Many people who love Halloween don't enjoy being scared, and these ten TV shows are perfect for them. The phrase "trick or treat" is an excellent representation of the holiday. Halloween has a fun side, packed with watching the Spooky Scary Skeletons video on repeat, eating caramel apples, and dressing up as your favorite TV or movie character.
However, there's also a frightening side filled with horror movies, blood, and jump scares. While I’m a lover of all things horror, many people would rather enjoy the holiday without the scares, which is equally valid. Things don’t need to be scary to fit the Halloween ambiance.
These ten shows delve into gothic horror styles, creepy themes, and incorporate the monsters frequently associated with Halloween. However, they aren’t likely to give you nightmares.
Wednesday
Available To Stream On Netflix
- Scary rating: 3/10
- Creepy rating: 4/10
- Tension rating: 3/10
The Addams Family was the original “spoopy” family before that term even existed. They were gothic, dark, and creepy. However, there was also an element of silliness ever since the characters took to the screen. Unsurprisingly, Netflix’s Wednesday follows suit, falling into more of the “creepy” category, rather than ever feeling outright scary.
However, it’s also perfect for the Halloween season – which, let’s be real, its all year long for some of us. The show follows a teen Wednesday Addams who attends a boarding school filled with outcasts, most of whom have powers, and solving the school’s biggest mysteries.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Available To Stream On Hulu & Disney+
- Scary rating: 3/10
- Creepy rating: 3/10
- Tension rating: 5/10
The teen show Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a staple of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, and it remains one of the best fantasy shows. As the title suggests, the story follows a teen girl named Buffy who discovers that she’s destined to slay vampires, demons, and other monsters.
The series is also the perfect choice for Halloween fans who don’t enjoy scary shows. Is Halloween really Halloween without vampires? Plus, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is 80% fantasy teen drama and 20% horror, and it very rarely delves into the realm of actually being frightening. Instead, it uses the horror aesthetic and tropes on and off throughout the series.
For viewers who are truly worried about the fear factor, these 10 Buffy The Vampire episodes are moderately scary. As such, they can be skipped. Luckily, the monster-of-the-week format means most episodes can be skipped without impacting the story too much.
Penny Dreadful
Available To Stream On Amazon Prime Video
- Scary rating: 2/10
- Creepy rating: 5/10
- Tension rating: 6/10
Anyone who loves classic literature, like Dorian Gray and Frankenstein, absolutely needs to watch Eva Green’s underrated masterpiece TV show Penny Dreadful. It’s also a perfect choice for people who liked the classic monster movies that weren’t actually super scary but technically fit in the horror genre.
In the story, a medium named Vanessa Ives teams up with some of the most popular Gothic novel characters to fight back against supernatural threats in Victorian England. Ultimately, Penny Dreadful has all the appeal of a Gothic horror with almost none of the scares, making it perfect for Halloween lovers who can’t handle scary stories.
The visuals and costumes are absolutely incredible. The acting makes you care about characters that would otherwise be deemed “monsters.” There’s just so much to enjoy about Penny Dreadful.
iZombie
Available For VOD On YouTube, Fandango, Amazon Prime Video, & Apple TV
iZombie Liv Moore
- Scary rating: 1/10
- Creepy rating: 3/10
- Tension rating: 3/10
Zombies are a staple of the Halloween season and scary movies, but they are usually depicted in terrifying ways. The very idea of a creature hunting down victims to eat their brains is creepy. iZombie is the perfect choice for anyone who wants to dabble in the concept of zombies without the fear side of things.
iZombie follows a medical student named Liv Moore in residency, who becomes a zombie after going to a party. To cope with her cravings for brains, she becomes a coroner. She quickly discovers, though, that she gets the memories of the person whose brain she’s eating.
While the zombie part of the story is prevalent to the premise, I would be hard-pressed to call the show scary or horror. Instead, I’d describe iZombie as more of a mystery show with some dark humor mixed in.
The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina
Available To Stream On Netflix
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina – Sabrina in a trance
- Scary rating: 4/10
- Creepy rating: 5/10
- Tension rating: 6/10
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a reimagining of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch story, which started as part of the Archie comics. In this version, Sabrina is half-witch, half-mortal with a demonic family legacy. This interpretation of the Sabrina Spellman story is true to its name in that the story is “chilling.”
It includes plenty of blood and gore, that could make some viewers uncomfortable.
The whole thing centers on demons and Satan as well, which might be a no-go for the more spiritual Halloween lovers. However, if those criteria aren’t deal breakers, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is the perfect spooky season watch for people who aren’t into the scares.
Pretty Little Liars
Available To Stream On Hulu, Disney+, & HBO Max
- Scary rating: 2/10
- Creepy rating: 4/10
- Tension rating: 5/10
The show Pretty Little Liars might not seem like the prime Halloween show, but it actually is a perfect fit. The show is a suspenseful mystery centered on a stalker known as “A” who torments a group of teen girls. It also features spooky elements like masked attackers, murders, physical and mental torture, chase scenes, and creepy dolls.
It has elements typical of the horror genre, except that it spaces these elements out with teen drama and romance. This prevents the show from being scary, even though there are more tense and creepy moments.
On top of that, Pretty Little Liars embraced its Halloween ambiance by making episodes centered on the holiday. They rank among some of the best Pretty Little Liars episodes of all time.
The Good Witch
Available To Stream On Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Xumo Play, Apple TV, PLEX, Hallmark+, FRNDLY TV, & Philo
- Scary rating: 0/10
- Creepy rating: 0/10
- Tension rating: 2/10
The show includes all the sweetness and sappiness expected of the channel. Occasionally, there are tense scenes, but they are extremely infrequent. For the most part, The Good Witch is just a cozy autumn watch.
It’s akin to Gilmore Girls or Virgin River, except with a touch of magic. There are equally quirky characters within Middletown, and relationships are central to the plot.
Over The Garden Wall
Available For VOD On Amazon Prime Video
- Scary rating: 3/10
- Creepy rating: 5/10
- Tension rating: 4/10
Over the Garden Wall came out on Cartoon Network, and it’s widely considered a good introduction to horror that isn’t too scary. While it was made for children, adults can absolutely enjoy the story and characters.
The animated miniseries follows two brothers named Wirt and Gregory, who have to find their way home by navigating a magical forest called the “Unknown.” They encounter numerous creepy entities that would be utterly terrifying in other contexts.
Charmed
Available To Stream On Pluto TV, Peacock, & Amazon Prime Video
A beam of light shines out of Prue's hand as the sisters chant a spell in Charmed season 1.
- Scary rating: 2/10
- Creepy rating: 3/10
- Tension rating: 5/10
Nineteen years after its debut, Charmed has found a second life on Paramount+, landing at number 10 on the Top 10 list. This isn’t surprising since it’s one of the best fantasy TV shows of all time. Luckily, Charmed is also perfect for Halloween fans, as it includes witches, demons, and a myriad of supernatural creatures.
The show centers on a group of three (later four) sisters who learn that they are witches destined to be the strongest force of good against demons. They must find a way to balance their romances, careers, and their duty as the Charmed Ones.
Although Charmed has some tense scenes and creepy-looking demons, the show rarely delves into the category of scary. The only episodes that really lean into actual fear are those featuring Barbas, the demon of fear.
The Fall Of The House Of Usher
Available To Stream On Netflix
A masked woman in The Fall of the House of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe is peak Halloween creepy vibes, and Mike Flanagan is the king of horror shows. When combined, we get The Fall of the House of Usher, an underrated masterpiece that belongs in the horror category without being terrifying.
The Fall of the House of Usher follows the family of Roderick and Madeline Usher, two siblings who built an opioid dynasty. The Usher family starts dying in different ways, bringing to light secrets about their dynasty.
The words I’d use to describe the show are dark, cynical, suspenseful, twisted, gory, comedic, campy, and eat-the-rich. The villain is creepy, as are the more violent scenes. However, The Fall of the House of Usher doesn’t have very many scary moments.
