10 Best Lovecraftian TV Shows, Ranked

Certain creatives have proven so influential and unique that their names have been reworked into adjectives, as anything that strikes the same nerve as David Lynch’s work can be called Lynchian, and certain kinds of grotesque horror can be described as Cronenbergian (after David Cronenberg). While he wasn’t a filmmaker like those two, H. P. Lovecraft’s name has also been turned into a descriptor, as certain types of horror works can be labeled Lovecraftian.

That being said, some stories have a Lovecraftian feel without wholly belonging to the horror genre, and when it comes to TV shows, such works may only sometimes dip into Lovecraftian territory on occasion. To highlight Lovecraft’s influence on the world of television, here are some shows that either sometimes or often deal with unusual monsters, ideas that are incomprehensible to human minds, and alternate worlds/dimensions, all the while inspiring a certain amount of dread among viewers in their most unnerving moments.

10 ‘Black Mirror’ (2011-)

Creator: Charlie Brooker

To be fair, Black Mirror is a show that indulges in all sorts of horror across its numerous seasons, and gets away with it thanks to being an anthology series that can tell a new story in every episode. Existential horror is perhaps most common throughout Black Mirror, what with the show often exploring futuristic technology and its impact on humanity, and at other times, the scariest thing about the show can be how inconsistent it feels.

As for Lovecraftian horror, the technology in Black Mirror is sometimes so frightening in its implications – or potential for misuse – that the horrors inflicted upon characters can be difficult to comprehend. Take for instance a device that can enslave digital copies of people who, if they disobey their owners, can be tortured for gargantuan amounts of time (the cookies in “White Christmas”), or a protagonist whose actions are selected by something he can’t perceive (the viewer, in the interactive “Bandersnatch”). That such concepts don’t involve aliens/monsters as one might expect from Lovecraftian horror arguably makes them more unsettling.

Watch on Netflix

9 ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’ (1995-1996)

Creator: Hideaki Anno

There’s an entire Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise that extends well beyond the original anime series, and indeed, it’s probably the film End of Evangelion that delves deepest into cosmic/Lovecraftian horror. Still, the original series, which aired in 1995 and 1996 for a total of 26 episodes, does get pretty strange, incomprehensible, and deeply unsettling at points, particularly once the series reaches its back half.

What begins as a seemingly normal show about teenagers being made to pilot giant mechanized suits as a way to fight back against strange monsters known as Angels gets progressively heavier, more intensely psychological, and horrific. Still, even in those early episodes, the monsters are difficult to make sense of and are as uniquely designed as they are terrifying, and then things just get worse as things feel more and more apocalyptic.

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8 ‘The Good Place’ (2016-2020)

Creator: Michael Schur

While it could get heavy every now and then, The Good Place was primarily a sitcom, and an indication of how relatively light-hearted shows can still explore dark concepts and heavier themes without becoming too depressing. Essentially, it follows one woman as she arrives in what seems a Heaven-like afterlife, though she feels she’s ended up there by mistake. Further complicating things is the fact that her arrival in this titular Good Place makes various things fall apart.

The Good Place changes gears dramatically at the end of its first season, uncovering a surprisingly complex mythology that has some unsettling implications, in terms of how people are monitored while on Earth, and what can await them after death. It gets big with its ideas and can be a little unnerving in parts as a result, with the darker moments clashing dramatically with the generally bright colors and comedic tone that much of the show upholds.

Watch on Netflix

7 ‘Stranger Things’ (2016-)

Creators: The Duffer Brothers

Stranger Things jumps around a fair bit genre-wise, and balances things well enough that it’s reached an immense level of popularity; one of the most notable of the entire streaming era so far. It can’t primarily be called a horror show, as a result, but it’s definitely willing to go to dark places, especially in the emotionally intense first season and the sometimes harrowing fourth season, which felt like a return to form and a refocus on horror.

When there are monsters and/or otherworldly sights on screen, Stranger Things can be seen to dig into Lovecraftian horror, with many of the terrifying things being traced back to the alternate dimension known as the Upside Down. Thanks to balancing the horror with action, science fiction, and some comedic relief, Stranger Things is one of the most approachable shows that leans into Lovecraftian stuff, but nevertheless qualifies as a show willing to play around with some cosmic horror-like ideas.

Watch on Netflix

6 ‘Angel’ (1999-2004)

Creators: Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt

A successful spin-off to Buffy the Vampire Slayer that still felt a little underrated/overshadowed for much of its run, Angel followed the titular character after he left Sunnydale at the end of Buffy’s third season. He tries to start over and seek redemption for his past misdeeds in Los Angeles, being joined by some other characters from Buffy alongside new faces, with this new team of demon fighters facing arguably greater and more apocalyptic situations than the main crew of Buffy ever did.

Angel was willing to get darker a good deal of time than the already very heavy (at times) Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and this included a few episodes and story arcs leaning more into horror. Such horror gets cosmic/Lovecraftian at times, like a reveal in season 2’s “Reprise” that Earth is effectively its own hell dimension and can never be fully saved, as well as a stretch of episodes in season 4 where a foe genuinely begins an apocalypse, and even blots out the sun.

Watch on Hulu

5 ‘The Kingdom’ (1994-1997, 2022)

Creators: Lars von Trier, Tómas Gislason

It’s hard to know exactly how to classify The Kingdom, also known as Riget, which was co-created/co-directed by the inimitable Lars von Trier. His films are known for being confronting and strange at times, whether they’re works of horror. The Kingdom leans right into horror and fantasy, arguably more than most of his films, and also ends up being a good deal more comedic than his cinematic works.

It is just all over the place tonally and when it comes to genres, but that’s also what ensures The Kingdom feels special and wholly unique, even compared to a certain David Lynch show that had two seasons in the 1990s before being revived for a third season almost 30 years later. With a hospital plagued by all sorts of supernatural and otherworldly phenomena, The Kingdom gets pretty Lovecraftian at points, but the terror and gore at least get balanced out with plenty of instances of bizarre dark comedy.

Watch on MUBI

4 ‘The Twilight Zone’ (1959-1964)

Creator: Rod Serling

Well before Black Mirror ever Black Mirror’d, there was The Twilight Zone, which was an anthology horror/sci-fi/fantasy series that initially aired between 1959 and 1964. Also, to compare it to something like Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Twilight Zone also expanded well beyond its original series/run, having had revival series in the late 1980s, early 2000s, and then between 2019 and 2020.

Presenting messages with each story, all the while exploring various terrifying situations and certain universal fears, The Twilight Zone was often very successful at bleeding into various types of horror, and becoming just as influential/popular as it was unsettling. Given the events of each episode tend to be unpredictable (as are the series’ famous plot twists), Lovecraftian horror is something one can expect to come across while watching any number of classic The Twilight Zone episodes.

Watch on Paramount+

3 ‘Twin Peaks’ (1990-1991, 2017)

Creators: Mark Frost, David Lynch

Initially conceived as something that could’ve been a series or simply a standalone movie, it’s for the best that Twin Peaks ended up being a surprisingly long-running series… and it even got its own movie, the prequel/sort of sequel that was Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Television-wise, it had two seasons at the start of the 1990s, and then a particularly bizarre, surreal, and unique third season in 2017, sometimes referred to as Twin Peaks: The Return.

Twin Peaks always had a feeling of surreal horrors being there right from the very start, sometimes lurking in the background, all the while various hellish occurrences and hints at something bigger occur more frequently as things go along. The Return is when Twin Peaks gets to be its most Lovecraftian, especially in the infamous eighth episode, which really does contain horrors beyond human comprehension. In other words, there are no words to describe what it offers as an experience.

2 ‘Berserk’ (1997-1998)

Creator: Kentaro Miura

If you’re looking for an anime series that taps into Lovecraftian even more explicitly than Neon Genesis Evangelion, Berserk has what you might be looking for. Even then, the true horrors inherent in the show don’t come out in full force until the series is nearing its shocking conclusion, with the last few episodes of the original anime series from the 1990s being notoriously nightmarish and genuinely traumatizing.

As an ongoing franchise that was originally a manga, and has since had other adaptations, the story in Berserk does indeed continue on from this particularly dark chapter. But for the original anime series, the ending leaves a good deal unresolved, and subjects most characters to horrors beyond their comprehension. The final several episodes live up to their reputation, and all prove uniquely terrifying and intentionally difficult to emotionally process.

Buy on Amazon

1 ‘Lovecraft Country’ (2020)

Creator: Misha Green

Here’s a bit of a no-brainer: a show called Lovecraft Country does indeed function as a work of Lovecraftian horror… who would’ve known? It also aired on HBO, so that ensures it’s able to be a good deal more graphic than other TV shows delving into this sort of horror, notably those that aired on network television and therefore had to abide by certain content restrictions.

Lovecraft Countrypairs typically Lovecraftian monsters and ideas with the real-life horrors of racism in 1950s Jim Crow America, following a Black man as he searches for his missing father, becoming embroiled in all sorts of terrifying situations in the process. It takes certain cosmic horror ideas and visuals and puts them in a tense historical setting, amplifying the horror all the more and ensuring this show – even though it only aired for one season – remains a great example of Lovecraftian horror.

Watch on Max

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