There was a lot of good TV in 2024. It was an unusual year overall, the product of a post-strike Hollywood in the midst of a feverish industry-wide evolution from streaming to the cineplex, but plenty of great series still flowed throughout the year. Horror TV was no different: a slowdown in output didn’t mean a slowdown in quality, and there were a handful of outstanding horror shows in 2024 — a couple of them easily among the best shows of the year overall, and sadly, a couple of them also bowing out for their final seasons.
Here are our picks for the best of the best horror TV shows of 2024.
‘Interview With the Vampire’
“Interview With the Vampire’s” second season was some of the best television of the year, full stop, and definitely the best horror show of 2024. Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid continue to embody and redefine Anne Rice’s iconic lead characters, now with the addition of Delainey Hayles’ quiet rage as a new spin on Claudia, and much increased screen time for Assad Zaman’s captivating yet contemptible Armand. They’re all phenomenal, worthy of all the awards unlikely to be bestowed upon horror television, working from the rich, abundant scripts from series creator Rolin Jones and his exceptional writing team. Costumes, sets, music, makeup — it’s all on point, par de excellence, completely immersing, artfully crafted with such evident passion and attention to detail. “Interview With the Vampire” is TV at the highest caliber in every regard — and it’s also sexy, funny and a pleasure to watch.
‘Evil’
As heartbreaking as it is to see “Evil” go, at least the final season was pretty much perfect. The CBS-turned-Paramount+ original stars Katja Herbers, Mike Colter and Aasif Mandvi as an unlikely trio of “assessors” hired by the church to investigate alleged supernatural occurrences. From procedural to profound, “Evil” has walked an unusual path every step of the way, and it went out just the same, with a final season that packed in demonic and tech evils, a truly touching bathtub confessional, a hilarious meta-analysis of its own cancellation and a screaming quadrant of teens that never failed to get the laugh.
‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’
The loveliest “Walking Dead” of them all, “The Ones Who Live” does what it says on the tin, reuniting series mainstays Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) for a true blue “Walking Dead” love story. The series generated immediate excitement for the return of the fan-favorite characters, who departed from the mothership series long before it went off the air, but it’s not just another in the many, many spinoffs, “The Ones Who Live” is some of the best “Walking Dead” out of the entire franchise, tight and character driven (though more successful in the beginning than the end), surprisingly swoon-worthy and, yes, an absolute joy for folks who were eager to see Lincoln and Gurira back in the roles.
‘From’
Coming off of a trending run on Prime Video, “From” returned to MGM+ for its third season more popular than ever — a great place to be for a series that’s finally starting to pull the threads together. A mystery-box story to its bones, “From” follows the residents of an inescapable town, besieged by monsters and miscommunication as they desperately try to fight evils they don’t understand, uncovering new questions faster than the series can answer them. That is, of course, by design and now it feels like “From” is cresting toward an endgame, delivering devastating character losses, and some actual honest-to-god answers in its third seasons. The wrenching first two episodes, along with Tabitha’s return to Fromville in particular standout as series high moments.
‘Them: The Scare’
I’m not sure there’s a more heartbreaking character this year than Edmund (played by Luke James, who steals scenes left and right), the wannabe actor with a sensitive soul and shattered heart. (“You said I’d be good!” Please, I weep.) That sense of profound sadness underlines a lot of the horror in “Them: The Scare,” the second installment in Amazon’s anthological horror series from creator Little Marvin, which explores race and societal terror in America through its emotional supernatural tales. This season once again stars Deborah Ayorinde, this time as an LAPD detective in 1991, investigating a string of unnatural and horrifying murders. Featuring a roster of exciting horror directors (including Ti West and “Channel Zero: Candle Cove” director Craig William Macneill) and a fantastic cast that includes the great Pam Grier, “Them: The Scare” also boasts a couple of the year’s most downright scary TV moments (that couch scene!) and the heft of character-based horror that can give a good horror story real staying power.
‘What We Do in the Shadows’
“Things End. And it Hurts.” So says Nandor in the final season of “What We Do in the Shadows” and so say we all. FX’s series offshoot of Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s 2014 vampire mockumentary was, for years, the best horror comedy on TV. Heartbreaking though it is the series didn’t become another “It’s Always Sunny” as the cast hoped, at least it went out in style with a final season full of hilarious, creative swings. As the four vampires eternally failing to conquer North America, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Kayvan Novak and Mark Proksch were among the elite comedy ensembles on TV, balanced by the heartfelt humor of Harvey Guillén as their human companion. The final season had plenty of the giddy genre storytelling that made the series such a pleasure for horror fans (the ghost of Lazlo’s father, a head-crushing Frankenstein creature, more vampire cameos), before driving a stake into your heart with the bittersweet finale — well, finales, because “WWDITS” went above as always, delivering three different versions of the final episode to audiences.
‘Teacup’
Produced by James Wan and loosely (loosely) inspired by Robert McCammon’s novel “Stinger,” the Peacock series “Teacup” finds a handful of families trapped together on a farm when an alien hunter comes calling in a rural riff on “The Thing.” Though it struggles with pacing and a soft middle, “Teacup” delivers a lot of fun in the bookends, from the gross-out shock horror of what happens to any human who tries to cross the farm’s border to the psychological thrills of a sinister and scheming body-hopping human parasite.
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