Netflix’s 5-Part R-Rated Horror Show Makes The Haunting of Hill House Look Tame

While Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House is arguably the best horror TV show ever made, one Netflix hit proves that it is far from the darkest and goriest small-screen entry into the genre. Throughout the history of TV, the horror genre has always been at the vanguard of pushing censorship norms. Early on, creator Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone often landed itself in hot waters with censors thanks to its uniquely edgy bend of social satire, sci-fi, mystery, and high-concept horror.

A couple of decades later, HBO’s horror anthology Tales from the Crypt made a name for the cable network with its gruesome, thoroughly R-rated small-screen horror stories. Long before more critically reputable shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, and Sex in the City pushed the boundaries of on-screen censorship, Tales from the Crypt brought unprecedented graphic violence and nudity to TV screens in the early ‘90s. Similarly, the underrated horror anthology Masters of Horror even had an episode that was ruled too dark and explicit to air in 2005.

At a time when AMC, Showtime, and HBO were all pushing the boundaries of what could be shown on TV, it was this horror series that took things too far for its network. Within this context, it is arguably surprising that writer/director Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House is arguably Netflix’s most famous horror streaming series. While the one-season miniseries is a masterpiece, The Haunting of Hill House is far from the goriest or most shocking show in the genre, and Netflix’s underrated anthology Slasher is a far more risqué genre exercise.

Slasher Is One of TV’s Darkest and Goriest Horror Shows

Premiering on Chiller in 2016, Slasher season 1 centered on a brutal killing spree committed by a masked murderer in the sleepy small town of Waterbury, Canada. Katie McGrath’s heroine, Sarah, is determined to get to the bottom of the slayings, but this means exposing all the dirty secrets of the townspeople in the process. While this summary might make the show sound like Hulu’s Pretty Little Liars, Slasher is a much, much more R-rated affair.

Season 1 of the series is as brutal as any actual slasher movie, and arguably even darker than the likes of Scream in terms of its tone. While American Horror Story might be more bizarre and outrageous, Slasher’s commitment to jaw-dropping kills and truly bleak storytelling makes the show a darker affair than Ryan Murphy’s comparatively campy, often somewhat silly hit. This only became truer with season 2, “Guilty Party,” a summer camp slasher that includes some of the grimmest twists in TV history.

Slasher’s Anthology Approach Makes The Horror Show Uniquely Dark

More focused than American Horror Story, gorier and darker than Mike Flanagan’s comparatively tame Netflix shows, and more grounded and less campy than Tales from the Crypt, Slasher is one of TV’s greatest horror anthology shows ever. While there are plenty of dark murder mysteries to go around, what makes Slasher special is the ingenious decision to utilize an anthology format within the titular slasher sub genre.

This means that, like American Horror Story, most seasons of the show reuse some familiar actors in new roles, but with new characters and settings every season, pretty much everyone can and does die before each season finale. Season 3’s Solstice introduced a fresh inner-city setting; season 4’s Flesh and Blood was a Succession-style “Eat the rich” satire in the vein of The White Lotus or Saltburn, and season 5’s Ripper was a period drama set in 1904.

With no need to keep characters around and the format of a traditional slasher movie, prioritizing both memorably nasty deaths and stories of vengeance and brutal retribution, Slasher pulls no punches throughout the show’s run. This means the series is hardly for the faint of heart, but for viewers who want something harsher and nastier than Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House, Netflix’s Slasher is a bracingly nasty vicious treat.