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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