What to watch this Halloween: Haunted houses, creepy clowns and some very stylish vampires... we pick the top 20 spine-chilling shows and films to watch tonight

Looking for something spooky to watch this Halloween? Our TV experts have sifted through the best that the holiday has to offer, so you can get stuck into the perfect shows and films available to stream on demand this weekend.

Our shortlist ranges from the creepy clowns of IT: Welcome To Derry, to the stylish bloodsuckers of Interview With The Vampire...

Widow’s Bay (Apple TV)

Spooky but funny too, this small-town horror is anchored by Matthew Rhys’s Emmy Award-winning performance at the centre. The Beast In Me star plays Tom Loftis, the stressed mayor who wants to turn his ailing New England town into a tourist hotspot – and is desperately trying to quash local stories about cannibalism and that creepy mist that won’t seem to clear. It’s all just mumbo-jumbo, right? Nothing that this town getting a decent cappuccino machine wouldn’t fix, right? There’s a touch of Twin Peaks to it all. (Ten episodes)

Tales Of The Unexpected (Sky/Now)

If you remember Tales Of The Unexpected, you’ll remember the dancing ladies that opened every instalment of its twisted stories. What you may not remember is just how star-studded its 112 episodes were: Joan Collins, Nigel Havers, Derek Jacobi and Brian Blessed are just the tip of the iceberg. Anthology series like this can be a real treasure trove – other examples include Hammer House Of Horror and Creepshow (both ITVX) and Inside No 9 (BBC iPlayer). (Nine series)

Yaga (Sky/Now)

Banter-fuelled mystery set in a Canadian coastal town, where a fishing heir has gone missing and a private eye has arrived to find him. The gumshoe spends nearly as much time flirting with the witchy locals as he does on the case in this refreshing and slightly sexy take on the genre, which is adapted by Kat Sandler from her own play and unfolds in brisk half-hour episodes. It’s not a comedy but it feels like one at times. (Eight episodes)

The Haunting Of Hill House (Netflix)

Every Halloween needs a haunted house tale, and there are few better modern examples than horror maestro Mike Flanagan’s take on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel. It’s the story of the hold one very haunted home exerts on a family years after they’ve left, and is full of tension-inducing silences – you’ll find yourself staring breathlessly at the screen as characters walk the halls of Hill House, certain something is about to jump out. And it will, in its own time. (Ten episodes)

Below (Netflix)

‘What if Jaws took place in Newfoundland?’ was creator Jesse McKeown’s pitch for this story of something very big lurking under the waters of a struggling island community in the Canadian province. Josh Hartnett stars as ice harvester Calvin, who has a childhood connection to the beast but doesn’t know it yet. For now he’s more concerned with keeping his family together, and it’s that human drama that makes the horror of Below hit all the harder when it comes. (Six episodes)

Being Human (BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Amazon Prime Video)

What would happen if a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost rented a house together in Bristol? That’s the premise of Being Human, a BBC3 hit with breakthrough roles for Aidan Turner (tired but sexy vampire Mitchell) and Russell Tovey (sweet werewolf George). Lenora Crichlow rounded out the trio as tragic ghost Annie, and the show was always at its best in their sitcom-style banter rather than in its bigger fantasy stories. A good one for teens. (Five series)

The Enfield Haunting (Sky/Now)

Sinister drama based on real events at a north London council house in the 1970s, with Timothy Spall and Matthew Macfadyen as the real-life paranormal experts Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair. The original case involved two sisters supposedly being tormented by a malevolent poltergeist – it inspired the notorious 1992 Ghostwatch mockumentary – and this dramatisation is all the more creepy for taking a matter-of-fact approach and being sparing with the jump-scares. (Three episodes)

Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen (Netflix)

Meeting the future in-laws can be a tense experience for some people, but for Rachel it turns out to be an absolute nightmare. That’s the hook for this frequently horrifying and thought-provoking drama produced by Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers and written by Haley Z Boston, the woman behind Al Pacino’s Hunters TV series. It’s driven by something her mum once told her: ‘Don’t marry the wrong person, because it can ruin your life.’ There are a lot of twists, so we’ll leave it at that. (Eight episodes)

Fortitude (Sky/Now)

When it launched in 2015, Sky’s sinister, snowbound mystery was the most expensive British drama ever. The cast includes The Killing’s Sofie Grabol, Christopher Eccleston, Michael Gambon and Jessica Raine, and it starts out looking like a Scandi Broadchurch. However, the hint of supernatural creepiness that sits in the background just keeps getting bigger and, before long, we’re in full B-movie territory with storylines about deranged polar bears. It’s fun, edge-of-the-seat stuff. (Three series)

Interview With The Vampire (BBC iPlayer)

The story of Anne Rice’s stylish vampires Louis and Lestat is fleshed out in a drama that hops through time, starting in 1910s New Orleans before moving on to Second World War Europe, then taking a wild turn in series three with the story of Lestat’s time as a rock star. It’s by far the most fun of the three series so, if you’re short on time, just go for that – especially as only two and three are currently available on iPlayer. (Three series)

Midwinter Of The Spirit (ITVX, Netflix)

File this 2015 drama under ‘gone too soon’, because Anna Maxwell Martin is terrific as widowed vicar Merrily Watkins, mother to a teenage daughter and exorcism consultant to the police – it’s debatable which job is harder, although the daughter probably has the edge. Midwinter is based on just one book from a 17-strong series of novels by Phil Rickman but, sadly, this didn’t get big enough viewing figures to rise again. (Three episodes)

The Watcher (Netflix)

This chiller – based on a true story – from American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy stars Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale. When the Brannock family moves into what was supposed to be their suburban dream home, they start receiving frightening, threatening letters from someone called ‘The Watcher’, who suggests that the house has a mysterious history. Is the letter-writer a neighbour with a grudge? A prankster? Or someone much more sinister? The series also features Mia Farrow as Pearl, an oddball neighbour. It’s her first screen role for a while, and she’s great to watch. (Seven episodes)

Carrie (Amazon Prime Video)

Mike Flanagan’s recent adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel is the best since the 1976 movie. It follows a home-schooled Carrie into the horrors of the modern American high school system, where cyber-bullying steadily awakens her telekinetic talents. What sets this Carrie apart is how we also see the story from the bully’s point of view, and from the perspective of the well-meaning adults who just keep making things worse. The climactic prom scene is still present and correct. There’s just rather more of it. (Eight episodes)

American Horror Story (Disney+, ITVX)

Ryan Murphy’s show uses rotating cast members to tell a different story each series. The early runs are the best, specifically the inventive Murder House (series one) and the deranged Asylum (two). The quality drops off after that until series 12, which features Kim Kardashian as a ruthless publicist in a story that’s essentially a celebrity twist on Roman Polanski’s 60s psychological horror film Rosemary’s Baby – it’s Kardashian’s finest acting hour yet, certainly compared to her legal drama All’s Fair. (13 series)

The Devil’s Hour (ITVX, Amazon Prime Video)

Steven Moffat produces this chilling thriller featuring former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi. It looks like a copy of The Silence Of The Lambs at the start, with Capaldi as a serial killer snarling behind bars while Call The Midwife’s Jessica Raine plays a mum disturbed by nocturnal visions. Stay tuned, though, because there’s more going on – a lot more, and watch it all in order, too, because it will make no sense otherwise. The Devil’s Hour was conceived as a trilogy and that final third series is on the way. (Two series)

Crystal Lake (Sky/Now)

The killer in the first Friday The 13th movie, way back in 1980, wasn’t hockey-mask-wearing psycho Jason Voorhees – it was his mum, Pamela. This TV prequel jumps back to Jason’s death in an accident at a summer camp, then unpicks the reasons for Pamela’s ensuing rage and guilt. ER’s Linda Cardellini excels as Pamela, who is the kind of central character you can never quite predict and, while the horror around her mostly lives in the atmosphere, you’ll usually see something jaw-droppingly horrific once an episode. (Eight episodes)

Midnight Mass (Netflix)

Another show from Mike Flanagan, but this one is all his own creation. Midnight Mass has a classic horror setting – an ailing fishing community on the US coast – and is more about mood than plot, with events kickstarted by the arrival of a new priest (Hamish Linklater). From then on, things take a strange and vampiric turn on Crockett Island. Keep an ear out for the songs of Neil Diamond on the soundtrack. (Seven episodes)

IT: Welcome To Derry (Sky/Now, HBO Max)

If you can get past the stomach-churning opening scenes of this prequel to Stephen King’s killer clown tale, it settles down later on, turning into a Stranger Things-style story about children attempting to puzzle out the origins of the killer clown in 1960s small-town Maine. They aren’t the only ones after Pennywise – the US Air Force have their sights set on his powers. (Eight episodes)

Evil (Paramount+, Sky/Now)

A Catholic priest teams up with a forensic psychiatrist in this moreish US series from Robert and Michelle King, creators of The Good Wife. It plays like a mix of The X-Files and The Exorcist, as Dr Kristen (Westworld’s Katja Herbers) and Father Acosta (Luke Cage’s Mike Colter) investigate cases of demonic possession, with plenty of humour and cast chemistry thrown in – including from Lost’s Michael Emerson as Kristen’s creepy rival. (Four series)

Ghosts (BBC iPlayer)

And finally, if you fancy a giggle with your ghostly goings-on, look no further than this series from the Horrible Histories gang about a haunted house whose owner can see and talk to its bumbling spirits. The US and Australian versions are on iPlayer but the original UK version is still the best and the film spin-off, Ghosts: The Possession Of Button House, is currently in cinemas. (Five series)