For all of you sci-fi and horror junkies, we’ve rounded up the top 15 shows to watch once you’ve finished the American Horror Story canon.
When American Horror Story first premiered, it felt like a wacky, wonderful gift for horror fans everywhere. Although there are plenty of horror movies to choose from, AHS was one of the first horror television shows of its kind, and the first season, in particular, was actually pretty terrifying.
Each season of AHS follows a new horror tale, and some have been stronger than others. (In case you’re new to the series, fans are pretty much unanimous in the opinion that even though Lady Gaga looks amazing as a sexy vampire, Hotel is a season worth skipping).
The tenth season of the show just premiered, and if you haven’t watched it yet, it’s a doozy. If the thought of waiting a whole week for another episode is too much to handle, don’t fret. While you wait, we’ve rounded up 15 other sci-fi, horror, and mystery shows like American Horror Story for fans to sink their teeth into.
Shows Like American Horror Story
True Blood (HBO Max)
An oldie but a goodie, True Blood is just the type of schlocky, sexy horror show that American Horror Story fans will eat right up. The show takes place in a world where scientists have just invented a synthetic blood substitute called “True Blood,” which allows vampires to “come out of the coffin” and live among human beings. (Since they no longer have to drain human blood to eat, we no longer have to be afraid of them, of course.) In a small Louisiana town, a beautiful young waitress named Sookie — who can read minds, because why not? — meets a handsome and mysterious vampire named Bill, and they begin a passionate and (of course) dangerous love affair. Come for the sex scenes, stay for the fang-baring action.
The Servant (Apple TV+)
This show’s concept is totally original, and creepy as heck: After the newborn baby of a wealthy young couple passes away, the mother goes into a catatonic state — which is only broken when she’s given a baby doll to hold. The woman’s convinced the doll is real, even hiring a nanny to help her care for it, much to the embarrassment and concern of her husband and brother. When the nanny — a strange, quiet young girl who the family knows very little about — arrives, the husband is shocked that she starts treating the doll just like a baby, too. He’s worried, weirded out, and annoyed…and then he hears the doll crying. For the horror fan, this show has everything: A creepy young woman with a dark secret, a mysterious cult, and many, many things that go bump in the night.
The Outsider (HBO Max)
This fairly new HBO fantasy-horror series comes to us courtesy of Stephen King, the aptly-named titan of all things horror. When Terry Maitland (played by Jason Bateman) — who by all accounts is a loving father, caring and attentive little league coach, and all-around stand-up guy — brutally murders a little boy in broad daylight, everyone who knows him is shocked. What seems like it should be an open-and-shut case suddenly becomes very complicated when Terry, who was seen with the little boy and is clearly the murderer, provides an airtight alibi for the day in question and is even seen on video at a conference hundreds of miles away. This show is absolutely bonkers and requires you to suspend your disbelief quite a bit, but once you get into it, it’s pure nightmare fuel.
Wayward Pines (Amazon Prime)
This sci-fi mystery show has a plot twist that we don’t think you’ll see coming from a mile away. It stars Matt Dillon as Ethan, a secret service agent who’s sent to Wayward Pines, Idaho when his partner (and former lover!) goes missing along with another agent. While looking for them, Ethan gets into a car accident and wakes up in the Wayward Pines hospital without his wallet, keys, or phone. The town seems to have no phones or internet, and Ethan can’t get in touch with his wife and teenage son who are trying desperately to find him. When the townspeople’s subtle attempts to keep him from leaving grow more and more extreme, Ethan quickly begins to realize that there’s a reason why nobody seems to come back from Wayward Pines.
Evil (Netflix)
In Evil, an agnostic psychologist named Kristen teams up with a Catholic priest to investigate the hundreds of unsolved mysteries that are reported to the church either as miracles or demonic possessions. The majority of the time, the pair is like a couple of mythbusters, finding a logical explanation for whatever seemingly magical event has happened. But the more unexplained phenomena Kristen encounters on the job, the more she starts to believe that maybe there really are supernatural forces at work.
Bloodline (Netflix)
Bloodline is one of only two shows on this list that don’t exactly fall into the horror genre, but we think deserves a spot all the same. Bloodline is a slow burn of a mystery about a seemingly perfect family, the Rayburns, who own a beautiful inn in the Florida Everglades. When three of the adult Rayburn children decide to throw an elaborate party to celebrate their parents’ 45th wedding anniversary, their fourth sibling, a troubled and unhappy man named Danny, shows up, to everyone’s dismay. As the series unfolds, you learn why Danny was shunned by his family, to begin with, and the dark and disturbing secrets that each of the Rayburns holds slowly bubble to the surface, threatening to ruin them all.
Broadchurch (Netflix)
Broadchurch isn’t sci-fi, horror, or fantasy, but it’s arguably the best mystery television show on Netflix, and any fan of darker-themed TV is sure to be obsessed with it. The series follows British acting legends Olivia Coleman and David Tennent as Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller and Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, who head up the police department in a sleepy British seaside town. When an 11-year-old boy is found dead on the beach, the town is rocked to its core, and everyone is a suspect. The series has three seasons — the second is pretty good, the third is, uh, not great — but the first season is absolutely exquisite.
Orphan Black (Netflix)
Want to know if someone is a good actor or not? Cast them in a role where they have to play 14 different versions of one woman. That’s what Tatiana Maslany pulls off in Orphan Black, a series about a troubled young woman whose life is turned upside down when she learns that she’s actually a clone and that over 200 versions of her are running amok in the world. Like any classic “nature vs nurture” story, some clones are good and others are evil, and figuring out each one’s motives — as well as who brought them into existence, and why — will have you binge-watching this series for hours.
The Twilight Zone (Hulu)
While audiences have been graced with many sci-fi anthology series over the years (some superior to others), it’d be a crime not to pay homage to the first and, arguably, best: The Twilight Zone. While there have been multiple revival attempts, including a Jordan Peele remake of the series back in 2019, nothing compares to the original, which ran from 1959-1964. Considered one of the best TV shows of all time, The Twilight Zone paved the way for the horror and sci-fi shows that came after it. If you’re truly a first-timer to the series, there’s no better episode to start with than “Eye of the Beholder,” which finds a woman waking up in a hospital room, covered in bandages. “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is another classic — released in 1960, this episode focuses on how the residents of a small community react when they learn that aliens might be among them. It’s got some eerie real-life parallels to the Cold War anxiety plaguing Americans at the time of the show’s release.
Black Mirror (Netflix)
If you’re a fan of The Twilight Zone and haven’t watched Black Mirror yet, strap in for one intense ride. What started as a small three-episode British sci-fi series has grown into one of the most popular shows on Netflix — the streaming service even released an interactive episode (although we don’t suggest that Black Mirror newbies start there). The loose thematic thread tying the episodes together is the dark side of technology (the “black mirror” being your phone reflecting back at you). But like The Twilight Zone, you can jump into this series at any point, so why not start with the best? “Be Right Back” is one of our favorite episodes, about a young woman reeling from the grief of losing her husband, who decides to buy a lifelike clone of him. The episode is both chilling and heartbreaking, and will have you immediately hooked.
Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams (Amazon Prime Video)
If you loved Black Mirror, try Electric Dreams, a similar (if slightly less impressive) version. The title’s a reference to sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, upon whose stories the series is based. Like Black Mirror, each episode is a totally contained story and generally flirts with what happens when we let technology have too much power in our lives. Even if some of the episodes are a little wonky, the caliber of talent in each episode (Bryan Cranston! Janelle Monae! Steve Buscemi!) won’t disappoint. We suggest starting with “The Commuter” — it stars Timothy Spall (who most Americans may recognize as Peter Pettigrew from the Harry Potter series) as a bored transit worker with a difficult family life who learns about a secret, mysterious stop along his train route.
You (Netflix)
If the ultra-dramatic, soapy element of American Horror Story really draws you in, then you’re sure to love You. It follows the inner workings of a troubled young man named Joe who becomes obsessed with a woman who lives nearby. After he’s stalked her for a while, he ends up working his way into her life, and eventually, the two start dating. When one of her friends starts to become suspicious that Joe isn’t exactly who he says he is, his obsession turns violent…and that’s just season one.
Bates Motel (Peacock)
All you horror fans should be very familiar with Norman Bates, the serial killer from Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller, Psycho. He had a strange relationship with his mother, to say the least — but how much do we actually know about her? That’s what Bates Motel seeks to find out. The series follows teenage Norman as he forges a creepily close relationship with his mother Norma when the two open a motel together in a beautiful coastal town. Ultimately it’s the origin story of one of fiction’s most famous serial killers, and provides ample creepy backstory as to where Norman’s mommy issues stem from.
Maniac (Netflix)
When Emma Stone and Jonah Hill announced they would be working on their first project together since the raunchy teen comedy Superbad, people were understandably excited. But be warned: Maniac has about as much in common with Superbad as The Exorcist has with Leave it to Beaver. Maniac takes place in a slightly altered universe where advertisements have a sort of all-consuming, Big Brother-esque presence. In order to make some quick cash, two people with major psychological issues enroll in a trial for a new drug which the pharmaceutical company claims will solve all of their problems, with absolutely no side effects. Shockingly, things go entirely off the rails. Maniac is one of the most original sci-fi series to come out in years, and will keep you guessing until the very end.
Dark (Netflix)
A warning to anyone who watches TV while multitasking or looking at their phone — Dark is NOT for you. This show spans multiple different timelines and there are about 20 main characters, each played by multiple actors at different points in the characters’ lives. And did we mention it’s in German? If that’s not enough to scare you off, then congratulations, because Dark is an absolute masterpiece. It takes place in a small German town with a big secret: In the woods, there’s a cave containing a portal that can transport people into the past or future at 33-year intervals. The show gets incredibly creative with the strange relationships this portal creates. Adults travel back in time to warn their younger selves of danger! Children meet their own future children as adults! If you’re willing to devote the time to keeping track of who everyone is and where they are in time, you’ll be amazed by the intricate web that Dark weaves, and the way the stories collide.
