Welcome to The Attic, let’s watch some TV.

Horror and suspense doesn’t have to be limited to films. Some very creepy stories can be seen on the small screen in weekly television episodes. I have very fond memories of being scared by television shows ever since I was little. In fact, my number one pick still gets under my skin to this very day… I’m going to count down my five favorite horror series’ of all time.

5. Harper’s Island

While this series wasn’t really ‘scary,’ it was incredibly fun to watch. I’ve heard Harper’s Island described as Scream meets Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, and I couldn’t think of a better description. I had never even heard of this show until it appeared on Netflix a few years back. It looked fun so I gave the pilot a shot one day, and I was hooked. It took over my life for a few short weeks, but that period of my year still stands out vividly in my mind.

The story follows a large group of people heading to a remote island off the coast of America’s pacific northwest for a wedding at a fancy old-fashioned hotel. At least one person is killed in every episode, and the group rapidly gets smaller as the list of possible killers somehow grows. Another fun aspect is that every episode is named with a “sound effect” of how someone dies in that episode, such as “Thwack” or “Whap.” Harper’s Island is suspenseful, interesting, shocking, and just so damn fun.

Harper’s Island

4. A Haunting

This show has always been one of my favorites to go to when I feel like a ghost story marathon. Originally aired on the Discovery Channel, it tells the stories of real hauntings. Dramatizations are carried out by actors, but these scenes are interspersed with the victims telling their own stories. This show has given me chills so many times, and I love going back to my DVDs to watch them over and over.

The film A Haunting In Connecticut was taken directly from a special two-part episode that told the same story of a young kid dealing with his failing health while trying to come to terms with the haunting that is taking place in his family’s new home. There are many different stories in this series, from all over the US and even other countries. While they all focus on hauntings of both human spirits and demonic entities, they vary enough to keep you coming back for more.

A Haunting

3. The Twilight Zone

This is the granddaddy of scary television. The incredible Rod Serling both created and narrated this series, and there’s no way it would have been half as amazing without his touch. Some of my personal favorites are Living Doll, The Dummy, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, and The Hitch-Hiker. Growing up, it was a tradition to watch the marathons networks would so generously provide for New Years and the 4th of July each year.

One has to wonder if we would have had shows like The X-Files and Unsolved Mysteries if this one had never been created. It truly paved the way for the above, and many others, after it dared to push the envelope with science fiction and horror elements in a late-50s, early-60s world filled with wholesome family sitcoms.

The Twilight Zone

2. The X-Files

This was the first suspenseful show I ever really watched. I was late to the party, as I didn’t start watching the series until I saw the 1998 movie release in between seasons. After I saw that with my family I was hooked and spent that whole summer watching nightly marathons on cable TV that were meant to catch people up from season 1 to the end of the season that led into the feature film. The genius of Chris Carter and the series he created will never be matched or recreated. It was recently announced that they are all on board to start the series back up for another short run, here’s hoping we didn’t see the end of Mulder and Scully with that last, pretty bad, movie.

It’s interesting to consider a reboot to the series that captured our hearts and fears all at once. Everything from ghosts and little green men, to government tests and urban legends were covered in this show that ran from 1993 to 2002. There was a clear decline in quality and atmosphere when they moved filming locations from Vancouver to Los Angeles, and with the loss of Duchovny near the end. But no matter where they took us, we still wanted to believe.

The X-Files

1. Unsolved Mysteries

OK, here goes. The one that I feel is the scariest television show ever created. Sure, some of the above are filled with a lot more creative genius, however none of them have creeped me out like this one. Between the theme music and the chilling voice of Robert Stack, I very vividly remember the episodes that scarred me for some time. Whether it was about a killer that was never caught, little mummified people found in the mountains of the American southwest, or just a basic ghost story, every single segment was terrifying.

There was something about the hotline that prompted you to call if you knew anything about the whereabouts of whoever they were talking about at the time that brought a realism to even the most paranormal stories on the show. They grouped everyday murders with supernatural stories and it made each story seem equally possible. They have released collections of this series by “best of” themes, such as ghosts, which I own and highly recommend.

Unsolved Mysteries

So that’s it! My favorite horror shows of all time. Proving that horror doesn’t have to be 80 minutes and over to be frightening. Please feel free to sound off in the comments below what your favorites are.

Stay scared,
Dark Princess