Even before the rise of cable and streaming platforms, with their lack of standards and practices departments, TV had the ability to scare the shit out of us. Classic series likeTwin PeaksandThe Twilight Zoneweren’t hampered by commercial breaks and a lack of swears — instead, the fantastic storytellers behind those and other shows
Of course,withthe advent of television made for an adult audience, able to handle some boobs and swears and a lot more blood, TV has managed to get a whole lot scarier. This list of the scariest episodes ever was narrowed down from a “short list” of nearly 100 options, and we’ll keep updating it as new shows enter the pantheon. (Which seems like a very likely possibility, given how many horrors are currently packed into the real world.)
For now, behold our picks for the Scariest TV Episodes Ever. Because the kinds of scary represented by these episodes varies wildly from disturbing psychodrama to flat-out thriller are awfully disparate (and also, everyone’s fears are different), we decided against ranking this list (which means that, yes, all theX-Filesepisodes wehadto mention are all at the end). There might be nightmare fuel that we’ve left off, or episodes of certain shows that you think happen to be scarier than the ones listed. But there’s no doubting that these picks will at the very least give you a chill.
For more, check outthe best horror TV shows on Netflixandthe best horror movies of 2020.
American Horror Story: “Halloween”
Ryan Murphy’s gonzo, sex-and-violence schtick has become so commonplace in the years since the first season ofAmerican Horror Story(most recently viaRatchedon Netflix) that it’s hard to imagine a time when it was still shocking, much less surprising. But the first season ofAmerican Horror Storyreally was an unexpected whirlwind. And nowhere was this gleefully WTF-worthy approach more evident than in the two-part Halloween episode of the first season (retroactively subtitledMurder House).[extreme Stefan voice]This episode had everything – the Rubber Man,twogrotesque, otherworldly babies, a gay couple viciously murdered in their own home, a violent school shooting, and more ghosts than should reasonably fit into any Halloween episode, even if it is two parts. WritersJames WongandTim Minear, both veterans ofThe X-Files, appropriately manage the melodrama and the monstrous, ensuring that you are gasping as often as you’re screaming (with terror, mostly). The episodes would also set a precedent for futureAmerican Horror Storyinstallments to always have an overloaded Halloween extravaganza. This Halloween will be a little less ghoulish without such an episode. –Drew Taylor
Steven Spielberg’s originalAmazing Storiesseries is oddly overlooked, especially considering the truly staggering amount of talent who contributed to the series (including, in this case, the greatRobert Zemeckis) and how charming and effervescent many of the episodes were (also that theme music is incredible). While most episodes of the series were only 30 minutes long, Zemeckis’ installment, “Go to the Head of the Class,” was a supersized 60 minutes. In the episode, a teenager (Scott Coffey), who is obsessed with horror movies, attempts to woo a classmate (Mary Stuart Masterson) by casting a spell on their overbearing teacher (Christopher Lloyd). Things go tragically wrong, leading to a frightening and hilarious episode that is universally accepted as one of the very best episodes of the series. Part of the fun is the re-teaming of Zemeckis with theBack to the Futuregang, not only Lloyd but also composerAlan Silvestriand co-screenwriterBob Gale(who worked on the teleplay withMick GarrisandTom McLoughlin). Also, they shot the episode on the same deliberately phony-looking Universal backlot, which is super fun. This episode, which perfectly captures what makes Zemeckis such an amazing filmmaker, from his commitment to suspense set pieces that escalate wildly to his sense of geography and spatial relationships, it’s a very special episode that should be more widely praised and talked about, especially because in many ways it served as the precursor to Zemeckis’ involvement inTales from the Crypt, which would adopt a similar format and premiere a few years later (his episodes are fantastic there as well). – Drew Taylor
Angel: “Billy”
TheBuffyspin-off featured plenty of dark moments, but for sheer balls-out terror, especially if you were a young woman whose crush onAlexis Denisofwas no small thing at the time, the memory of “Billy” is a traumatizing one. Especially because it’s all Angel’s (David Boreanez) fault to begin with: In an earlier episode, Angel had made a deal with the devil — well, the devil’s lawyers — by freeing a mysterious man from a hell dimension. Turns out Billy (Justin Shilton) has the superpower of infecting other men with an overwhelming rage towards women, and things reach a breaking point when Wesley (Denisof) gets infected by Billy’s blood and begins stalking Fred (Amy Acker) through the hotel, a horrifying twisting of the feelings he’d been acknowledging for her earlier in the episode. It’s notreallyhim, but… could it have been? Of all the traumatic things that happened duringAngel,seeing a good man twisted into something so evil makes this episode, in particular, stand out. (Honorable mention for “Calvary,” though, in which Boreanez pulled off a similar evil turn.) -Liz Shannon Miller
Are You Afraid of the Dark?: “The Tale of the Dark Music”
I was alittletoo old forAre You Afraid of the Dark?when it came out, but I watched it anyway, because I love the spoops. And I’m glad I did, because while most of the episodes were essentially condensed Goosebumps books, “The Curse of the Dark Music” slapped me in the face with some genuine dread. A kid finds a red-eyed entity in his basement that appears any time he plays music and continuously tries to lure him into a pitch-black back room for undoubtedly nefarious purposes. It’s essentiallyStephen King’sIT, if Pennywise were restricted to a single room in a suburban house, and that is some heavy shit to throw at pre-teens watching Nickelodeon on Saturday night. Plus, the ending is legitimately chilling (provided you ignore the Midnight Society dorks immediately trying to undermine it). For aTwilight Zoneepisode aimed at children, “The Tale of the Dark Music” gets it done. -Tom Reimann
Are You Afraid of the Dark?: “The Tale of the Dream Girl”
Of the many surprisingly terrifying, childhood-scarring self-contained tales in Nickelodeon’s seminal horror anthology seriesAre You Afraid of the Dark?, only one had the cultural staying power to influence one of our most celebrated, prestigious, culturally known horror films to date. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Google “The Tale of the Dream Girl” andThe Sixth Sense, and have fun flinging yourself down that conspiracy theory rabbit hole. Beyond the two projects’ eerie similarities (it isconvincing!), “The Tale of the Dream Girl” sticks to my bones and guts on its own merits. The episode concerns a young janitor named Johnny (Fab Filippo, excellent) who falls head over heels for a young woman named Donna (Shanya Vaughan) he keeps seeing in her dreams. As a young, budding horror fan, I will forever be grateful for this episode’s courageous willingness to eschew easy, visceral scares in favor of using this simple premise as a jumping off point for a tragically doomed, gothic-tinged romance piece of horror; a starter pack forEdgar Allen Poe,Guillermo del Toro, and yes,The Sixth Sense. The revelations packed within “The Tale of the Dream Girl” are simultaneously, astonishingly bleak and beautiful, plunging a deep sense of tragedy, of fate, of melancholy yearning. It’s scary in its discombobulating power and desire to make its younger protagonists grow up and accept their fates, especially for its younger audience who might be more used to happier endings in their family-friendly horror. It’s chilling and rich, and likelyAre You Afraid of the Dark?’s finest half-hour. How’s that for a twist,Shyamalan? -Gregory Lawrence
One of the grooviest developments of modern horror history is the factSam Raimi’sThe Evil Deadreturned as a TV show and it was…genuinely great? What’s more, it actually captured the madcapvibeof the original trilogy, while also being more than just a showcase forBruce Campbell’s square-jawed Deadite killer, Ash Williams. Case in point: “Ashy Slashy,” the eighth episode of Season 2, a bonkers trip through a demon-infested insane asylum. The centerpiece being, of course, the moment when series standout Kelly Maxwell (Dana DeLorenzo) tussles with a legitimately terrifying Ash Williams puppet, a skirmish that ends when Kelly — and I cannot emphasize this part enough — blows the doll’s head off with a shotgun. Just spectacular.- Vinnie Mancuso
Black Mirror: “White Christmas”
So manyBlack Mirrorepisodes qualify for this list, but in terms of upsetting you in a deeply fucked up way, “White Christmas” is a standout. The one-off special, aired after the first two seasons (making it the lastBlack Mirrorepisode produced before Netflix scooped up the series) reveals itself like a Russian nesting doll. The setup is simple –Jon HammandRafe Spallare companions who have been stationed together alone in a cabin for five years, and on this Christmas Day decide to start talking about their past for the first time. But as each reveals a bit more about himself, it becomes clear that something else is going on here. Something I won’t reveal here, but when you get to the final twist youmaylet out a screech in horror. Unforgettable in the best/worst way. –Adam Chitwood
Black Mirror: “Playtest”
Nearly everyBlack Mirrorepisode dances on the line between scares and sci-fi. “Playtest” is a major exception to that. After an extended introduction introducing us to globe-trotting Cooper (Wyatt Russell) who needs to make a quick buck to keep funding his adventures, the meat of the episode directed by Dan Trachtenberg kicks in: a virtual reality simulation that draws upon Cooper’s darkest fears. And to be blunt, it isfucked up, with one of the darkest endings inBlack Mirrorhistory. -Liz Shannon Miller
Bones: “Aliens in a Spaceship”
Bones, typically, presents a lighter shade of criminal procedural, even as its heroes, brash FBI agentDavid Boreanazand bookish anthropologistEmily Deschanel, discover all kinds of gruesome crime scenes and — how else can I phrase this? — bones. Everything is welcomely tempered by a sense of humor, genuine friendship (and eventual romance!), and cheekiness. But in Season 2’s “Aliens in a Spaceship,” this sense of lightness is literally snuffed out and buried in the dirt, instead representing a sharp, rapid descent into the most elemental feelings of fear and desperation.
While on the particularly grim and brutal case of a serial killer nicknamed “The Gravedigger,” who most recently buried and burned a pair of young twin boys alive, Deschanel andT.J. Thyne, our prickly details-oriented lab investigator, are caught and buried alive in a coffin by him. The resulting drama plays in a gripping, survivalist two-hander mode, with both characters reckoning with the existential hopelessness of their fates, figuring out brief glimpses of fighting hope along the way, and divulging deep, dark secrets about themselves in the face of death. In particular, the episode is a frightening, eye-catching showcase for Thyne, who’s allowed to move out of his “wisecracking paranoid” performance mode to reveal the pains powering his heart. Does the episode end in a particularly happy, Hollywood mode? Of course it does. But along the way, it plays like an atypically bone-deep, psychologically terrifying chamber play in the best way possible. -Gregory Lawrence
Boy Meets World: “And Then There Was Shawn”
Boy Meets Worldwas a wholesome, surprisingly mature coming-of-age sitcom full of heartfelt life lessons, incredible comedy performances, and an unstoppably tear-jerking mentor figure in Mr. Feeny (William Daniels). And then in season five, they decided to fuck up all of their nice, young viewers’ lives by pulling off a goddamn slasher film episode. After Shawn (Rider Strong) gets all of his friends in detention for disrupting someone who isn’t Cory (Ben Savage) borrowing Topanga’s (Danielle Fishel) pencil (not a metaphor), the gang finds themselves locked in the school with a killer on the loose (not a metaphor!). FromScreamtoI Know What You Did Last Summer(down to the stunt-casting ofJennifer Love Hewitt), the self-aware genre tropes fly fast and furious, resulting in an impressively queasy, gruesome, and blackly funny sprint through everything you know and love about slasher flicks. Case in point: The first death, a pencil through the goddamn head of a child, provokes a joke from Cory! A downright sociopathic disconnect! And this disconnect, this lurching between tones, provides a gripping, audacious viewing experience even as an adult. It’s packed with genuine scares (the sing-song announcement promising its children will “die” with “knives” and “guns”!), incredibly silly jokes (Trina McGeebecoming upset when someone else dares to scream), and a killer unmasking that made me genuinely gasp because of its alignment with character and theme! “And Then There Were Shawn” is a marvel of the half-hour multi-cam sitcom form. I have no idea how they got away with it. -Gregory Lawrence
