Warning: spoilers ahead!There have been some excellenthorror TV showsin the last decade, and with those shows come some absolutely terrifying scenes. Since 2015, we’ve had an embarrassment of riches when it comes to horror TV.Horror TV has been in a great place this decade, with acclaimed and culturally relevant stories on every streamer.
Even TV shows that are not strictly horror still often contain frightening, grim scenes that you’ll watch over the top of a pillow you’re using to obscure the screen. Some of these scary scenes come from truly frightening shows, and some are just wrenching scenes in otherwise non-horror shows.
10A Wight Reanimates In Last Hearth In Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
Season 8, Episode 1, “Winterfell”
There isa lot wrong withGame of Thronesseason 8, but once in a while, there’s a moment that reminds you of what the show was during its peak. In the season premiere, we get a look at what’s coming for the people of Westeros now that the White Walkers and their Wights have crossed over the Wall.
Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) and Beric (Richard Dormer) make their way south, stopping at Last Hearth, the seat of House Umber, but the Walkers have beaten them there, arranging the former occupants into a bloody spiral. They also left an intact boy nailed to the wall. When he opens his eyes behind Tormund, you know what’s coming.
9Kristen Is Attacked In The Elevator In Evil (2021-2024)
Season 2, Episode 4, “E Is For Evil”
In this season 2 episode ofEvil, Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) visits the site of supposed paranormal activity involving an elevator. According to a local ghost tour, a young woman was once cut in half by the malfunctioning elevator and now roams the halls, pulling her sliced torso along the floor.
Of course, this turns out to be more than a rumor, and Kristen soon finds herself stuck in the elevator in the basement. Suddenly, she hears something coming out of the darkness. The mutilated ghost quickly approaches her, snarling. It’s frightening, and that’s before the elevator malfunctions, with Kristen hanging halfway out.
8Three Volunteers Drain The Reservoirs In Chernobyl (2019)
Season 1, Episode 2, “Please Remain Calm”
Chernobylis not scary in the way that something likeParanormal Activityis scary, but it’s still as frightening as anything that’s been put in a TV show. One of the most harrowing and claustrophobic moments in the show comes in episode 2. Three volunteers are sent under the wreckage to drain water tanks that could cause an explosion.
These men are essentially being sent to their deaths as the radiation will surely kill them in the next few years. The episode ends with the men breathing heavily through fogged and primitive radiation gear, trudging through water, with their radiation alert clicking louder and louder. Then their flashlights' batteries are burnt out, and we’re left with their panicked gasps.
7Miss Vera Haunts Gracie Jean Emory In Them (2021-2024)
Season 1, Episode 1, “Day 1”
The pilot episode ofThemintroduces a few ghosts. One is a terrifying figure that haunts the young Gracie Jean Emory (Melody Hurd), specifically, Miss Vera (Dirk Rogers). Taking the form of a stern school teacher, Miss Vera is a fearsome and cruel ghost who delights in terrorizing the young Gracie.
Miss Vera is first seen when Gracie gets out of bed in a dream-like state and finds herself in a school hallway. A dark figure off to the side of the screen and far away stands up and quickly moves towards her. Then, out of the shadows, two pale hands appear, beckoning her. When that fails, Miss Vera comes forward.
Season 1, Episode 1, “A Midnight Dreary”
Mike Flanagan’s fifth horror series,The Fall of the House of Usher, doesn’t pull any punches from the start. The series' pilot features a flashback moment of the show’s lead, Roderick Usher (Lincoln Russo), burying his ill mother after it appears she has died. However, it seems they buried her too soon.
In a driving rainstorm, the mother suddenly appears, covered in dirt and missing some patches of skin. She had been buried alive, a classic motif in Edgar Allan Poe’s works. She returns to her home and strangles her children’s biological father to death before finally dying herself.
5Cooper’s Demise In Black Mirror (2011-Present)
Season 3, Episode 2, “Playtest”
In “Playtest”, one of thebest episodes ofBlack Mirror, Cooper (Wyatt Russell) is a globe-trotter avoiding confronting the recent death of his father and his mother’s attempts to get in touch with him. During his travels, he accepts a paid offer to playtest a virtual reality game for a famed game designer.
The game involves implanting a chip into his brain stem to create horror scenarios based on his specific fears. As Cooper continues on in the game, he faces several terrifying events. The real terror comes at the end of the episode, however, when he wakes up screaming and dies, the chip having malfunctioned the moment he put on the gear.
4Vecna Reveals Himself To Chrissy Cunningham In Stranger Things (2016-Present)
Season 4, Episode 1, “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club”
One of the secret weapons ofStranger Thingsis that it’s not afraid to go to very violent places. Despite starring mostly children and teens, and having an energy sometimes comparable toE.T.orThe Goonies, a lot of people die inStranger Things, and they often do so horribly. It keeps the show feeling dangerous, like anything could happen.
One of these deaths comes in the season 4 premiere and is quite frightening to behold. Chrissy (Grace Van Dien) is a popular high school student with a traumatic home life, which makes her torture and eventual bone-splitting death all the more tragic and horrific. It’s also a proper introduction to the series' big bad.
3Demon Twins Chase Diana In Lovecraft Country (2020)
Season 1, Episode 8, “Jig-A-Bobo”
In episode 8 ofLovecraft Country, an underrated horror andfantasy TV show on HBO, “Jig-A-Bobo”, Diana Freeman (Jada Harris) is cursed by Seamus Lancaster (Mac Brandt) for refusing him a magical orrery. His curse results in Diana being stalked by two demonic spirits, Topsy (Kaelynn Gobert-Harris) and Bopsy (Bianca Brewton).
These two demons are horrifying racist caricatures of a character named Topsy in the controversial book,Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Topsy and Bopsy first make their appearance, quietly walking out of a packed train station entryway in broad daylight. If the image isn’t frightening enough, their disturbing contortions as they move will be sure to scare.
2The Outbreak Starts In The Last Of Us (2023-2025)
Season 1, Episode 1, “When You’re Lost In The Darkness”
The Last of Us opens with a chilling talk show segment from the ’60s suggesting a change in global temperatures could unleash a fungal infection that humans could not hope to counter. This hypothesis is made fact in the next scene, set in 2003 in Austin, Texas. The long opening shows the beginning of the infection’s spread.
Clues that something is wrong are slowly but plainly dropped throughout Sarah’s (Nico Parker) day around town. Stores are oddly closed, emergency vehicles are extra active, and in the out-of-focus background, we see humans shifting oddly. It’s an unnerving moment as we hold our breath waiting for what comes next.
Jump scares are a touchy subject for horror fans, with some decrying them as cheap and others pointing to their importance in the legacy of horror. I tend to go with the latter argument. A good jump scare can not only get you shrieking, but it can prime you for more scares along the way, heightening the mood and atmosphere.
The Haunting of Hill Househas one ofthe best jump scares everinhorror TV. In episode 8, Theo (Kate Siegel) and Shirley (Elizabeth Reaser) are driving to Hill House. Their tense discussion is interrupted by the Bent Neck Lady suddenly leaning forward from the back and screaming. Shirley drives off the road, and we throw the remote.
