Yeah a standalone horror movie is great and all, but the fun thing about a horror TV series is its ability to both drag out the fear and create a lingering sense of dread, whilst having the space to dive deep into the lore of the monsters and evils distressing our scream queens – and us! Luckily, there are plenty of them currently in the works, so we’re keeping this page updated with all the latest info on the must-watch sp00ky TV shows still to come in 2023 and beyond!
The Fall of the House of Usher
From Mike Flanagan, the horror auteur behind The Haunting of Hill House and The Midnight Club, comes a new take on an eerie gothic novel. This series takes the Poe tale and transforms it into a dark, messed-up and yet oddly beautiful and tender modern Netflix horror story. The Fall of the House of Usher, first published in 1839, tells the story of an unnamed man who goes to visit aristocratic friend Roderick Usher Usher, along with his sister, both believe their house is making them sick, and are noticing paranormal happenings at night within their bedrooms. In this new series however, which drops 12 October 2023, Roderick Usher is the CEO of a corrupt pharmaceutical company whose children begin dying in mysterious and disturbing ways, just as an unknown woman promises to enact unearthly revenge on his family.
Goosebumps
This tween-favourite R.L. Stine horror anthology, where a different group of kids face off paranormal and supernatural forces in each story, has now been turned into a series for Disney+ and Hulu. Across 10 episodes, the first five of which will drop on 13 October 2023, five teens work together to stop the malevolent beings they accidentally released into the world and in the process discover the shocking hidden secrets their parents have hidden for decades.
Creature
“With its epic story, created in the early 1900s and stretching from Bursa to Istanbul, The Creature focuses on one of the most fundamental questions of humanity, ‘death and beyond’,” reads the plot line for Netflix’s new Turkish TV series inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The eight-episode series – airing on 20 October 2023 – follows Ziya, a promising, experimental medical student who desires to be the one to discover the cures for the diseases and epidemics no other physician has yet. Working with the eccentric Doctor Ihsan, the two will find out just how far they’re willing to go and what moral boundaries they’re willing to cross in the name of societal good.
Welcome to Derry
Serving as a Pennywise the Clown origin story, Welcome to Derry comes from the directors of It (2017) and It: Chapter 2 (2019), Andy and Barbara Muschietti, who are joined for the third installment in this canon by Jason Fuchs. Little is known about the plot yet but we know the HBO period horror series, set for a 2024 release, will star Jovan Adepo and Chris Chalk, who were both in the Netflix series When They See Us, and Zola star Taylour Paige, alongside James Remar, Stephen Rider and Madeleine Stowe.
The Crystal Lake
Set prior to the events of Friday the 13th – in 1979 – The Crystal Lake takes us back to those same menacing waters for a new slasher horror series from Peacock and A24. It’s unclear whether the show is set prior to Jason Vorhees’ drowning in the 50s which sparked the events of the first film decades later, or if it will be set within the years in between. We do know, however, that the series will follow “a group of friends’ vacation at a house that’s connected to a dark past” and will star the actor behind the original film’s final girl, Adrienne King. We also know, thanks to an Instagram post from Adrienne herself, that the show is set for a 2024 release.
Alien
A show that’s been in the works since 1979 when Ridley Scott’s Alien movie was first released, the Alien TV series – set 70 years prior to the first film in the “near-ish future” – finally started to make ground in 2020 with Noah Hawley, the creator of Fargo, at the helm. But the Covid pandemic halted production. Then we were told in May 2023, that Sydney Chandler (Pistol star and daughter of Kyle Chandler) would lead the show alongside Alex Lawther (Black Mirror), Essie Davis (The Babadook), Adash Gourav (The White Tiger), Kit Young (Shadow and Bone) and Samuel Blenkin, and that filming had begun. Finally, in August 2023, filming was halted again in the UK in solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA strike. While the status of the series is once again unknown, it seems this series is as unstoppable as its terrifying, pharyngeal jaw-ed, armoured titular characters. Hopefully, though, with filming already started, the series will finally make its way to the airwaves within the next year.
Halloween
Oh, you thought…. You thought Jamie Lee Curtis throwing the unkillable Mike Myers into an industrial shredder to make sure he’s dead would be the final nail in the coffin for the Halloween franchise? Well, think again, because it’s been reported that the rights to a TV series based on the famed slasher movie by John Carpenter are currently up for sale and leading the bids is A24. The Sam Levinson-produced, sleazy, provocative, It Girl version of Halloween is leaving your dreams-slash-nightmares and may actually happen! We would watch Alexa Demie, clad in a Mugler bodysuit, fight a male musician dressed as Mike Myers, tbf.
Hellraiser
Entirely separate from the 2022 remake of Hellraiser (the one that saw a gender-swapped Pinhead and their demonic cenobite army raising, well, hell this HBO series comes from the director of Halloween (2018). Last reported to be in the script-writing stage, it is said to be set within the same lore and universe as the original franchise but with an entirely new plotline.
The Conjuring
The Conjuring Universe has spawned movies about famed demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren and the deadly cases of demonic possession and haunted houses they’ve taken on, as well as films on the fugly, demented doll Annabelle and the unholy nun Valak. Now, the franchise is set to extend into a TV series adaptation, also from horror masters director James Wan and producer Peter Safran. It’s set to “continue the story established in the feature films”, according to a statement from HBO Max who are behind the project with Warner Bros. Will it follow other cases of Ed and Lorraine’s such as the haunted funeral home, the famed Amityville murders or ‘The White Lady’ spirit creating havoc at a graveyard? Stay tuned to find out.