campbellone-liners you could ask for. In its third and final season,Ash vs. Evil Deadcontinued the tradition of the utterly unhinged franchise with all the signature splatter gore, gag-worthy gags, and low-brow humor that has madeEvil Dead the benchmark of horror comedy, and Campbell continued to be the king of line delivery, mining every zinger and cheeky one-liner for all they’re worth. Campbell says he’s hanging up the shotgun for good now thatAsh vs. Evil Dead is off the air, and if that’s true, then we sure got an appropriately ghoulish and goofy send off for the horror icon.
Castle Rock
TheStephen Kingshared universe is upon us and it is good – no, notThe Dark Tower, we all saw how that turned out. In a much more rewarding adaptation by way of re-invention,ManhattanduoSam ShawandDustin Thomasonpull from the stories set in King’s fictional town of Castle Rock, where they unfold a new tale of horrors and wonders in the interwoven lives of the small town residents.Castle Rocktreats King’s material with the utmost respect, bringing a literary feel to the original material while lacing in plenty of Easter eggs and character references for the diehard King-heads in the audience. Castle Rock doesn’t feel like Stephen King, because it isn’t, but it does feel like a next-generation riff on all the favorite themes and tropes. Come for the King references, stay for the emotional and engrossing tale of a cursed townsfolk unfolding the mysteries of their home – and keep an eye out for ‘The Queen’, a mind0bending, heart-breaking episode that leans onSissy Spacekto deliver one of the best episodes of television this year.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
The chilling Halloween delight of the year, Netflix’sChilling Adventures of Sabrinaadaptation was a real All Hallow’s Mood; a stylish, boundary-pushing spin on the beloved comic character and the world of witchy wonder she calls home. Far removed from the talking cat and suburban aunt days ofSabrina the Teenage Witch,Chilling Adventures of Sabrinagoes dark and lethal with Satanic visions of a lavish, supernatural lifestyle. That means there are some genuinely spooky elements in this teen dream series, including a whole lot of casual murder. Seriously, they murdering everyone on this show – sometimes twice. Fiercely feminist and inclusive,Chilling Adventures of Sabrinatells a unique story of sisterhood and coming-of-age in a world where accepted morality seems to make no sense.
Santa Clarita Diet
If you’re not watchingSantaClaritaDiet, you’re missing one of the funniest shows on the air. But what might be more surprising to hear about this profane, blood-soaked cannibalism comedy, is that you’re you’re also missing one of the sweetest, warm-hearted family dramas and what might be the strongest marriage on TV.Drew Barrymorestars as Shiela, a peppy real estate agent who suddenly dies and turns into a zombie one day under inexplicable circumstances. With the help of her devoted husband Joel (Timothy Olyphant), her no-bullshit teenage daughter Abby, and the anxious science wiz next door (Skyler Gisondo), Shiela has to adjust to her newfound taste for flesh and all the sweeping personality changes that come with being undead. FromBetter Off TedcreatorVictor Fresco,SantaClaritaDietis a laugh-out-loud goofball comedy, and thanks to Netflix’s content policies, it never has to shy away from a gore gag or a well-timed F-bomb. Barrymore relishes playing an uncensored spitfire with unquenchable bloodlust (and plain old regular lust), and Olyphant channels a grinning, high-strung side of himself we’ve never seen before. Together, they’re a knockout comedy pair with killer chemistry, and their depiction of a passionate, surprising marriage givesSanta Clarita Dieta lot of heart to go with all that blood, guts and gore.
Channel Zero
Syfy’s CreepyPasta anthology series returned for another outstanding season in 2018, once again transforming the bones of a great internet-age horror story into a gripping horror fantasy narrative.Cheap ThrillshelmerEvan Katzdirects the fourth installment of the series,Channel Zero: The Dream Door, from a story by series creatorNick Antosca, which follows a pair of newlyweds after they discover a hidden door in their basement that unleashes an otherworldly force. Colorful and striking,Dream Doortakes wild imaginative swings with the concept, and as always,Channel Zerotakes strives for some of the boldest storytelling leaps and narrative inventions on TV. But as impressive as the previous seasons have been, they didn’t have Pretzel Jack – the wildly unnerving killer clown brought to life by mind-blowing contortionist “Twisty” Troy James, who inspires this season’s best sequences. If Pretzel Jack were the only thing hiding behind those doors,The Dream Doorwould still be one of the best seasons ofChannel Zeroyet, but Antosca has plenty of inventive twists and oddball turns on the menu to ensureThe Dream Dooris one of the wildest and most wonderful horror stories on TV this year.
The Terror
Equal parts fancypants British drama, thrilling naval adventure, and oppressive cosmic horror,The Terrorleaps of the page ofDan Simmons’s celebrated horror novel to become one of the best TV shows of the year, regardless of genre. (Don’t believe me? Just ask our TV Editor Allison Keene, who put it at #7 on her year-end list.) Trapped within the walls of two ships, the men of the royal navy set out to discover the Northwest Passage, but a perfect storm of human failure, mother nature’s cruelties, and supernatural influence send the expedition on a spiral into illness, madness, and murder. Created for TV bySoo HughandSuspiriascreenwriterDavid Kajganich,The Terroris a kaleidoscope of horror genres that showcases the complete implosion of an adventure, where every element seems impossibly aligned against success, but the human spirit carries on and strives for survival, no matter the costs.
The Haunting of Hill House
One of the biggest surprise sensations of the year,Mike Flanagan’s re-imagination of theShirley Jacksonhaunted house classic shook audiences to their core and hooked ‘em deep with the tragic tale of the Crain family. Set over the course of ten episodes,The Haunting of Hill Housere-crafts Jackson’s story to fit the sprawling Crain family through their lives, and unveils how the traumatic horrors they endured inside the toxic walls of Hill House shaped them for decades. Flanagan treats his characters and their peril with the utmost affection and attention to detail, unfolding their stories with a symphonic narrative structure that introduced their family horror from the perspective of each individual before bringing them crashing together in the stunning long-take episode Two Storms’ – a showcase of acting, writing and direction as good as you’ll find on any prestige series this year. At the same time, Flanagan builds a whole world, a seemingly endless nightmare where the familiar traumas and terrors lie in wait for the Crains around literally every and any corner in the world. By tying up his horrors into the internal violence of his characters, Flanagan crafts some of the best scares of the year (including some that genuinely kept me up at night), blending it all up into a sweeping melodrama that builds swells of emotion into crests of blinding fear. This is classic, almost masterpiece level horror storytelling, the kind that digs into you and grabs you by your heart and your bones, manipulating you around like a perfectly performed puppet that laughs and cries and screams right on cue for all of the story’s impeccably laid beats.
