In every medium, across every platform, horror thrived in 2018. On the heels of a record-breaking, Oscar-winning year for the genre in 2017, horror hung on just as strong this year, with a huge presence at the box office, in print -- miracle of miracles, Fangoria is back! -- and arguably better than ever on TV.

Goodness knows there's no shortage of great TV out there these days. In this our age of Peak TV, somehow quality has endured and there's suddenly more good television out there than any one person can enjoy. Across streaming broadcast, cable, and the ever-growing list of streaming platforms, people just keep turning out great new series

This year, an unusual amount of the best new series were horror shows; be it AMC's critically-celebrated The Terror adaptation, or the social media sensations that were Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. At the same time, we had a number of strong returns for existing horror series, some expected and some as surprising as a creative comeback for a show I never thought I'd enjoy again. Everywhere you turn, it's been a good year to be a horror fan, and with that in mind let's look back on the best horror TV shows of 2018.

American Horror Story: Apocalypse

Bringing back the casts of Murder House and Coven firmly put into focus that American Horror Story is a very different show now. Long-removed from the more traditionally dramatic origins of the horror hit's first few seasons, AHS has become pure camp indulgence, delivered with non-stop winking and cheeky grins. Which brings us to American Horror Story: Apocalypse, the Murder House/Coven crossover that ended up being more of a Murder House detour on a surprisingly focused Coven sequel. Unfortunately, the season structure was fairly infuriating, often un-writing itself as it went, but Apocalypse still manages to scrape by with a spot on the list purely for the thrill of watching the mythology of the existing AHS universe expand, explore and implode. Apocalypse is a mind-bending end of the world origin story in reverse, which assembles all the fan favorites for a wild, orgiastic crossover that loops in witches, ghosts nuclear bombs, tech bros, cannibalism, robots and Satan babies.

The Walking Dead

Somehow, in its ninth season, The Walking Dead shuffled back into my good graces by finally doing something different. Warning: there are spoilers for Season 9 herein, though if you've managed to avoid them, I genuinely have no idea how. At long last, Andrew Lincoln hung up his grey beard and cowboy hat as Rick Grimes -- well kind, of. In a refreshing change of pace for the famously blood-thirsty series, Rick didn't die, but he's gone, heading off to his own trilogy of TV movies at AMC. Meanwhile, the story on the flagship show fast-forwarded six years, giving the long-running series an infusion of new storylines and characters it desperately needed after circling the drain of the same narrative loops for the past six seasons. We'll have to stay tuned in Season 10 to see if they can keep the thrill of the time jump alive long term, or if they'll eventually all back into the same patterns, but for now, the series is the best its been in years, brimming with potential instead of dragging under its own weight.

Ash vs. Evil Dead

In terms of bang for your buck, you’d be hard-pressed to find another horror franchise that delivers the goods as consistently as Evil Dead, from the original film trilogy, through the brutal remake, and most recently in the goofy/gory Starz series Ash vs. Evil Dead, which delivered serialized Spook-a-Blast thrills with all the Bruce Campbell one-liners you could ask for. In its third and final season, Ash vs. Evil Dead continued the tradition of the utterly unhinged franchise with all the signature splatter gore, gag-worthy gags, and low-brow humor that has made Evil Dead the benchmark of horror comedy, and Campbell continued to be the king of line delivery, mining every zinger and cheeky one-liner for all they’re worth. Campbell says he’s hanging up the shotgun for good now that Ash vs. Evil Dead is off the air, and if that’s true, then we sure got an appropriately ghoulish and goofy send off for the horror icon.

Castle Rock

The Stephen King shared universe is upon us and it is good -- no, not The Dark Tower, we all saw how that turned out. In a much more rewarding adaptation by way of re-invention, Manhattan duo Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason pull from the stories set in King's fictional town of Castle Rock, where they unfold a new tale of horrors and wonders in the interwoven lives of the small town residents. Castle Rock treats King's material with the utmost respect, bringing a literary feel to the original material while lacing in plenty of Easter eggs and character references for the diehard King-heads in the audience. Castle Rock doesn't feel like Stephen King, because it isn't, but it does feel like a next-generation riff on all the favorite themes and tropes. Come for the King references, stay for the emotional and engrossing tale of a cursed townsfolk unfolding the mysteries of their home -- and keep an eye out for 'The Queen', a mind0bending, heart-breaking episode that leans on Sissy Spacek to deliver one of the best episodes of television this year.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

The chilling Halloween delight of the year, Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina adaptation was a real All Hallow's Mood; a stylish, boundary-pushing spin on the beloved comic character and the world of witchy wonder she calls home. Far removed from the talking cat and suburban aunt days of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina goes dark and lethal with Satanic visions of a lavish, supernatural lifestyle. That means there are some genuinely spooky elements in this teen dream series, including a whole lot of casual murder. Seriously, they murdering everyone on this show -- sometimes twice. Fiercely feminist and inclusive, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina tells a unique story of sisterhood and coming-of-age in a world where accepted morality seems to make no sense.

 

Santa Clarita Diet

If you’re not watching Santa Clarita Diet, you’re missing one of the funniest shows on the air. But what might be more surprising to hear about this profane, blood-soaked cannibalism comedy, is that you're you’re also missing one of the sweetest, warm-hearted family dramas and what might be the strongest marriage on TV. Drew Barrymore stars as Shiela, a peppy real estate agent who suddenly dies and turns into a zombie one day under inexplicable circumstances. With the help of her devoted husband Joel (Timothy Olyphant), her no-bullshit teenage daughter Abby, and the anxious science wiz next door (Skyler Gisondo), Shiela has to adjust to her newfound taste for flesh and all the sweeping personality changes that come with being undead. From Better Off Ted creator Victor Fresco, Santa Clarita Diet is a laugh-out-loud goofball comedy, and thanks to Netflix’s content policies, it never has to shy away from a gore gag or a well-timed F-bomb. Barrymore relishes playing an uncensored spitfire with unquenchable bloodlust (and plain old regular lust), and Olyphant channels a grinning, high-strung side of himself we’ve never seen before. Together, they’re a knockout comedy pair with killer chemistry, and their depiction of a passionate, surprising marriage gives Santa Clarita Diet a lot of heart to go with all that blood, guts and gore.

Channel Zero

Syfy's CreepyPasta anthology series returned for another outstanding season in 2018, once again transforming the bones of a great internet-age horror story into a gripping horror fantasy narrative. Cheap Thrills helmer Evan Katz directs the fourth installment of the series, Channel Zero: The Dream Door, from a story by series creator Nick Antosca, which follows a pair of newlyweds after they discover a hidden door in their basement that unleashes an otherworldly force. Colorful and striking, Dream Door takes wild imaginative swings with the concept, and as always, Channel Zero takes strives for some of the boldest storytelling leaps and narrative inventions on TV. But as impressive as the previous seasons have been, they didn't have Pretzel Jack -- the wildly unnerving killer clown brought to life by mind-blowing contortionist "Twisty" Troy James, who inspires this season's best sequences. If Pretzel Jack were the only thing hiding behind those doors, The Dream Door would still be one of the best seasons of Channel Zero yet, but Antosca has plenty of inventive twists and oddball turns on the menu to ensure The Dream Door is one of the wildest and most wonderful horror stories on TV this year.

The Terror

Equal parts fancypants British drama, thrilling naval adventure, and oppressive cosmic horror, The Terror leaps of the page of Dan Simmons's celebrated horror novel to become one of the best TV shows of the year, regardless of genre. (Don't believe me? Just ask our TV Editor Allison Keene, who put it at #7 on her year-end list.) Trapped within the walls of two ships, the men of the royal navy set out to discover the Northwest Passage, but a perfect storm of human failure,  mother nature's cruelties, and supernatural influence send the expedition on a spiral into illness, madness, and murder. Created for TV by Soo Hugh and Suspiria screenwriter David Kajganich, The Terror is a kaleidoscope of horror genres that showcases the complete implosion of an adventure, where every element seems impossibly aligned against success, but the human spirit carries on and strives for survival, no matter the costs.

The Haunting of Hill House

One of the biggest surprise sensations of the year, Mike Flanagan's re-imagination of the Shirley Jackson haunted house classic shook audiences to their core and hooked 'em deep with the tragic tale of the Crain family. Set over the course of ten episodes, The Haunting of Hill House re-crafts Jackson's story to fit the sprawling Crain family through their lives, and unveils how the traumatic horrors they endured inside the toxic walls of Hill House shaped them for decades. Flanagan treats his characters and their peril with the utmost affection and attention to detail, unfolding their stories with a symphonic narrative structure that introduced their family horror from the perspective of each individual before bringing them crashing together in the stunning long-take episode  Two Storms' -- a showcase of acting, writing and direction as good as you'll find on any prestige series this year. At the same time, Flanagan builds a whole world, a seemingly endless nightmare where the familiar traumas and terrors lie in wait for the Crains around literally every and any corner in the world. By tying up his horrors into the internal violence of his characters, Flanagan crafts some of the best scares of the year (including some that genuinely kept me up at night), blending it all up into a sweeping melodrama that builds swells of emotion into crests of blinding fear. This is classic, almost masterpiece level horror storytelling, the kind that digs into you and grabs you by your heart and your bones, manipulating you around like a perfectly performed puppet that laughs and cries and screams right on cue for all of the story's impeccably laid beats.