American Horror Story, 2011
Country: USA
Genres: Horror, Thriller, Drama
Ryan Murphy – a man who never sleeps, and year after year manages to give viewers a new portion of his unconventional stories. The anthology series “American Horror Story” is one of the most successful projects of the famed director, maintaining the highest ratings for ten years. During the existence of the series, the authors managed to collect the most impressive collection of chilling images and plots: haunted houses, witches, maniacs, mental hospitals, run-down hotels and that’s just the very beginning of the list. Each season has a different concept and story, so you can start watching any season.
Twin Peaks, 1990.
Country: USA
Genres: Thrillers, Crime, Detectives
Directors: David Lynch, Leslie Link Glatter, Caleb Deschanel
“Who Killed Laura Palmer?” – you’ve probably heard that question, even if you missed David Lynch and Mark Frost’s masterpiece about a small-town murder mystery. The mystery project spawned a huge number of theories and kept fans waiting for the sequel for a full 27 years!
“Twin Peaks” begins as an ordinary crime drama set in a small town frozen in time. Frame by frame, minute by minute, Lynch in his unique style immerses us in a surreal, supernatural and eerily strange plot. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle McLocklen) arrives in Twin Peaks to investigate the murder of young girl Laura Palmer (Cheryl Lee). The schoolgirl’s body is found wrapped in plastic on the riverbank. Tragedy follows, with a series of events that gradually reveal the secrets of everyone in the town. The lingering multi-part series is a perfect blend of 90’s aesthetics, melodramatic elements and slightly oddball characters from the American outback.
Penny Dreadful, 2014.
Country: USA, Ireland, UK
Genres: Horror, Drama, Fantasy
Imagine that all your favorite characters of dystopian novels gathered in one place and at one time. That’s roughly what the creators of Scary Tales did: Dorian Gray, Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – cursed characters roam the streets of Victorian London, while unsuspecting townsfolk are absorbed in a dreary routine. But for every fiend there is a hunter of the supernatural. Pursue the villains will take none other than Van Helsing (David Warner). At the center of the fight against the otherworldly – a lonely American Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett), burdened with a complicated past and his own demons.
The lavish costume drama ran for only three seasons on Showtime, but its memorable characters, gothic setting and mystical mood left a lasting impression on viewers and gathered a crowd of fans around it. The authors follow in the footsteps of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, and Oscar Wilde and tell spooky dark stories in the setting of nineteenth-century England – better than which no one has yet devised for stories about vampires, ghosts, and witches.
Castle Rock, 2018
Country: USA
Genres: Thrillers, Horror, Sci-Fi
On a list like ours, you can’t do without adaptations of Stephen King’s books. The following psychological thriller with elements of horror takes inspiration from the works of the honored king of horror. Here is a familiar character from the books of the master Alan Pangborn, and the prison Shawshank. And even the name of the series refers to a fictional place in Maine – that’s where the events of many of the author’s books unfold.
Curiously enough, King himself, as an executive producer, did not interfere in the process of creating the plot. Showrunners Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason decided to tell an original story, but with a veneer of King’s novels. The first season focuses on lawyer Henry Deaver (Andre Holland), who returns to his hometown after an unknown young man (Bill Skarsgard) is found in the local jail under mysterious circumstances.
The Outsider, 2020
Country: USA
Genres: Thrillers, Detectives, Crime
“The Outsider” is another Stephen King adaptation that has organically formed the basis of a mini-series. It’s a chilly morning, a small town, a dead boy – already scary. Arriving on the scene, Detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) realizes that a murder has occurred. All evidence points to Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman), the young baseball players’ coach. Soon the investigation comes to a dead end: it turns out that the main suspect was in another town at the time of the crime. While the whole town thinks he’s guilty, the police sheriff realizes that the case is shrouded in a frightening mystery.