In time for Halloween comes our look at the spookiest moments in TV history. How scary can TV be, right? Scanning its history…frightening!
SheKnows television columnist Cynthia Boris and entertainment editor Joel Amos went over 60 years of television to compile this list in honor of Halloween. All of these titles are available on DVD, so for a good scare on fright night, skip the horror movies and head to the television terror.
We would be remiss to not point out, scary TV is subjective. At times, Paris Hilton’s New BFF could easily qualify to be at the top of our scary TV countdown.
10. Twilight Zone
Pick a moment. Any moment! Rod Serling’s masterpiece scared the life out of viewers when television was in its infancy.
Some of the show’s best moments featured actors that would go on to become iconic for other roles including William Shatner in the episode on the plane. Shivers! Try telling an entire airplane that a gremlin is bringing the aircraft down while you’re sweating profusely and give off an aura of utter derangement. But, the audience knows he’s telling the truth.
To this day, the stories compel, the frights scare and it is often imitated and never reproduced.
9. Tales from the Crypt
Get beyond the goofy-looking talking skeleton host and this series on HBO was way ahead of its time.
Check the guest star list on imdb.com and witness a slew of award winning talent that saw something special in the show’s ability to draw out suspense in the most frightful of ways.
8. Supernatural
Supernatural is a mini horror movie every week! Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) Winchester have grown up hunting ghosts and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night.
It all started when their mother was burned alive on the ceiling of Sam’s nursery when he was a baby and it’s only gotten spookier! From Bloody Mary to the classic werewolf, creator Eric Kripke is the current master of big scares on the small screen. Don’t plan on watching this one alone.
7. Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows terrified television viewers on ABC from 1966 to 1971. A soap opera of the horrific kind that surrounds the world of vampires managed to pull as it pushed our buttons.
Dark Shadows began as a typical gothic soap opera about a young woman who takes a job as a governess in the small New England town of Collinwood.
But with the addition of a character named Barnabas Collins the show went from mildly to wildly successful, breaking ground as the first (and almost only) supernatural soap.
Vampires, werewolves, witches and zombies – if it went bump in the night, you could find it on Dark Shadows. It’s the series that made heroes out of vampires and made plenty of young girls (myself included) wish to be a pretty witch.
6. Twin Peaks
There’s spooky and then there’s the mind of David Lynch. ‘Nuff said!
Up next…our top 5 shows that spook including an X that marks the spot, and heading to the Outer Limits of Lost
Leave a Comment