TV

The Ultimate List: Best 20 Horror Shows in TV History

The Ultimate List: Best 20 Horror Shows in TV History
Image credit: Legion-Media

Although the horror genre became a staple of the cinema over 100 years ago, it took quite a long time for it to break into mainstream television.

Perhaps producers initially thought the genre was too risky to bring into people's homes, but thankfully that sentiment is long gone.

Here are the 20 most influential horror TV shows of all time:

While shows like "The Twilight Zone " and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" helped bring horror into the mainstream in the last century, it wasn't until Ryan Murphy launched his now iconic "American Horror Story " just over a decade ago that horror really became a major genre on television.

Of course, TV horror is very different from what we see in the cinema - scary TV shows are less violent, gory and, well, scary, as TV is still considered a family-friendly affair, which prevents directors from really flexing their scary muscles when working on streaming and TV.

Still, the fact that dozens of horror shows are released every year is a great gift to scary movie fanatics, who now have something to binge on.

All of the projects on this list have had a huge impact on TV horror as a movement, and will surely be looked upon with reverence in the future as TV horror continues to evolve over the next few years, as its potential is still pretty much endless in 2024.