Trick or TV treat? The latter please. With everything turning pumpkin-spiced and with Haribo-crazed, fancy-dressed mobs roaming the streets, it won’t have escaped your attention that we’re in spooky season. Here is our pick of the all-time most horrifying TV episodes for you to watch while ignoring the doorbell and scaring yourself silly. Let us know your own favourite frighteners in the comments below. In the meantime, don’t have nightmares. And maybe leave a light on, just in case.
Doctor Who – Listen (2014)
“Why do we talk out loud when we know we’re alone? Because we know we’re not.” There are many deeply creepy episodes of post-reboot “Nu-Who” but the most haunting are the simplest, preying on our everyday anxieties: Silence in the Library for fear of the dark, Human Nature for scarecrows, Blink for statues. Our pick is Listen, about the hidden monsters that are always watching us, never seen or heard but definitely there. Get the sense that something under your bed is about to grab your ankle? Feel a prickle on the back of your neck? There it is. No wonder the Doctor was afraid too.
Watch it on: BBC iPlayer.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Hush (1999)
One of TV’s most chilling hours is all the more impressive for being largely silent. After reading reviews that said dialogue was his main strength, showrunner Joss Whedon wrote an episode without it. The Gentlemen were a gang of smartly dressed, smiling skeletal ghouls who arrived in Sunnydale. Their modus operandi? Steal your voice so you can’t scream when they cut out your heart. How can Buffy Summers save the townspeople if she can’t communicate with the Scooby Gang? This is Alyson “Willow” Hannigan’s favourite episode, and the only one to be Emmy-nominated for its writing.
Watch it on: Disney+.
Ghostwatch (1992)
Horror writer Stephen Volk’s daring mockumentary was all the more effective for being taken seriously by many of its 11 million viewers. The late Michael Parkinson lent credibility by anchoring a “live Halloween investigation” into paranormal activity in suburban west London. A family home was allegedly haunted by “Pipes” – based on the infamous Enfield Poltergeist and named because the parents reassured their children that those strange noises were coming from the plumbing. Acting as a “national seance”, the film accidentally made the malevolent spirit more powerful, enabling Pipes to drag reporter Sarah Greene to her death and possess dear old Parky. The BBC got 30,000 complaints, was forced to apologise and never ran a repeat.
Watch it on: Prime Video.
Atlanta – Teddy Perkins (2018)
Donald Glover’s excellent series about rap manager Earn and crew is usually classed as a comedy but genre-bends so much it can slip into an outright creepshow. Director Hiro Murai (Station Eleven, Barry) collaborated with Glover on this unsettlingly claustrophobic tale, influenced by The Shining and originally airing without commercial breaks. It saw Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) collecting a free piano in a U-Haul van. Arriving at a darkened mansion, he entered the realm of a reclusive eccentric named Theodore Perkins – played by an uncredited Glover himself, disguised under so much whiteface makeup that Stanfield didn’t even realise it was him.
Watch it on: Disney+.
The Haunting of Hill House – The Bent-Neck Lady (2018)
The most unsettling episode of the scariest series in recent years. Sensitive youngest sibling Eleanor Crain had never fully recovered from her childhood trauma at Hill House, where “Little Nell” was tormented by an apparition of a woman with a broken neck. When she revisits the haunted mansion in adulthood, still grieving her late husband, the tragic truth is laid bare in unforgettable style. Stephen King and Quentin Tarantino, who know a thing or two about horror, both voiced their admiration.
Watch it on: Netflix.
The X-Files – Home (1996)
This could be a case for Mulder and Scully. The standalone instalment of Chris Carter’s cult conspiracy drama was so controversial that it was the only episode to receive a viewer discretion warning, and Fox dropped it from syndication deals. It opens with a disturbing birth scene and only gets more gruesome, as the monstrously disfigured Peacock family slaughter anyone who approaches their dilapidated Pennsylvania farmstead. Mixing brutality with black humour, it’s a skin-crawling, stomach-turning homage to Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven and David Lynch. The truth is out there – but it’s safer to leave it where it is.
Watch it on: Disney+.
Black Mirror – Playtest (2016)
Game over. There are plenty of nightmarish episodes of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian anthology to pick from – Loch Henry, Black Museum and White Bear are pretty petrifying – but this is the most viscerally unsettling. Down-on-his-luck Cooper (Wyatt Russell) lands a job testing an implant-enabled video game which uses neural data to target the player’s biggest fears. He insists he can stay emotionally detached from its virtual horrors but soon realises it’s bleeding into reality. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane, Prey), it not only nods to various video games but also horror classics such as The Thing and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven.
Watch it on: Netflix.
Twin Peaks – Lonely Souls (1990)
“It is happening again.” This key season two episode of David Lynch’s seminal weird-fest finally unmasked the killer of homecoming queen Laura Palmer. When her father, Leland, smiled at himself in the mirror and his reflection was that of the demonic spirit Killer BOB, viewers realised with a sickening jolt that he was possessed. Jump-cutting between Leland and BOB’s faces, he proceeded to savagely murder Laura’s lookalike cousin Maddy, while locals at the Roadhouse bar sensed something was awry and became visibly distressed. The four-minute murder scene is one of the most disturbing moments in Lynch’s entire canon.
Watch it on: Paramount+.
Mindhunter – season one, episode two (2017)
Still bereft that we’ll never get a third season of Joe Penhall and David Fincher’s serial killer thriller? Remind yourself of its brilliance by revisiting its creepiest episode. As maverick agents established the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, they interviewed a rogue’s gallery of scene-stealing psychos. Never was this more chilling than when Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton), the 6ft 9in “Co-Ed Killer”, calmly described decapitating his abusive mother and exactly what he did with her head.
Watch it on: Netflix.
American Horror Story: Asylum – I Am Anne Frank (2012)
After the haunted house delights of its debut season, Ryan Murphy’s anthology demonstrated its ambition with this wild two-parter. A new inmate at Briarcliff mental institution claimed to be the titular Holocaust victim, previously presumed dead, and revealed the identity of serial killer Bloody Face. Meanwhile, the full extent of the doctors’ cruel experiments was laid bare. The all-star cast list – Zachary Quinto, Sarah Paulson, Jessica Lange, James Cromwell, Franka Potente and Chloë Sevigny – is worth the price of admission alone. That lampshade made of human skin was just a diabolical bonus.
Watch it on: Disney+.
Stranger Things – The Weirdo on Maple Street (2016)
The Duffer Brothers’ blockbuster gradually grew more epic in scale but its early episodes laid the groundwork with Stephen King-style small-town creepiness. It truly took off as a pop cultural phenomenon with the #JusticeForBarb campaign that followed this surprise twist. Having the demogorgon attack not rebellious Nancy (upstairs snogging Steve) but her well-behaved best pal Barbara (sitting quietly poolside) was a neat subversion of slasher tropes. As Barb was dragged into the Upside Down, you could hear howls of outrage from instantly converted fans.
Watch it on: Netflix.
The Walking Dead – Seed (2012)
Zombies in riot gear, anyone? The undead shuffled across our screens for 177 episodes and multiple spin-offs but this season three opener was the post-apocalyptic saga at its most terrifying. When deputy sheriff Rick Grimes and his motley crew took refuge in a prison complex, they systematically cleared it of walkers. Yet as they ventured deeper into the facility’s dark corridors, surprises lay in store. Full of urgent George Romero-style action and spattered with generous amounts of gore, it was watched by 10.9 million US viewers, a series record at the time.
Watch it on: Disney+.
Fringe – Marionette (2010)
JJ Abrams’ underrated supernatural drama often blended sci-fi with horror, not least in this Frankenstein-esque season three episode. A compassionate killer conducts makeshift surgery on transplant recipients around New York, injecting them with life-prolonging serums and calling 911 in a bid to save them afterwards. It’s then revealed exactly why he was stealing their organs. Like a puppet on a string …
Watch it on: Sky Sci-Fi/Now.
