The 21st century has been a particularly good time for television so far. As you well know by now, we’re living in the thick of a second golden age for TV, and we have been for a while. And as you’ve probably heard if you follow any TV critics on Twitter, we’re also in the midst of “Peak TV.” So not only is TV really good right now, there’s a lot of it out there. If there’s a downside to that, it’s that there’s literally too much television for any one person to watch. However, one of the less-often discussed upsides is the rise of Horror TV programming, an often bone-dry landscape that has absolutely flourished over the last two decades.
Of course, horror and genre-themed shows have been hits long before the turn of the century, and a lot of it was excellent. However, as with all of television at the moment, never has there been more of it and never has there been such a commitment to production value and fearlessness of storytelling. In short, it’s a very, very good time to like serialized scares — which also means there’s plenty of good stuff that didn’t make the cut.
Some of the runners-up: Scream, MTV’s serialized adaptation of the Wes Craven slasher classic, which is fun but too focused on teen drama; Scream Queens, Ryan Murphy‘s cheeky but slightly-too-bitchy slasher series; The Returned, a lovely remake of a superior series but a remake of a superior series all the same; Fear the Walking Dead, AMC’s The Walking Dead sibling series, which outshines the original in character drama but skimps on the horror beats; and Preacher, which is gleefully gory, absolutely twisted, and may soon earn a spot on this list if the second season holds up.
As for what you’ll see on the list, we’re sticking to live-action, scripted programming that began after the year 2000. Which means that though Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files technically ran into the 21st century, but they are very much products of the ’90s. And the new Twin Peaks isn’t on here simply because we haven’t even seen a full season yet.
Check out the picks for best horror TV shows of the 21st century below:
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"Vampire Diaries"
Now that The Vampire Diaries is finally laid to rest, it’s a bit easier to take stock of the legacy left behind by The CW’s long-running vampire soap. In short, it wasn’t always good, but when it was, it was absolutely fantastic. Created by Scream and Dawson’s Creek scribe Kevin Williamson and his long-time collaborator Julie Plec, The Vampire Diaries quickly evolved from a limp supernatural teen drama into some of the most ballsy, break-neck (often literally) genre storytelling on TV. Following Nina Dobrev‘s Elena Gilbert and her entangled affairs with the brooding teen vampire Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) and his bad-boy brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder), The Vampire Diaries was relentlessly propulsive, burning through plot and fan-favorite characters with abandon.
A no-bones-about-it teenage soap opera with a flourish for genuinely shocking violence, The Vampire Diaries both embraced and subverted the YA label, breaking love triangle-torn hearts as freely as it ripped them, still-beating, out of the chests of beloved characters. The edges eventually dulled and the stakes disappeared after one (or ten) resurrections too many, but we’ll always have the memory of Mystic Falls at its peak.
"Slasher"
Nothing coy about this one. The title says it all and what you see is what you get. Chiller’s first original TV series delivers on that simple promise with an engrossing, genuinely surprising small town hack ‘em up series with truly disturbing kills. It also happens to be the first title in years to make me cover my eyes and scream at the screen, so points for that. Slasher stars Katie McGrath, a woman who returns to the small town where her parents were murdered by “The Executioner” on the night of her birth. She’s not home more than a week before a new series of murders begin, each one a grotesque punishment for violating one of the seven deadly sins.
None of this is groundbreaking, and series creator Aaron Martin enjoys indulging in familiar slasher archetypes, but what he does with the twisted small-town mystery is much cheekier and gutsy than your average fare. Every character in Slasher has a secret dramatic enough to spawn a series of its own, and as the mask is pulled off of one twisted resident after the next, the payoff is a rollicking horror-mystery hybrid that always goes for broke.
"The Walking Dead"
Love it or hate it, there’s no denying the immense cultural impact The Walking Dead has had over the last seven years. Inspired by Robert Kirkman‘s long-running graphic novel series, The Walking Dead began as a passion project for The Shawshank Redemption and The Mist director Frank Darabont, positioned as a horror prestige drama, and credit to the network, that’s a bold move since “horror” and “prestige” are not typically associated. Since then, the series has seen a revolving door of new showrunners, become a ratings juggernaut, spawned a companion series, and completely redefined the popularity of the zombie genre.
Viewers follow Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his ragtag band of survivors through hell or high water (except the death of Daryl, in which case, they would riot), and while the series narrative stalled out a while ago (new location, new bad guy, bad guy kills beloved character and destroys location, repeat), The Walking Dead has never faltered in delivering some of the most stunning effects work ever put on screen — and that includes film. Genre vet Greg Nicotero and his team are doing unbelievable work with their creatures, and even if the human drama grows tiresome, there’s never been a better one-stop shop for high production value zombie action.
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