Horror channels have always been obscure and far and few in-between. Most of us would love to subscribe to one of them, but beyond them being so hard to find in the first place, even when you do find them, it seems it’s not worth the $100+/month bill it’ll take to order some shitty cable service along with hundreds of channels you don’t want just to get to the stuff you do want.
That’s why I’m definitely pleased to see so many cheap, direct access streaming services hit the market, forcing the cable stiffs to get with the program. Still, the needle has been moving excruciatingly slow for decades. Pretty much the only sci-fi/horror channel I ever had access to was the Sci-fi Channel (now SyFy). I think most of us probably had it with basic cable growing up.
But, what else does the universe have to offer? I couldn’t find a list of sci-fi and horror channels anywhere, so I’ll do my best to fix that problem right now.
| Channel | Description | Status | Launched |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sci-fi Channel (now SyFy) | Despite its name, this basic cable channel also airs a lot of horror content as well. | Active | 1992 |
| Scream (now Dusk) | A Canadian horror channel. | Defunct | 2001 |
| Monsters HD | The first HD, uncut, commercial-free horror channel. | Defunct | 2003 |
| Horror Channel | A British horror cable movie channel that sometimes airs sci-fi content as well. | Active | 2004 |
| Fearnet | An American horror cable channel. | Defunct | 2006 |
| Chiller | An American horror cable channel that plays a lot of hard to find television content from the ’80s and ’90s. | Defunct | 2007 |
| Thrill | An Asian horror channel. | Active | 2010 |
| Screambox | A streaming horror content service. | Active | 2014 |
| Shudder | A streaming horror content service. Basically, it’s Netflix for horror. | Active | 2015 |
| Comet | An American channel that plays primarily science fiction content with some horror content. | Active | 2015 |
Honorable mention: AMC (who airs a lot of horror content, creates original horror content, and is responsible for creating Shudder).
That’s a pretty weak list. Because there just aren’t that many options, but also because that’s all I can personally find. With your help, I can make this list more complete.
Recommendations? Personally, I wish I could get Chiller (now closed) the most. I think it has really cool content. However, it’s so difficult and expensive to get, the next best option is Shudder. This will probably be the best option for most people anyway. It’s cheap ($5/month) and very accessible.
The only thing I don’t like about trying to experience Shudder as a channel though as opposed to just making selections is that features play back-to-back with no kind of intermission, intro, horror host, Shudder logo splash, or segue of any kind that might break it up and actually make it have that cool, old-school TV channel kind of feeling.
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9 Comments
Try Roku. There’s a lot of free horror channels there, my personal favorite is Bizarre TV.
This one?: https://web.archive.org/web/20171207181034/http://www.bizarretvroku.com/. Are these channels sort of like public access channels?
They’re privately owned by individuals for the most part.
Showtime Beyond is pretty good, I read that it features sci fi, fantasy, and horror movies
Thank you for contributing.
I think I tried to avoid any sub-channels, and focus on dedicated channels. A lot of movie channels have genre sub-channels for action, comedy, horror, etc. If I decided to list those, I think it would need to be a separate list.
Happen to be talking about earlier that you could combine all the Shudder’s,Chiller’s,etc together&still couldn’t touch what I continue to miss to this day FEARNET. At time when,for example,may sometimes found you may of had 2or3 different options&ways to watch particular recent mainstream horror release? While I remember when Fearnet not only premiered Midnight Meat Train but the only place be able see it at the time too. As was High Tension, Silent Hill or Dead Girl to name but a few along w/shorts&certain series too. If you happened see there was maybe 23 movies listed you might not think much of it? Or would maybe two weeks later appearing drop to just 18? Until you look&find maybe 5 of the 23 left w/rest replaced w/what was newly available&handful classics mixed in as well.
Can’t see the list anymore. It says “[table “channels” not found /]” Please fix it.
Thanks for the heads up. Fixed.
Wicked Horror,has free movies with adds. Or you can subscribe for more content.