Television series

Creepshow

Creepshow revives the 1982 film's comic-book horror-comedy formula: two lurid, self-contained stories per half-hour, framed by animated panels, each one gleefully committed to a single sick joke or gruesome idea. Practical effects, garish colour, gross-out gags, and a wink at the camera throughout. It's for people who want their scares fast, funny, and a little trashy — not for anyone hoping for slow dread or prestige polish.

TVMaze rating6.3

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Tales from the Crypt1989

The template Creepshow is remixing: the Crypt Keeper's puns, the vicious twist endings, and the gleeful nastiness, all backed by HBO's budget and star-studded guest casts.

But The gore and casual misogyny of some episodes haven't aged gracefully; a few stories are meaner than they are clever.

Tales from the Crypt poster

Trick 'r Treat2007

Multiple Halloween-night stories braided together rather than boxed into episodes, with the same comic-book glee and a genuinely iconic mascot in Sam.

But It's one feature-length sitting rather than bite-sized episodes, so the anthology structure is tighter and less disposable.

Trick 'r Treat poster

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities2022

Trades Creepshow's cartoon splatter for gorgeous, unsettling production design — proof the anthology format can be prestige television and still land a gut-punch.

But Episodes run nearly an hour and lean slow-burn atmospheric, a different pace from Creepshow's quick, punchy segments.

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Dead of Night1945

Same anthology-with-a-frame structure Creepshow borrows, decades before EC Comics existed — the ancestor of the ancestor, with all the camp stripped out.

The British anthology that arguably invented this whole game — five ghost stories folded into a dreamlike frame narrative, ending on one of horror's great final images.

But Black-and-white, stately, and dialogue-heavy — no gore, no jokes, nothing like Creepshow's comic-book pop.

Dead of Night poster
More like this (7)

V/H/S2012no page yet

Found-footage anthology with the same anything-goes structure, stacking wildly different directors' nightmares into one runtime.

But Shaky-cam aesthetics and rougher production values will grate if you love Creepshow's polished comic-panel look.

Tales from the Darkside1984no page yet

Created by George Romero himself, this is the direct ancestor — cheap, weird, and unmistakably the sensibility that birthed Creepshow's stories.

But Low-budget 80s TV effects and pacing show their age far more than the show they inspired.

The Twilight Zone1959

The anthology format at its most disciplined: every episode a tight moral trap with a twist, proving the structure works without a drop of gore.

But Black-and-white, talky, and morally earnest — a very different rhythm from Creepshow's splatter-comedy.

The Twilight Zone poster

Into the Dark2018no page yet

A monthly horror anthology tied to real-world holidays, each entry a different feature-length story swinging from slasher to sci-fi.

But Quality swings wildly between entries; some are genuinely great, others feel like padded-out shorts.

American Horror Stories2021no page yet

Standalone horror stories each episode, unshackled from its parent show's season-long mythology, closer to Creepshow's grab-bag format.

But Uneven writing and a reliance on shock over craft; several episodes feel rushed or half-baked.

The Simpsons1989

Explicitly spoofs EC Comics horror-hosts and Creepshow-style framing devices, taking the same structural bones and turning them into family comedy.

The same three-story-anthology, comic-panel-into-motion trick, played for laughs instead of nerves — an annual special that borrows Creepshow's whole aesthetic outright.

But It's a cartoon parody with zero real scares, and you'll want some patience for decades of Simpsons in-jokes to land properly.

The Simpsons poster

Inside No. 92014

Runs on the identical short-story anthology structure as Creepshow, aimed at the opposite register: less gross-out punchline, more exquisitely cruel final line.

British anthology with the same self-contained-story-per-episode engine, but swaps splatter for exquisitely engineered twists, black comedy, and real emotional gut-punches.

But Understated and dialogue-driven — no severed heads, no cackling ghouls, just quiet dread and very clever writing.

Inside No. 9 poster

People

Production

Recommended by

Inside No. 9, Tales of the Unexpected, Goosebumps, Ghost Stories