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The best scary horror series on Netflix (January 2022)

Haunting of Hill House and Hemlock Grove are scary horror series on Netflix.
Haunting of Hill House and Hemlock Grove are scary horror series on Netflix. Pic credit: Netflix

If Netflix has mastered one thing, it is finding some of the best scary horror series out there and bringing them to the streaming service.

When looking through the listings, there are plenty of scary horror movies and series in the current lineup on the service, but not all shows are equal.

From original Netflix horror series to those the streaming service brings in from other networks, there are plenty of great scary shows to choose from.

Every month, Netflix makes significant changes by removing many movies and series from its streaming service and then replaces them with other releases, some even better than what came before.

The good news is that we are here to check the entries every single month and will replace those that leave with new options that might even be better than the rest.

Updated: January 2022 – We will update this article every month with scary horror shows added to streaming on Netflix, while also removing any series that have dropped off the site, so bookmark this page for new entries every month.

Hellbound

Hellbound
Hellbound. Pic credit: Netflix

Hellbound is a new South Korean horror series on Netflix.

The basis of the series follows a society where creatures, known as the Hellbound, mysteriously started showing up and killing specific people.

This allowed a new religious organization to rise and claim that the monsters were sent to kill sinners and take them to Hell. The problem arose when they arrived to kill a newborn baby, and with that, society began to fall apart.

The series was Netflix’s most watched, surpassing Squid Game.

October Faction

The best fantasy shows on Netflix
The cast of October Faction. Pic credit: Netflix

October Faction hit Netflix in 2020, based on the comic books by Steve Niles and Damien Worm.

The series and comics are about a family of monster hunters that move back home and realize that the worst monsters might be living in the shadows of their hometown.

The father, mother, and their two kids then set out to clean out their town of monsters as part of a secret organization set out to save humanity.

There is one season, and Netflix did not pick up the series for renewal.

Are You Afraid Of The Dark?

Are You Afraid Of The Dark?
Are You Afraid Of The Dark? Pic credit: Nickelodeon

Are You Afraid Of The Dark? is a reboot of the classic horror anthology series that was originally aired from 1990 to 1996.

The new season arrived in 2019 and the first season is currently available to stream on Netflix. The second season premiered earlier this year and will arrive on Netflix just in time for Halloween.

The first season was three episodes and titled Carnival of Doom. The second was six episodes, titled Curse of the Shadows. Instead of different stories in each episode, this puts them into larger overarching stories.

You

You on Netflix
You on Netflix. Pic credit: Beth Dubber/Netflix

You is another series in the slate of dark horror dramas where the viewers have to walk in the shoes of the serial killer. You aired its first season on Lifetime before moving over to Netflix for the second and third seasons.

The first season of You, based on the book You – Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes, introduces viewers to a bookstore manager named Joe Goldberg, who also happens to be a serial killer.

He meets a girl named Guinevere and develops a strong obsession with her throughout the first season. Penn Badgley reprised his role as Joe, as he moved cross-country to Los Angeles to start over, but soon realizes he can’t escape who he really is.

Netflix has greenlit a third season of You.

Midnight Mass

Midnight Mass
Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass. Pic credit: Eike Schroter/Netflix

A brand-new horror series is coming to Netflix on September 24, 2021.

This is Midnight Mass, created by Mike Flanagan, the man behind The Haunting of Hill House. Flanagan has called Midnight Mass the best series he has ever created.

The Netflix original series is centered around an isolated island community that experiences supernatural events after a disgraced man (Zach Gifford) and a mysterious priest (Hamish Linklater) arrive.

From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series

From Dusk Till Dawn The Series
From Dusk Till Dawn The Series. Pic credit: El Rey

In 1996, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriquez created the horror movie From Dusk Till Dawn, which saw two thieves end up sheltering in a strip club in Mexico that happened to be a coven of vampires.

In 2014, Rodriguez brought the idea to television for his new El Rey Network, which targeted bringing English-language shows and movies about Latinos to the small screen.

The TV series, which lasted for three seasons, expanded on the stories of the characters from the movie while also expanding on the vampires’ mythology.

The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House
The cast of The Haunting of Hill House. Pic credit: Netflix

The Haunting of Hill House adapted the horror novel by Shirley Jackson, The Haunting, into its first season.

The season followed a family who moved into the Hill House and soon faced the house’s dark past. When the mother of the family died, the family ran, and it destroyed their lives.

The show then flipped forward to the modern day, where the grown kids faced their lives, destroyed by their past.

The second season adapted the Henry James novel, The Turn of the Screw. In this, an American takes a job as a nanny for two orphaned children and learns that the house they live in doesn’t want to let anyone go.

Stranger Things

The best fantasy shows on Netflix
The cast of Stranger Things. Pic credit: Netflix

Stranger Things is the most successful Netflix original fantasy series to hit the streaming giant.

Fans loved the ’80s atmosphere, which includes plenty of references to icons of the era like Stephen King and Steven Spielberg.

When a mysterious girl named Eleven shows up in town, she meets a group of kids, and they end up teaming up to battle a mysterious organization and a creature that lives under the world itself.

There have been three seasons on Netflix with 25 total episodes, and the fourth and fifth seasons are still to come. Those last two seasons will conclude the story.

Locke & Key

Locke & Key renewed for second season by Netflix
Locke & Key is getting a second season. Pic credit: Netflix

Locke & Key is a Netflix original series based on the comic books by Gabriel Rodriguez and horror author Joe Hill, the son of Stephen King.

The story has the Locke family moving to their family estate, the Key House, after the father of the family died at the hands of one of his students.

Once there, the three children find various keys throughout the house that open doors and portals to various locations, or sometimes doors offering them incredible powers.

However, a demon who lives below the house wants the keys to free herself. The first season had eight episodes and the second season was green-lit.

Hemlock Grove

Hemlock Grove on Netflix
Bill Skarsgard on Hemlock Grove. Pic credit: Netflix

Eli Roth has mastered the horror genre over his time as a filmmaker and in 2013, he produced the series Hemlock Grove for Netflix.

Based on the 2021 novel, the show takes place in the town of Hemlock Grove, where brutal murders dig up terrible secrets hidden in the town.

The town believes that a Romanian boy, Peter (Landon Liboiron) committed the murders. This causes Peter, who is a werewolf, to set out to find the actual killer with the heir to a wealthy estate, Roman Godfrey (Bill Skarsgard) by his side.

There are three seasons on Netflix, with each furthering the horrors found in Hemlock Grove.

American Horror Story

american horror story 1984 is coming in fall 2019
American Horror Story: 1984 will be the ninth season of the popular series. Pic credit: @ahsfx Instagram

American Horror Story added its latest edition in December 2020 with American Horror Story: 1984.

This means there are now nine seasons of American Horror Story on the streaming service, and there is enough here to scare, horrify, and disgust horror fans of all types.

Produced by Ryan Murphy, there are now 103 episodes to view on Netflix.

The seasons include, in order, a haunted house story, mental asylum horror, witch coven, freak show, haunted hotel, backwoods horror, cult scares, an apocalypse, and a slasher movie homage.

Dracula

Sister Agatha on Dracula: Who is Dolly Wells, the snarky nun on Netflix series?
Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha on Dracula. Pic credit: Netflix

Netflix released the original horror series Dracula in 2020 by Doctor Who showrunners, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. They released the series on BBC One and Netflix within days of each other.

There was a slight change in the Dracula myth here, as Van Helsing was a nun named Sister Agatha who worked at the covenant where Renfield arrived, and Dracula soon followed.

From the look and atmosphere of the series to the acting, this Dracula adaptation was both fresh and interesting, with Sister Agatha proving to be a great update on the classic vampire hunter.

Supernatural

Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) meet their doppelgangers on Supernatural. Pic credit: The CW
Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) meet their doppelgangers on Supernatural. Pic credit: The CW

Supernatural finished up its 15-season run in 2020 and along the way created 327 episodes of action in a horror series where humans battled angels, demons, and monsters.

Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki star as Dean and Sam Winchester, a pair of demon hunters who started out trying to find the demon that killed their mother and ended up in a giant battle between good and evil.

What really made the show stand out was that the good and evil were never clear, as Heaven and Hell were both pretty bad and the boys’ only goal was to protect the innocents on Earth from the raging supernatural wars.

Crazyhead

Crazyhead
Cara Theobold and Susan Wokoma from Crazyhead. Pic credit: Netflix

Crazyhead was a 2016 Netflix original horror series that offered a fresh look at the Buffy the Vampire Slayer-styled story.

Cara Theobold is Amy, an unhappy bowling alley employee who can see demons hiding in society. Susan Wokoma is Raquel, a socially awkward girl who can also see demons and hunts them.

Crazyhead has only six episodes in one season, and while it has a perfect 100 percent ranking on Rotten Tomatoes, it never got a second season.

U.K. partner Channel 4 pulled out of future production, ending the popular show before it could really get rolling.

Ash vs. Evil Dead

Ash vs Evil Dead
Ash and his friends on Ash vs Evil Dead. Pic credit: Starz

Ashley Williams returned to battle Deadittes once again, this time with a group of young friends, but with the same devil may care attitude.

Ash vs. Evil Dead is a direct sequel to Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead horror trilogy, with Bruce Campbell returning as an older, grumpier Ash. Along for the journey is a daughter from a one-night stand, a sidekick who almost worships Ash, and a young woman dragged into the battle.

There are also some great genre favorites in the cast, with Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) as an Immortal and Lee Majors (The Six Million Dollar Man) as Ash’s dad.

There are three seasons and 30 episodes on Netflix.

Dark

Louis Hofmann in Netflix's series Dark
Louis Hofmann in Netflix’s series Dark. Pic credit: Netflix

Dark is a Netflix original fantasy series out of Germany about time travel, wormholes, and a lot of confusion.

The story takes place in three different years — 2019, 1986, and 1953. The second season added another year, 2052, and the last season added 1921 and 1888 into the mix.

This sounds confusing, and it can be, which is why fans have to start with episode one and work their way through. The story offers parallel realities, and the characters play different versions of themselves in each timeline.

Black Summer

Black Summer
Black Summer on Netflix. Pic credit: Netflix/Youtube

Black Summer is a horror spinoff series from the popular horror-comedy series Z Nation. However, while Z Nation took a lighthearted look at the apocalypse, Black Summer was pure horror.

This series showed the start of the zombie apocalypse and starred Jaime King as a mother separated from her child at the start of the outbreak, and she sets out to find her.

The first season featured eight episodes and proved that living humans are often more dangerous than the walking dead. A second season is hitting Netflix this year.

The Walking Dead

Carol And Daryl
Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon and Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier on a new season of The Walking Dead. Pic credit: Jace Downs/AMC

Created by Robert Kirkman for Image Comics, The Walking Dead might be the most successful comic book adaptation ever created for television.

The story started after the zombie apocalypse and followed a former police officer named Rick Grimes, who woke from a coma and set out to find his wife and son.

Over the years, The Walking Dead was not about one character. The show featured a group of traveling survivors trying to stay alive, while both zombies and the evil remaining humans tried to kill them every step of the way.

There will be one more season of The Walking Dead on AMC, but fans can catch up with all the previous seasons on Netflix.

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