Short-form horror stories have been a tradition for centuries, from mythological cautionary tales of ancient civilizations to the works of Edgar Allen Poe. This format has translated seamlessly onto the screen for decades, giving audiences quick jolts of genuine terror, while telling a succinct and gripping story within a limited runtime.

Both film and television have capitalized on this trend, most popularly by compiling a series of short horror stories into an anthology. With recent Netflix series Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities providing a collection of terrifying tales, here is a look back at some of the greatest achievements in horror anthologies to date. You might want to leave the light on for this one.

'Three...Extremes' (2004)

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For years, Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea have dominated the international horror market, with directors like Park Chan-Wook (South Korea), Takashi Miike (Japan) and Fruit Chan (China) flexing their muscles in the macabre. Three...Extremes gives these auteurs free rein to live up to the anthology's title and deliver a trio of tales involving betrayal, revenge and mysterious pastries.

Each segment offers a different flavor of horror, creating a full-spectrum view of the genre. "Dumplings" is a disturbing slow burn about dumplings with mysterious properties, "Cut" is a tense chamber piece packed with disturbing imagery and even more disturbing revelations, and "Box" is an operatic dreamlike tale with an eerie premise that only Takashi Miike could conceive.

'Black Mirror' (2011-Present)

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This British dystopian tech-horror anthology series from the mind of Charlie Brooker exploded internationally with its arrival on Netflix, giving audiences worldwide a Twilight Zone for the modern era. While not every installment fits snugly within the horror genre, a majority of the episodes are rife with grim commentary that give the narrative a looming darkness.

Many episodes, however, such a "White Bear" and "Playtest", double down on their horror leanings, from a potentially haunted video game to an army of animal-masked killers. With five seasons and counting, Black Mirror has only become more haunting with its increasingly nuanced observations of prescient issues that plague modern society, living up to its title as a reflection of humanity's dark side.

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'Kwaidan' (1964)

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Prolific Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi forged one of the early titans of the horror anthology subgenre with this collection of ghostly tales framed around Japanese folklore. Fueled by performances from some of Japan's finest and a budget that almost imploded production, every talent and resource involved is on full display with every gorgeous frame.

The film's elaborate set design is crafted with a surreal eye and an intentional artifice that gives every segment a dreamlike storybook quality. Each cautionary tale is both haunting and beautiful, with the longest segment, "Hoichi the Earless", which follows a musician with ghostly visions, acting as the film's showstopping centerpiece.

'Dead of Night' (1945)

Michael Redgrave with a dummy in Dead of Night
Image Via Universal

One of the earliest examples of the horror anthology in film, Dead of Night follows an architect who meets with a group of seemingly random people, all of whom he claims to have seen in his dreams. As each individual shares their own strange story, a supernatural connection slowly reveals itself, creating tension and fear among the group.

One of the most successful attempts at tying an anthology of disparate stories together, this enduring classic also provides a wide array of varying approaches to horror. Ranging from ghostly sex comedy to a psychological nightmare involving a ventriloquist dummy, Dead of Night refuses to let up, and, to this day, manages to surprise at every corner with its nuanced scares and ahead-of-its-time filmmaking techniques.

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'American Horror Story' (2011-Present)

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Likely the most popular example of the horror anthology of the 21st century, American Horror Story has constructed a sprawling and terrifying world over its decade-plus run of nightmarish tales. Though each season explores a different subgenre with a new ensemble of characters, cast members and subtle story threads are recycled, creating an interconnected horror universe unlike any other.

Despite varying quality and wildly different tones between seasons, American Horror Story has enraptured fans with each unpredictable season over its long run. From aliens to witches to radical extremists, all shades of horror fan are likely to enjoy this roller coaster ride of a genre experiment.

'Trick 'r Treat' (2007)

Sam, a child with a burlap sack over his head in a spooky room from Trick r Treat.

Michael Dougherty's modern cult classic combines genuine scares with a pitch-black sense of humor. In contrast with most horror anthologies that concretely divide their segments, Trick 'r Treat entwines its loosely-related stories over the course of one wild Halloween night.

Dougherty balances the film's divergent tones with grace, instilling the viewer with a sense of unease that leaves them guessing if what's around each corner will make them laugh or cringe in terror. It's all blended into a love letter to decades of horror cinema, with dozens of homages to the greats, all while cementing its own place in Halloween movie history.

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'Tales From the Hood' (1995)

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When eccentric mortician Mr. Simms (Clarence Williams III) crosses paths with a group of teenage drug dealers, he uses the opportunity to tell them a series of scary stories in order to redirect them toward the straight and narrow path.

At first glance, Tales From the Hood may appear to have a lighter tone than most horror films, but that doesn't make its themes any less poignant. Police corruption, racism and gang violence are all touched on with various supernatural approaches, directly addressing America's social tension that had reached a fever pitch in the mid-90s. A mostly African-American cast carries this hilarious, creepy and underrated cult hit, marking one of the few instances of representation in the genre at the time.

'V/H/S 2' (2013)

A man aggressively lunges at the camera with a weapon in VHS 2.
Image via Magnet Releasing.

This sequel to the scrappy found-footage horror collection V/H/S, V/H/S 2 ups the ante at every angle, with a larger budget and a handful of genre-defining directors bringing their A-game. At the height of the found-footage boom, each creative team has a field day with the format, pushing it to its creative and terrifying limits.

Each segment brings a unique flavor, however the standout is easily gonzo documentary-gone-wrong "Safe Haven". Gareth Evans carries over his partnership with Indonesian talent from his Raid films, with Timo Tjahjanto contributing his affinity for the extreme as co-director. Positioned dead-center in the film's runtime, this chill-inducing thrill-ride makes the whole anthology worth the watch alone.

'Creepshow' (1982)

A man covered in a grass like substance

Young Billy is punished by his abusive father for reading "Creepshow" horror comics, who also throws the comics away. This causes Billy to wish for his father's death. Miraculously, the Creep, the narrator of the comic series, appears and retrieves the comics from the trash.

Mimicking the style and format of horror-collection novels and comics, director George A. Romero and writer Stephen King combine their spooky powers to offer up a series of short and scary tales. From extraterrestrial plant-life to alcoholic zombies, the dynamic duo covers as many sub-genres as possible, with just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek humor to offer up a cult classic as campy as it is creepy.

'Black Sabbath' (1963)

A creature from Black Sabbath
Image Via Warner Bros

Boris Karloff introduces three terrifying tales. "The Telephone" takes place entirely in the apartment of a call-girl who receives threatening phone calls from a man she testified against, landing him in prison. "The Wurdulak" follows a family haunted by an undead creature who stalks its loved ones. Finally, "The Drop of Water" follows a nurse who begins witnessing strange occurrences after stealing a valuable ring from a dead body.

Teaming up with horror icon Boris Karloff, the equally prolific Italian director Mario Bava brings his distinct brand of horror to the anthology format, which more than lives up to the potential that concept would suggest. The film's operatic performances and stylized visuals have a fairy tale-like quality, imbuing each segment with the nostalgic whimsy of a spooky bedtime story. "The Telephone" and "The Drop of Water" are tightly wound tales of suspense, but they both serve as quaint bookends to the film's sprawling centerpiece, "The Wurdulak", a folklore-inspired tale, featuring Karloff himself, that has enough depth and world-building for its own feature-length film.

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