Your Guide to Shudder, the Horror Fan's Streaming Service

As we ease into October, it’s time to indulge in all things spooky. The shorter days mean more time for darkness and creatures hiding in the shadows. Leaves begin to fall, surrounding us with rot and decay. This is the most wonderful time of year.

Though a trip to the darker side of life might be seasonal for some programmers, Shudder is doing its own creepy and haunted work year round. The streaming service launched back in 2015 and it quickly established itself as a hub for all things horror. Owned and operated by AMC Networks, there is a good balance of old and new, supernatural and terrestrial scares. Perhaps the most notable feature of the streaming service is “Shudder TV” : The app hosts three channels of live-streaming content to browse as it plays. Not only is this handy for folks who suffer from streaming indecision, it recreates that feeling of scrolling through channels and discovering a forbidden horror film late at night.

The service comprises mostly film content, and those coffers are deep, but it does have a robust and curated selection of programs for the episodic horror fan. Diving into a new service can be scary, so we're recommending a handful of Shudder's must-see shows, which range from honoring our horror forebears to finding more contemporary inspiration, and recommending a few starter episodes for each. 

The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

Horror and drag have long been cozy bedfellows. Both lend themselves to indulgence, makeup and effects, and a strong sense of satire. The Boulet Brothers (not really brothers) are well-known Los Angeles club hosts turned horror hosts, who have carved a very specific niche for themselves in the world of television drag competitions. Across four seasons of their program, and one additional all-star season called “Titans,” they’ve created a world where the grotesque and the beautiful are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Dragula generally follows the framework of most reality competition shows. There are mini-challenges, a grand performance, and witty guest judges deciding the contestants’ fate. Dragula sets itself apart in the way it handles judging and the consequences of losing. Before every evaluation of performances, the hosts make a point to say that, “drag is art and art is subjective,” and they encourage the judges to only comment on how well the competitors met the task, and not their art.

But what’s really unique is what happens after the judgment. In each episode of Dragula, the contestants with the lowest scores must go through a real-life horror test to see who survives to the next round. This might mean being buried alive, covered in bugs, jumping out of a plane, or even getting a tattoo of another contestant. When that challenge shows exactly how bad someone wants to be there, the loser is ushered off the show by starring in their own horror movie snippet where they get dramatically offed. It’s a fitting end to their grisly life on the show.

Starter episodes: “80's Female Wrestler” (Season 1, Episode 2); “Weird, Wild, West” (Season 4, Episode 3); “The Operating Theatre” (Season 3, Episode 6)

Slasher

Each season of this horror anthology tells a complete, standalone story. The show first debuted on the now-dead horror cable network Chiller — in fact, Slasher was the only original series produced by that channel during its decade of operation. After bouncing around on different streaming venues for some time, the series has now found a new home at Shudder, which produced the last two seasons.

Rather than casting a wide net across the entire horror kingdom, Slasher sticks to, well, slashers: stories that focus on stalking victims with a blade (typically), killing off their targets one by one. This horror subgenre is only one of many, and has been made famous by Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers. You know the type.

The fifth installment, subtitled Ripper, takes the series back to what might be the OG slasher figure in history, Jack the Ripper. It would be a bit too on the nose to rehash the famously unsolved London serial killer, so Slasher: Ripper uses the place and time to tell an eerily similar tale of the underbelly of that world. The streets are wet and grimy, the locals nefarious, and everyone untrusting. Slasher: Ripper sinks into that society while never compromising entertainment instead of historical accuracy.

Starter episodes: The first three episodes of Ripper, which premiered in April 2023, are a great introduction to this world.

Creepshow

It’s fitting that a series based on horror royalty, crafted as a living love letter to the genre, should find a home to thrive in at Shudder. Creepshow shares a title with its inspiration, the 1982 anthology film directed by George A. Romero and written by Stephen King. The two originally bonded over their love of gory EC Comics from their childhood, and eventually created the stomach-churning, silly classic film still loved today. Romero admirer and collaborator Greg Nicotero (of Walking Dead fame) helped bring Creepshow to the small screen as producer and writer-director.

Each episode of the three, soon to be four, seasons contains two discrete stories, framed with the animated reminder that these could have come right out of a comic book. They are zippy and schlocky, and often include a funny punchline to tie together the tall tale. But that ribbing has a long history in the horror genre, and doesn’t weaken or cheapen the series’s integrity or importance. It just likes to have a little fun.

It’s to Creepshow’s considerable credit that there isn’t enough room here to name all of the actors, writers, and directors from horror’s pantheon involved in the series, Given that the very first episode has a scene where Tobin Bell is holed up with Adrienne Barbeau, the pedigree starts and stays strong.

Starter episodes: "Bad Wolf Down/The Finger" (Season 1, Episode 2); “Skincrawlers/By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain” (Season 1, Episode 6); “The Right Snuff/Sibling Rivalry” (Season 2, Episode 3)

Channel Zero

Another horror anthology series, Channel Zero was originally created for and eventually canceled by the Syfy channel. But don’t hold that against the show, all four seasons are currently available on Shudder and each is downright devious.

Much like Slasher, each season of Channel Zero tells a self-contained story and pulls a single source of inspiration. However Channel Zero has a much more modern source for frights: creepypasta. Creepypastas can be seen as urban myths of the internet. One person will post a scary story, then someone will add to the legend, and so on and so on. This might snowball until it reaches infamy like Slenderman, or it might go on to be the basis of the next Channel Zero season.

Due to the varying nature of creepypastas, the kernel of terror in each season of Channel Zero varies too. What they each have in common is a steadfast commitment to unflinching horror. There is no campiness, no playfulness, and no camera winking in this series. It is honestly terrifying, and artfully steeped in dread and nightmares. Perception of fear changes from person to person, but the clear intent of Channel Zero is to terrify, and it does, consistently and without apology.

Starter episodes: “I'll Hold Your Hand" (Season 1, Episode 2); "This Isn't Real" Season 2, Episode 1); "Ashes on My Pillow" (Season 4, Episode 1)

Deirdre Crimmins has been a critic for over a decade and is always hopeful the next thing she watches will be her new favorite. You can find her on Twitter at @dedecrim.