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The 10 Scariest Horror Anthology TV Shows

There's something about horror that makes it a natural fit for the anthology format. From the days of yore when ye olde folks would tell each other ghost stories around the fire, the horror genre arguably works best in short bursts – just enough to build up a sense of dread and then wallop the audience with a big scare at the end.

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Rod Serling is the king of horror anthology shows. Not only did he create The Twilight Zone, but five years after that series finished he managed to follow it up with a similar show that is almost just as fondly remembered.

Night Gallery‘s famous linking narrative (as memorably parodied in one of The Simpsons’ Halloween specials) saw Serling explain the macabre story behind one of the peculiar paintings in the titular Night Gallery. Despite his heavy involvement on screen and behind it, though, Serling didn’t have the same level of creative control that he did on The Twilight Zone. As such, Night Gallery largely lacked the psychological and sociological themes of its predecessor. Instead, it ramped up the horror element to make up for it.

Unusually, Night Gallery squeezed several stories into each episode (at least, for its first two seasons – season 3 mostly reverted to the traditional Twilight Zone format). While this meant that some segments were more fleshed-out than others, the show still usually hit the mark.