Netflix's live action/animated anthology series Love, Death, & Robots returns with another volume of original stories. The third volume adds nine more short films to the ever-growing collection of visionary tales and continues the series’ efforts to create visually stunning and surprisingly deep stories. Love, Death, & Robots always manages to subvert expectations with its genre-bending that ranges from laugh-out-loud comedy to nail-biting thrills. The most memorable stories though are the ones that seem normal at first, but then evolve into some truly horrifying.
With death and robots being a big part of most of Love, Death, & Robots stories, it’s not unusual to see some shades of sci-fi or horror within certain stories that make them super creepy. Given how each episode generally comes with its own stylistic aesthetics, there are plenty of chilling horrors this series offers. Now, the question is: Which episodes are the creepiest?
“The Aquila Rift”
The opening to “The Aquila Rift” is right out of a Ridley Scott Alien movie with it following a space crew going into hyper-sleep before they head home, but their trip takes an unexpected turn.
At first, it seems like the crew has drifted past their destination and is now in the hands of a familiar face. The truth, however, is totally nightmarish. The captain eventually realizes that this is all a fantasy and awakes to the real hellscape they’re trapped in as well as the alien creature holding them captive whose appearance will make you sick to your stomach.
“When the Yogurt Took Over”
While “When the Yogurt Took Over” has a charming animation style and a relatively comedic tone, it’s got some creepy undertones to its story of a beloved dairy product taking over the world.
After an experiment turns yogurt into a sentient being that can solve humanity's problems, it quickly becomes a creepy character. Maybe it’s because of the eerie way it talks or how it becomes the leader of all humans, but this yogurt is unsettling at times and the dark message that the episode leaves viewers with is foreboding.
“All Through the House”
“All Through the House” has a pretty standard Christmas-themed premise of children waking up in the night to catch a glimpse of Santa putting presents under the tree, but what they find is far from jolly or even human.
Instead of a red-suited Santa, the kids find that a disgusting alien-like creature that looks straight out of a Guillermo del Toro flick vomits up their presents and their warming vision of Christmas turns into a chilling horror. Talk about a nightmare before Christmas, right?
“The Witness”
The idea of running from someone who you just saw commit a murder would be thrilling and terrifying enough on its own, but “The Witness’” creepiness goes even further with the world that animators at Pinkman.TV creates.
The dingy, underground world of drugs and sex the episode takes viewers into adds extra levels of gross chills to the viscerally real chase story that unfolds, and the surprise ending is both mind-blowing and chilling.
“The Tall Grass”
“The Tall Grass” feels like Love, Death, & Robots’ take on a classic horror story with a man ignoring the warning of not walking into the tall grass after his train suddenly stops and eventually finding something horrifying.
Although the glowing lights in the tall grass seem harmless and are kind of hypnotizing, we quickly find that ravenous monsters live out in the tall grass and their faceless faces and disgusting teeth make you want to get up and run, especially when they start emerging from the ground.
“In Vaulted Halls Entombed”
The latest collection of shorts delivered one of Love, Death, & Robots' most gruesome tales to date with a simple mission transporting soldiers into a hellish cave.
“In Vaulted Halls Entombed” features the most star-studded cast of any episode with the likes of Joe Manganiello, Christian Serratos, and Jai Courtney, but it also features some of the goriest kills, the creepiest cave creatures, and the most horrifying discoveries. The final destination feels straight out of a Doom level and the ending image is utterly disturbing.
“Life Hutch”
This episode, starring Michael B. Jordan, sees a space pilot stuck in battle of survival against a robot that could easily kill him with a swift blow.
When “Life Hutch” focuses on Jordan facing off against this creepy robot, it’s a terrifyingly tense watch since the robot is creepy as hell with that eerie green detection light it has and the way it attacks itself in a vicious manner after Jordan eventually turns the tables.
“Shape-Shifters”
Love, Death, & Robots’ werewolf story, “Shape-Shifters,” quickly becomes creepy when its seemingly human protagonists and antagonists turn into their true forms.
The initial look of “Shape-Shifters” seems like a standard military story, but things become more horror-driven when the skin-tearing transformations start to occur and the visuals of the human skin ripping off bodies and the aftermath of these werewolves’ destruction are absolutely gruesome.
“Sucker of Souls”
“Sucker of Souls” is an archeology excavation gone totally wrong as a group’s run-in with a transformative vampire leads to some bloody consequences.
The design of the episode’s central vampire is pretty standard for what most would expect, but the opening kill he delivers is jaw-dropping and nasty. The vampire only gets creepier with its big transformation into a snarling beast and unfortunately for the group, they eventually find themselves in a coven of these creatures.
“Helping Hand”
If “Helping Hand” shows anything, it’s that getting lost in the middle of space sucks and the lengths that one astronaut goes to survive are cringe-inducing.
As her oxygen starts to drain, and she drifts farther away from her spacecraft, an astronaut makes the tough choice of sacrificing her arm to float back towards safety, and watching her arm freeze and then break it off is shocking.
“Bad Traveling”
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Love, Death, & Robots: Volume 3 provided fans with a tale of betrayal and horror on the high seas with “Bad Traveling” and its central giant crab antagonist is one creepy creature.
The bloody mess it creates from viciously decimating the crew is gut-wrenching and the way it uses the top half of a deceased corpse to talk to a crew member is creepy as hell. As the crew starts becoming food for the crab and its hunger grows more and more, “Bad Traveling” never lets off the steam in providing slow-burning creepy horror.