For those who've finished watching The Haunting of Bly Manor and are emotionally devastated but still in need for more horror shows to celebrate Halloween, there are plenty of choices out there beyond classics like American Horror Story, Stranger Things and The Haunting of Hill House. The following shows deliver on scares while also making biting commentary, jumping timelines, exploring history and sending chills down viewers' spins, similar to what Bly Manor accomplished.
Ju-On: Origins (Netflix)
Ju-On: Origins is the obvious and most immediate choice after The Haunting of Bly Manor, as it is also on Netflix and has the advantage of rebooting a classic horror franchise. Furthermore, much like The Haunting of Bly Manor, the central set piece is an extremely haunted house shown over the decades.
At just six episodes, the Japanese show packs over 50 years of horrendous murders, ghosts, oppressive family secrets, multiple paranormal investigations and more. Fans of the Ju-On franchise will enjoy the show, as it offers a fresh new take on the legends, and it has excellent production values. New viewers won't feel lost at all, as the series is presented as "the real events" that inspired the films.
Monsterland (Hulu)
Monsterland is a horror anthology series, and each episode is named after a U.S. city and state, following different characters trapped in the bleakness of their daily lives until the supernatural forces change everything. The interesting aspect of Monsterland is that the world is almost exactly like reality, and the monsters are almost incidental. They're a break from a desolate reality, with motivations as understandable as our own; however, there are a few eldritch exceptions.
Some characters and elements from past episodes pop up for cameos in new episodes, gluing this wild universe together by offering a harsh commentary on moral apathy, the consequences of dismantling welfare and healthcare systems, systemic racism, radicalization and environmental destruction. In this sense, Monsterland is not a classic horror series with a clear villain. Instead it's a proponent of the theory that the real monsters were humans all along.
Vampires (Netflix)
Vampires is a French Netflix series that follows Doina, a Parisian teen living in a secret, decadent squat with her family, who are mostly vampires aside from her father and brother. For their entire life, Doina's mother has been giving Doina and her older brother, Andrea, pills to prevent them from becoming vampires while they stay off the radar of the Parisian vampiric community, who believe Doina's family could be an easy source for blood and money.
One day, Doina and Andrea decide to stop taking the pills. While Andrea remains undoubtedly human, Doina starts to transform into a day-walking predator. Vampires is a delight to watch, with a diverse cast and interesting shots of Paris. It is classic punk vampire horror, and it appears to be influenced by Vampire: The Masquerade's mythos and by the aesthetics of Only Lovers Left Alive. It's the perfect palate cleanser after heavy horror like The Haunting of Bly Manor, Ju-On and Monsterland.
Lovecraft Country (HBO)
Lovecraft Country should be the darling of the 2020 horror season. Based on the Matt Ruff pulp novel of the same name, Lovecraft Country follows the misadventures of the Freeman and Lewis families as they become the targets of a series of malicious wizard lodges dead-set on achieving immortality, all while facing vicious, racist attacks in '50s America.
The production value of Lovecraft Country is out of this world, and the show manages to do what the novel tried to but didn't quite achieve. It appropriates the monsters and haunts of the notoriously racist H.P. Lovecraft and hands them over to the Black characters that he feared so much. Lovecraft Country is a tremendous exploration of race relations and American history through a lens that has been neglected for a very long time. It doesn't shy away from difficult topics while also being an entertaining, polished and scary entry into horror's television canon.
Ares (Netflix)
Ares is a sleek horror series from the Netherlands that follows Rosa Steenwijk, an ambitious medical student who wants to join Ares. Ares is an elite and exclusive secret society whose members are always successful and socially revered in their chosen fields.
As the chic European cousin of Monsterland and Lovecraft Country, Ares explores the limits of ambition, guilt and sacrifice. It also dissects the façade of respectability, Europe's corrupt and exploitative history and the often unspoken, unaddressed racism and classism of the present. As a bonus, it also has the absolute most cathartic horror finale of the list.