The 11 Best Sci-Fi Horror Shows on Netflix: A Guide to the Most Terrifying Original Series

There’s no denying that Netflix has been building quite a sci-fi horror library over the years, whether by acquisition from other networks, purchasing the exclusive streaming rights, or actually commissioning the entire production of TV series. The following is a selection of the 11 best sci-fi horror shows on Netflix today.

Stranger Things

You can’t really mention Netflix without having a few memorable scenes from Stranger Things coming across your mind, and for good reasons. Stranger Things is a pretty scary (yet reasonably family friendly) sci-fi horror with some intense nostalgic visual tones. It’s obviously a period piece in which the story happens in the 1980s, and properly truthful to the decade. You can hardly find any reference where the series intentionally makes a joke about the era. In fact, Stranger Things takes advantage of the retro setting to cast a captivating nostalgic spell that binds viewers of a broad age range to the storyline. The basic premise is simple, really. It all begins with a group of teenagers, finding themselves in the middle of a mystery that involves human experimentation and creatures from an alternate dimension. The blend of science fiction, family drama, horror, and comedy finds itself at home in the classic atmosphere of Stranger Things.

LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS

Now that everyone is said to have a short attention span made worse by constant scrolling of the touchscreen, LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS anthology series can be the perfect companion that serves a dense concise entertainment on TV. The anthology only has 18 animated episodes that run at an average of less than half an hour. You’ll find an impressive assortment of sci-fi horror tropes, including post-apocalyptic tales, distressed robots, war stories delivered in Starship Trooper style, mind-controlled aliens, and more. Unlike Stranger Things, however, LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS is much more wicked and unapologetically NSFW.

1899

Within just a few episodes, 1899 delivers a rapid fire of bombastic ideas like time travel, space exploration, multidimensional portals, and even pro-immigration politics. That said, everything seems to remain shrouded in mystery with a bit of sci-fi edge. The story takes place on a steamship crossing the Atlantic, and the timeline is about 13 years before the sinking of the Titanic. You can’t help but wonder whether the parallels are purely coincidental or deliberate design, especially in a series with a strong atmosphere of “death” all around. If you stick around long enough, you’ll realize that 1899 is the series that asks more questions than it does answers. If you find puzzling stories entertaining, give 1899 a try.

Archive 81

The plot is delivered through two different timelines in Archive 81. It can get tricky, but not as taxing as 1899. It revolves around a film archivist named Dan Turner, who has been recruited by businessman Virgil Davenport to restore some damaged tapes. Turner learns the tapes are actually parts of a history project by Melody Pendras in 1994. The found footage shall reveal her story. Archive 81 has a lot to offer, from paranoia and cult activity to conspiracies and supernatural events, but all are packed neatly in an understated sci-fi packaging. The key to enjoying the series is not to think too much about it.

Black Mirror

A sci-fi series for contemporary times, Black Mirror mostly talks about how technology may bring serious perils to society. It uses technology as a bridge to throw social commentaries around at various issues in the modern age. Many of the stories are set in a dystopian future, and the tone is almost always pretty bleak. Black Mirror is notable for its dim view of humanity at large, and that’s why the stories are not exactly what you can call “cheerful.” A friendly reminder: the episodes are rarely cheerful stories. But it also means they’re neither boring nor predictable.

Parasyte: The Grey

The South Korean series Parasyte: The Grey tells the story of Jeong Su-in, a grocery store worker with a somewhat troubled past and a parasite inside her body. Over time, the parasite grows and becomes some sort of alternate personality. With a big nod to the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s classic sci-fi trope, Su-in calls her parasite Heidi.

Dark

Mostly, Dark is a time travel story. Now, you might think that a series about such a topic often generates misunderstandings about many paradoxes surrounding the mechanics of it all, and ends up giving too many plot holes for the story to be enjoyable enough. And you’d be correct, if the series glosses over the time travel itself. The good thing is that Dark actually attempts to delve deeper into the concept, and as a result, it becomes one of the most intricate time travel narratives on TV.

Exception

In the future, Earth will become uninhabitable. If humanity is to escape extinction, somebody has to venture out to space and look for another planet to terraform. There’s no guarantee the mission will succeed on the first try, so it’s good that humans can turn to a 3D printer called “Womb” to manufacture an exploration team for the job, one spacecraft pilot at a time. But Womb is not perfect; a single mistake (or misprint) can create a monster instead.

Creeped Out

One of many Netflix “original” series with a history of airing on other networks outside the United States, Creeped Out is a horror anthology at heart, but you can expect a mix and match of other subgenres in the episodes. Some are outright supernatural and thriller, but others are plainly science fiction. For example, Season 1-Episode 11: “The Traveler” tells a story where the main characters are stuck between times; Season 2-Episode 3: “Help” concerns over artificial intelligence having access to personal information about its owners.

Daybreak

Speaking of a mix and match of multiple genres, Daybreak is like a blend of post-apocalyptic fiction, horrors, and teen drama poured into the same bowl. You’ll end up with a dystopian story filled with cannibals and crossbow-welding children. It’s as if someone comes up with an idea for a TV series after thoroughly enjoying the set of Mad Max and some teenage love story drama. Daybreak is funny, crazy, and action packed at the same time. It’s also annoyingly charming but in a stupid way.

Black Summer

The way Black Summer is filmed turns out to be the series’ key to success. While you might notice the shakiness of handheld cameras in the first season, it does create a good sense of close-and-personal perspective in every scene. The shakiness is toned down a little in the second season, but without taking away much of that atmosphere, to deliver a much more coherent picture overall. As for the premise, it is said that everyone in the world has been infected by zombie virus, which causes them to turn into the undead soon after they die. It doesn’t really matter if they die because of zombie bites or any other causes, they’ll become reanimated corpses, anyway. Another good thing about Black Summer is that the story takes place almost immediately following a zombie outbreak, not years after that.

We think there’s no shortage of sci-fi horror series on Netflix, and it looks like the library is getting bigger by the year. Admittedly, not every series is a major success, but it doesn’t change the fact that the company has delivered several notable ones as well. Even if you limit the options to “Netflix original” only, you’ll find more than enough shows to binge-watch any day of the week.

If your favorite sci-fi horror is included in the list above? What do you think is the hallmark of modern sci-fi horror series? We’d love to hear from you.

Other Things You Might Want to Know

What exactly does “Netflix original” mean?

It can be quite confusing sometimes because Netflix uses the term “original” to refer to several types of shows. When a series is labeled as “Netflix original,” it may refer to any of the following:

A show commissioned and produced by Netflix

A show co-produced by Netflix
A show of which Netflix has the exclusive streaming rights
A show first released on Netflix
A show that was previously aired on other networks, but then purchased by Netflix

What’s the original premise of the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

The novella, written by Robert Louis Stevenson and released in 1886, tells the story of lawyer Gabriel John Utterson as he investigates the strange occurrences between Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. As you’ve probably heard before, the two are actually the same person.