Fear comes with complicated, conflicting emotions that amp up storytelling in powerful ways. Terror on-screen can be exhilarating and fun, or it can be disturbing, haunting, shocking, and even emotionally devastating. Television has provided some of the most effective examples of how to frighten an audience or get a viewer’s blood pumping. Horror fans, in particular, have been spoiled by a long list of quality genre programming for decades that pushes the boundaries of fear and what it means to unsettle fans. Still, even though the horror genre likely boasts the most extensive library of scariest TV episodes, it doesn’t have a singular claim to terror.
The list below explores terrifying episodes of television within the genres of horror, drama, and science fiction, where some villains are creature-like monsters and others are painfully human.
1) “Open Wide, O Earth” (Chernobyl, Episode 3)
Leaning into real-world horrors, HBO’s miniseries Chernobyl depicted the tragic man-made 1986 disaster when one of the reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded in what was then the Soviet Union (now Ukraine). Based on Svetlana Alexievich’s book Voices of Chernobyl, the five-part historical drama explores the immediate aftermath, including the investigation into the explosion, the governments attempt at a cover-up, the lives and deaths of the first responders, the devastating and far-reaching effects of radiation poisoning, and all of the heroic efforts made by those who worked tirelessly to mitigate the catastrophe.
Any episode of Chernobyl could fairly be named the most terrifying. However, certain haunting moments and images stick out in Episode 3, “Open Wide, O Earth.” One of the biggest horrors is witnessing the slow agonizing death of those with lethal acute radiation syndrome (ARS), namely, the firefighters and a few of the plant workers. The painful destruction of their bodies inside and out is unbearable, and so is the fear for anyone who has been exposed to all levels of radiation (besides eventual death for some, cancer is named as a likely fate for others with less exposure, among additional potential illnesses and disabilities). Chernobyl is a harsh reminder that reality is often more terrifying than fiction.
Chernobyl is available to stream on HBO Max.
2) “Screaming Meemies” (The Haunting of Hill House, Episode 9)
When asked about the scariest episode of Mike Flanagan’s series The Haunting of Hill House, many fans would immediately point to Episode 5, “The Bent-Neck Lady.” While the final sequence and nightmare-inducing visuals of the dark apparition that has haunted Nell Crain (Victoria Pedretti) since childhood absolutely stand out as some of the scariest moments in the limited series, “Screaming Meemies” is crawling with different aspects of terror that burrow deep under your skin.
Maintaining the emotionally character-driven stories that are a huge strength in Flanagan’s work, the episode finally uncovers the mystery behind Olivia Crain’s (Carla Gugino’s) fate. Throughout the episode, we witness the deterioration of Olivia’s mental health as she spirals into madness thanks to the ghosts within Hill House. The matriarch experiences hallucinations, such as awful visions of her dead adult children. As Olivia comes undone by these hallucinations and ghostly manipulations, she becomes another dark entity of Hill House after murdering an innocent child before her forced suicide. The terrifying imagery throughout the episode, as well as Olivia being isolated by her madness, makes “Screaming Meemies” the most unsettling and scary entry in The Haunting of Hill House.
The Haunting of Hill House is available to stream on Netflix.
3) “Home” (The X-Files, Season 4 Episode 2)
The X-Files Season 4 episode “Home” often comes up in conversations revolving around the scariest episodes of television, and for good reason. The hit sci-fi series shocked fans with this 1996 episode, which was then largely banned from syndication on FOX.
In the episode, FBI agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigate the Peacock family after the body of a deformed baby is discovered. Moving away from science fiction, “Home” focused on human monsters. In this case, a family of disfigured, inbred, homicidal farmers who are terrorizing a small town in Pennsylvania. With tones similar to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or The Hills Have Eyes, it’s hard to say which aspect bothered viewers the most: the incestuous Mrs. Peacock and her three sons (one of them being the father of the other two), the heightened violence, or the fact that Mrs. Peacock, who is missing limbs and has been living under a bed, and one her sons escape and leave town to go “make a new family” together.
The X-Files is available to stream on Hulu.
4) “Sanctuary” & “Death and All His Friends” (Grey’s Anatomy, Season 6 Episodes 23 & 24)
Dr. Meredith Grey’s (Ellen Pompeo) opening narration for Grey’s Anatomy’s harrowing two-part Season 6 finale conveys how hospitals can be a scary place for people, but this is her home and where she grew up — her safe space and sanctuary. All of that changes when Gary Clark (Michael O’Neill), a grieving husband who blames Derek (Patrick Dempsey) for the death of his wife, brings a gun to the hospital intent on killing Dr. Shepherd, any surgeon he comes across, and other staff members.
The finale is terrifying for obvious reasons as the shooter roams the hospital, killing brutally and aimlessly. For fans, the writers made it even scarier when beloved characters were dying or in peril, in addition to shocking deaths. There are intense scenes that leave you breathless, not knowing who will be spared or killed next. Hospitals are scary, but a mass shooting is never anticipated and unimaginable in the same way as not feeling safe at a school, a theater, a concert, a mall, or anywhere, for that matter, should be unconscionable. The anguish and terror of a mass shooting play out in real-time throughout the two-part finale, making it the most devastating and horrifying entry in the long-running medical drama.
Grey’s Anatomy is available to stream on Hulu and Netflix.
5) “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club” (Stranger Things, Season 4 Episode 1)
One of the most exciting twists of Stranger Things Season 4 is how the Duffer Brothers allowed the show to grow up in the same way its actors have over the years, as our young characters are smack in the middle of the best and worst of high school growing pains. The Netflix show has always had its darker and scarier side, but Season 4 welcomed a new era of Stranger Things with increased gore and horror (and delightfully more profanity). The first episode of the season, “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club,” wastes no time setting a more adult and vicious tone.
The opening travels back in time to 1979 when Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) was experimenting on children with supernatural abilities, including a very young Eleven, at Hawkins National Laboratory. The lab comes under attack, and all of the staff and children, save Brenner and Eleven, are lying broken, bloody, and dead. It’s heavily implied Eleven is the one who killed everyone, kicking off a season-long mystery that continues in the final sequence of the episode. The ending then shocked audiences when new character Chrissy (Grace Van Dien), who has been experiencing frightening hallucinations throughout the episode, is brutally murdered by the deep-voiced creature Vecna, who snaps her limbs and crushes her facial bones as blood leaks out. The bookending scenes are effective in unnerving audiences and preparing them for a brutal season of Stranger Things.
Stranger Things is available to stream on Netflix.
6) “The Autopsy” (Cabinet of Curiosities, Episode 3)
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is a horror anthology miniseries on Netflix featuring eight stories written and directed by various filmmakers, with del Toro introducing each tale. While each episode features all manner of scares, Episode 3, “The Autopsy,” wins the award for most terrifying. Directed by David Prior and written by David S. Goyer, based on the short story by Michael Shea, “The Autopsy” centers on the mystery of an explosion that killed nine miners along with the man who set off the explosive. Sheriff Nate Craven (Glynn Turman) calls in his old friend and medical examiner, Dr. Carl Winters (F. Murray Abraham), to assist. What Carl discovers is a frightening extraterrestrial creature looking for his next host.
What begins as a strange mystery with a dangerous antagonist quickly evolves into a body horror tale once the autopsies begin. As Carl puts the pieces of the puzzle together, he finds himself confronted by the reanimated corpse of Joe Allen (Luke Roberts), who is being controlled by a parasitic alien species that slowly devours their hosts from the inside. The way Carl heroically thwarts Joe’s plans is ultimately satisfying (and Abraham is excellent in this episode), but there are many haunting and viscerally torturous moments involving sliced up flesh, scalpels being jammed into ears and eyeballs, and a very sinister and believable villain that raises the tension and the stakes.
Cabinet of Curiosities is available to stream on Netflix.
7) “Living Doll” (The Twilight Zone, Season 5 Episode 6)
Supernatural homicidal dolls have long been a staple of the tried-and-true horror subgenre. One of the earliest examples is Talky Tina from the 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone, “Living Doll.” In the episode, a woman named Annabelle buys the wind-up doll for her daughter, Christie, much to the annoyance of her husband, Erich. When the doll is around Annabelle or Christie, the toy usually delivers her default line, “My name is Talky Tina, and I love you very much.” However, when she’s alone with Erich, who is quickly revealed to be an angry, spiteful man, her tone changes: “My name is Talky Tina, and I don’t think I like you.”
As Tina’s vitriol towards Erich escalates to threats of “you’ll be sorry,” and how she hates him, Erich turns his anger on Annabelle and Christie, convinced they’re somehow pranking him with Tina. When he tries to get rid of Tina, he finds out the doll is indestructible and is now threatening to kill him. Some of the horror dissipates during the middle of the episode because viewers want to see Erich pay for being such a jerk to his family. Still, when Talky Tina follows through with her promise to kill Erich and then warns Annabelle, “My name is Talky Tina, and you’d better be nice to me,” she proves herself a creepy, unhinged doll not to be messed with.
The Twilight Zone is available to stream on Paramount+ and Prime Video.
8) “And They Were Enemies” (Penny Dreadful, Season 2 Episode 10)
Generally underrated but beloved by horror fans, Showtime’s Penny Dreadful was a dark, horror-fantasy series that delivered on scares, heartbreak, and fresh storytelling. In the Season 2 finale, “And They Were Enemies,” our main ensemble finds themselves confronted by ghosts, guilt, and in Vanessa’s (Eva Green) case, Lucifer himself. Fascinatingly, the form the Devil takes is that of a ventriloquist doll resembling Vanessa, speaking in her voice. As Vanessa faces off with Lucifer, Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton) and Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) are being driven mad by hallucinations of the dead — and the undead, as Victor is forced to contend with his visions of his tormented creations — and profound guilt. Meanwhile, Ethan (Josh Hartnett) has lost control of his werewolf nature and is a threat to everyone.
This episode of Penny Dreadful features many unnerving sequences with frightening visuals as the group struggles to survive their respective nightmares, while others face the consequences for thinking they could outsmart and overpower Vanessa Ives. Vanessa becomes a terrifying visage herself when she begins growling and chanting in a demonic language to destroy the puppet version of Lucifer. The Season 2 finale also leaves most of the main characters isolated from one another, walking dark paths and a major foreboding threat in the form of Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney) and Lily (Billie Piper) referring to themselves as a “master race,” intending to lead as immortals who will force mortals to kneel before them. They dance to their plans in white, blood-soaked gown and suit, spreading blood along the floor as they glide around the room.
Penny Dreadful is available to stream on Prime Video, Hulu, and Paramount+.
9) “Playtest” (Black Mirror, Season 3 Episode 2)
Created by Charlie Brooker, Netflix’s genre-bending anthology series Black Mirror explores various aspects of human psychology and the terrifying possibilities of unchecked evolving technology. One of the most memorable episodes and arguably scariest of the award-winning show is Season 3’s “Playtest,” starring Wyatt Russell (Thunderbolts, Overlord) in a premise built entirely around fear and paranoia.
While traveling in London, American tourist Cooper (Russell) discovers his bank accounts have been hacked. In desperate need of money, he agrees to be a beta tester for SaitoGemu, a Japanese game production company utilizing state-of-the-art technology for augmented reality gaming. After a harmless demo, he agrees to playtest a survival horror game where the device in the back of his neck and an artificial neural network will personalize his experience and adapt to his fears. The simulation kicks off the scares by tapping into Cooper’s arachnophobia, then moves on to increasingly frightening images and auditory hallucinations. The situation escalates when Cooper is attacked and experiences real pain at being stabbed in the shoulder. The visuals, increased scares, panic, paranoia, disruption of reality, and jarring ending(s) make this a terrifying Black Mirror episode.
Black Mirror is available to stream on Netflix.
10) “Piggy Piggy” (American Horror Story, Season 1 Episode 6)
Throughout Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology American Horror Story, which premiered in 2011, there have been endless scary and disturbing scenes to varying effect in every themed season. The first installment of the series, Murder House, introduced Murphy’s bizarre exploration of horror and the unknown. Episode 6, “Piggy Piggy,” grounded the abnormal with a jarring opening that pulled one of the biggest horrors of the real world front and center.
There will never be a time when the depiction of a school shooting isn’t excruciating. “Piggy Piggy” serves as the episode where Violet (Taissa Farmiga) discovers that Tate (Evan Peters) — one of the many ghosts haunting the home she and her parents recently moved into — killed several students at his high school. He later died at the house when SWAT came to apprehend Tate, and he pulled a gun on them. The beginning of the episode focuses on one group of victims Tate murdered in the library, showing how the teen mercilessly shot his classmates one by one and how afraid they all were. The sequence alone makes it the most terrifying of the entire series, in an episode that also features self-harm, attempted suicide, gruesome urban legends, a creepy housekeeper, and psychological manipulations by the dead (and Jessica Lange’s Constance).
American Horror Story is available to stream on Hulu and Prime Video.
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