Supernatural has survived two networks and over 300 episodes to deliver, week-in and week-out, one of the best hour-long genre shows ever made.
Creator Eric Kripke (The Boys) earned his bonafides with what would become the longest-running show ever from the WB (before it became the CW) with an enviable premise: Two estranged brothers pull a Mulder and Scully and drive all over the country hunting supernatural beings trying to push into our world. The adventures of Sam and Dean Winchester — played by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, respectively — are the stuff of Hall H royalty. For 15 years, the series has been a reliable and compelling delivery system for small-screen genre thrills, even as its tried-and-true “Freak of the Week” episodic structure gave way to a more epic and biblical series mythology.
As the show enters its final season, here’s a ranking of Supernatural’s scariest episodes worth revisiting just in time for Halloween.
23. “Mamma Mia” (Season 12, Episode 2)
Supernatural’s years-long pivot into a “heaven and hell” mythology has sent the series down some dark paths. Season 12’s “Mamma Mia” is a unique mile marker on the series’ journey, as it fuses horror with literally biblical stakes when Sam is captured and being tortured by the British Men of Letters.
Lucifer gets wrapped up in the bloody endgame, as does a lot of sulfuric acid being doused on flesh (gross). The King of Hell proves to be no match for Sam’s will, but the disgusting sight of a skin suit reduced to sinew and bone is enough to make Clive Barker blush.
22. “Soul Survivor” (Season 10, Episode 3)
Supernatural quickly burned through its “Freak of the Week” storylines early in the first third of its lifespan, but “Soul Survivor” proves the show — even in its later seasons — still knows how to deliver legit scares.
Sam and Dean find themselves involved in Supernatural’s take on The Shining, as a possessed Dean goes full Jack Torrance thanks to a demonic possession. Once Dean’s eyes roll over pitch black, Sam hides in a bunjer and struggles to find a way to avoid his brother’s case of “redrum.” Dean’s attack on Sam is held off with help of angel Castiel (Misha Collins). What could have been a run-of-the-mill outing fuels its scares with an intense and unnerving showdown between Sam and Dean, proving that even after all these years, we are pathologically incapable of not caring for these guys.
21. “#Thinman” (Season 9, Episode 15)
Supernatural taps into the then-Slender Man craze by creating its version of a horrific online villain whose terror has gone viral. (For die-hard fans, this episode may spark memories of Season 1’s similar “Hell House.)
The Thinman creature design is the stuff that nightmares come from, and the episode seems to relish going back to the bump-in-the-night scares that the show’s first two seasons dined out on.
20. “Sympathy For the Devil” (Season 5, Episode 1)
The Season 5 premiere helps set audiences firmly on the path to the grand “Heaven vs. Hell” storyline that would fuel the series engine from here on out.
With the Devil freshly risen from Hell, Sam, Dean, and Bobby struggle to deal with the fallout of that as the bonds of their brotherhood are sorely tested. Why? Because one of the brothers is destined to be the vessel for Lucifer, with the other forced to potentially kill his brother to save the world. Hexes, blood sigels, and vintage Supernatural scares populate this eerie, game-changing episode.
19. “Devil’s Trap” (Season 1, Episode 22)
Jeffrey Dean Morgan returns as John, Sam and Dean’s dad, in a creepy AF season finale that finds the brothers trying to save their father from the evil, demonic Meg (Nicki Aycox).
Famous for introducing us to family friend and future series mainstay, Bobby (Jim Beaver), “Devil’s Trap” features one of the most terrifying exorcisms ever — which leads to an all-out conflict between the Winchesters and the demonic presence pulling Meg’s strings — the Yellow-Eyed Demon. The demon responsible for killing the Winchester matriarch and making her sons’ lives a literal living hell is finally glimpsed, and “Devil’s Trap” services the reveal with a strong dose of action and scares.
18. “Provenance” (Season 1, Episode 19)
“Provenance” turns what could be a lazy premise — the boys must deal with an old, haunted painting (naturally) — into a frightening exercise in puzzle-plotting tension on par with chillers like Robert Wise’s The Haunting.
Supernatural borrows a bit from Dorien Grey here, albeit with 100 percent more murder. Anyone that owns this antique family portrait from 1910 ends up dead, and the how and why that is leads the Winchesters on a race against time to stop the painting before it adds to its death toll. The way the painting kills, and the ticking clock hanging over its next victim, gives this scary episode a riveting edge few installments of the show have been able to replicate. It’s an underrated episode that is worth revisiting, but maybe rewatch it during the day time. With the curtains open.
17. “Dark Dynasty” (Season 10, Episode 21)
The Styne Brothers are creepy personified, a villainous duo you love to hate — especially in this eventful (and bloody) Season 10 must-see.
The Stynes want the Book of the Damned, a dangerous MacGuffin they believe is in the possession of one of Supernatural’s most popular characters, Charlie (Felicia Day). This episode delivers its terrors in short, controlled bursts, saving up for a big, grizzly payoff in the end when Charlie gets bested by the Stynes in a cheap motel room. When Sam and Dean come upon her bloody body in a bathtub, we suffer their loss right with them. We also feel Dean’s desire for revenge, as Charlie’s death sparks his “Man on Fire” tendencies that lead the character on one of his darkest paths ever. For one of the few times in the series’ run, we are as fearful of Dean as we are of the terrible things he and his brother hunt.
16. “Jus In Bello” (Season 3, Episode 12)
“Jus In Bello” is essentially Supernatural’s paranormal take on John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 but with one hell of a mic drop for an ending.
The episode is one the most popular and frightening encounters the Winchesters have with the Big Bad Lilith, who is one of the series’ most infamous and deadly villains. Sam and Dean struggle to defend a small town police station from an army of demons hellbent on killing Sam. Equal parts bottle episode and action-packed fright fest, “Jus In Bello” upends the boys’ status quo and makes their efforts to save lives null and void when they leave the station. Because that’s when Lilith, in the form of a young girl, shows up and destroys the building and everyone in it.
15. “Abandon All Hope…” (Season 5, Episode 10)
Invisible hellhounds stalk two fan-favorites to death in this classic Supernatural episode — which is easily an all-timer for the series. In what feels like an end times-infused horror Western, “Abandon All Hope” finds Sam, Dean, Bobby, Jo (Alona Tal), and her mom, Ellen (Samantha Ferris) on the trail of the infamous Colt gun to take down Lucifer (Mark Pelligrino) and drag his ass back to hell.
The episode largely takes place in the town of Carthage, where our heroes find no signs of human life as the town seems ravaged by early signs of Hell on earth. Once the hellhounds show up, it’s all over for Jo and Ellen — who sacrifice themselves to save the rest of our heroes. The attack leading to their sacrifice is a bloody mess that tugs on our heartstrings in one of Supernatural’s bleakest hours.
14. “No Rest for the Wicked” (Season 3, Episode 16)
Thanks to a WGA writers strike that curtailed production on Season 3, “No Rest for the Wicked” served as an unofficial season finale. It also served as a model episode for what Supernatural does best: Thrills and chills grounded on the backs of two of TV’s most likable characters.
In the opening teaser, Dean fails to outrun a hellhound that begins to maul him before he wakes up from the worst nightmare ever. Dean’s deal with the devil, his lease on life, has 30 hours left on it before the crossroads demon that made the bargain comes to collect. Sam struggles to save his brother from forever rotting in Hell but, in an inspired twist, Sam fails. And we are left with the retina-searing image of a tortured Dean trapped in Hell. Screaming Sam’s name into the void before the episode cuts to black.
13. “Playthings” (Season 2, Episode 11)
Jensen Ackles has admitted this Season 2 classic still scares the shit out of him — and for good reason. Killer dolls. *reaches for inhaler*
Possessed porcelain dolls pull an R-rated Toy Story when Sam and Dean pay them a visit at the very old and haunted inn they call home. Things go from zero to can’t-stop-screaming when the brothers realize that there is a problem with the inn’s owner, Susan, and her two daughters. Mostly that she only has one daughter; the other is her kid’s imaginary friend, or so it seems. The tragedy behind why this “imaginary friend” has infected these living dolls, and how the Winchesters can stop them, will leave you wishing you watched this episode with at least several friends.
12. “Croatoan” (Season 2, Episode 9)
Zombies, Supernatural style! “Croatoan” is what would happen if George Romeo blended The Exorcist with 28 Days Later. This episode famously introduced the Croatoan virus into the series mythos, a demonic, blood-borne plague that turns human carriers into rage zombies. The episode starts with Sam’s shocking vision of Dean killing a young man suffering from this blight and keeps hitting you with scary, zombie-esque iconography for most of its run time. The sight of the word “Croatoan,” scrawled in what looks like gallons of blood, still damages our calm.
11. “Roadkill” (Season 2, Episode 16)
A haunted Nevada highway brings Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer into the boys’ life with chilling consequences in one of Supernatural’s most tragic hours.
“Roadkill” features a stretch of road haunted by Jonah Greely who, 15 years ago, was run over and left for dead. Now, Jonah hunts the living in search of someone to fatally punish for his fate. One Supernatural’s better ghost stories, “Roadkill” hinges on one clever plot twist after another, culminating in a revelation surrounding Helfer’s character (and her ties to Greely) that packs quite the emotional gut punch. Few shows can pull off a scary and sad ghost story; Supernatural does it here effortlessly.
10. “Skin” (Season 1, Episode 6)
More icky in a body horror way than outright scary, this underrated outing from Season 1 features one gory scene we still can’t believe got past censors.
On the trail of a shapeshifting serial murder, we see it in its subterranean lair and witness it undergo a painful change. Its flesh splits as its teeth slowly pop out of its mouth. Its bones and muscles snap and crunch as it stretches and tears its own skin free to grow a new one. [Editor's note: HARD PASS.]
9. “No Exit” (Season 2, Episode 6)
What’s worse than squaring off with demons or poltergeists? Facing the ghost of H.H. Holmes, the world’s first serial killer ever.
Unfortunately for Sam and Dean, Holmes has renewed his crime spree and his hunting young girls with a striking resemblance to a fellow hunter named Jo.
“No Exit” teeters between scary and “holy-sh**-I-can’t-stop-shaking” scary, with a generous portion of gore for die-hard fans. (Holmes likes to leave a trail of angry, black slime.) The episode’s conceit is terrifying enough, but what Holmes does with his victims — the makeshift coffins he puts them in, and where he puts those coffins — is borderline depraved. But what really makes the episode so satisfying is how it balances all the scary bits with a compelling emotional storyline for Jo. A novice hunter, Jo instantly realizes how much of your soul one must risk to stop those that would tear it out of you.
8. “Scarecrow” (Season 1)
A popular narrative device of Season 1 was the Winchesters traveling to a small town with a big, dark secret. And they don’t get much bigger, or nightmare-tastic, than town elders using a pagan deity to wield a scarecrow to sacrifice folks just passing through.
The reason why the town elders are doing it — to ensure their town prospers in light of neighboring towns’ economic struggles — is ultimately the evil humans’ undoing. But along the way, “Scarecrow” ratchets up quite the body count with its slow-burn terror and unsettling design of the titular creature. The scarecrow’s first reveal is still effective more than a decade since it originally aired, thanks to one of the scariest teasers in the entire series’ run — and a shot of the scarecrow’s bindings swinging free from the pole to which it is no longer bound. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to turn all the lights on in my house.
7. “Pilot” (Season 1)
Supernatural creator Eric Kripke’s exceptional pilot is one of television’s most memorable debut hours. The series premiere confidently executes its “X-Files but with leather jackets and shotguns” premise with a gritty, 1970s horror visual aesthetic, bolstered with a haunting Urban Legend-y villain and one of the scariest finales we have ever seen.
The Brothers Winchester’s first “Freak-of-the-week” mission finds our siblings hunting the “Woman in White,” who kills all those who offer to give her a ride. As a villain, she provides the perfect vessel for the show to establish both the dynamic between estranged brothers Sam and Dean and the show’s old-school approach to horror. The Tobe Hooper-esque visuals carry throughout the first season, as does the residual fear after watching the shocking finale, where a helpless Sam watches his girlfriend, Jess, suffer the same fate as his mother: Pinned to a ceiling while burning alive.
This pilot says “come for the scares, stay for the brooding, gun-toting exploits of two sons struggling to follow in their dad (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)’s footsteps. And it’s a call fans have answered for 15 years.
6. “The Kids Are Alright” (Season 3, Episode 2)
This episode — it won’t just scare you. It will ruin you for life.
Sam and Dean take on changelings that can mimic children in a small town full of them. So what brings the Winchesters to this fresh hell? Dean, and the old flame who calls this little corner of murder home. She and her son need help, and soon, so do Sam and Dean. But all they have is each other and the back half of this episode milks the fright out of that drama for all its worth. The story
“The Kids Are Alright” feels like it lives on the same cul-da-sac as John Carpenter or Wes Craven’s best horror flicks. And like those classics, this episode will have you looking over your shoulder for days — an episode that has some of the series’ most frightening images ever.
5. "Everybody Loves a Clown" (Season 2, Episode 2)
“The One With the Clown” is, as you’d expect, terrifying. Because fucking clowns.
Borrowing a few pages from IT’s playbook, “Everybody Loves a Clown” is a Stephen King-esque dose of nightmare fuel, as the brothers Winchester set their sights on a circus that is home to a clown that preys upon the parents of young children. Lots of night and day terror-worthy scares ensue, especially when Sam and Dean discover that the clown is merely the form a Hindu-based entity has taken on so it can turn humans into its meal four. “Clown” serves as a chilling detour for the Winchesters, who are hunting for their dad’s killer: The Yellow-Eyed Demon. But not even that Big Bad holds a candle to this episode’s Freak of the Week, which still, after 15 years, is among the scariest things Supernatural has ever put on screen.
4. “The Benders” (Season 1, Episode 15)
There’s a moment early on in the “The Benders” when Sam realizes the bad guys that have confined him to a cage — they aren’t demons. They’re people — which turns out to be much worse. And exceptionally more horrifying.
Dean being submitted to intense and disturbing levels of torture is a popular trope on the show, and it arguably reached its highest (er, darkest) in this episode. The twist here centers on a hillbilly family that hunts humans for sport in the backyard of their small town, with Sam, Dean, and a local sheriff who lost her brother this family caught in the crosshairs. This episode’s scares comes from seeing Sam and Dean truly outmatched and rattled; they are unsure how they are going to get out of this one and, for a moment there, it looks like they won’t ever get out. They do survive (barely), however, but only after facing a threat that would make the Supernatural ghouls blush. Or cower in fear.