Television series
Marianne
A French Netflix horror series about a bestselling novelist who returns to her hometown after realizing that Marianne, the demonic entity from her fiction, is manifesting for real. It's small-town gothic dread rather than jump-scare theatre — guilt, childhood trauma, and a community that remembers every sin. Good for viewers who like their scares slow-built and grounded.
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The Haunting of Hill House2018
Flanagan's family-haunting saga is the closest thing to Marianne's mix of childhood trauma and genuine dread — a house that remembers everything you did wrong, told with real heart and real scares.
But Its emotional unraveling is a slow burn; if you want fast frights, the grief-heavy midsection may test your patience.
Midnight Mass2021
Small coastal town, a returning outsider, a priest with secrets, and dread that curdles into something ancient — Flanagan again, but leaning harder into faith and guilt than jump scares.
But Long monologues on religion and mortality; it's more sermon than shock, which won't suit everyone's horror appetite.
Servant2019
Claustrophobic, tightly wound psychological horror set almost entirely in one house — perfect if Marianne's slow-building unease was your favorite part rather than its scares.
But Deliberately opaque and slow-moving; ambiguity is the whole game, which can feel like withholding rather than mystery.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Kuroneko1968
It's the folkloric ancestor of Marianne's rural haunting: a vengeful female spirit tied to land and old wrongs, decades before Netflix got there.
A hypnotic, black-and-white Japanese ghost story about a wronged woman's spirit exacting revenge on the men who destroyed her family — stunning to look at and eerie in a way modern horror rarely manages.
But Slow, theatrical, and subtitled, with none of the modern scare grammar — this is mood and myth, not jolts.
More like this (8)
Chambers2019no page yet
Another Netflix horror series about inherited trauma curdling into the supernatural, with a small-town setting and a heroine unraveling her own past — very much Marianne's cousin.
But Cancelled after one season with threads left dangling; commit knowing there's no resolution coming.
American Horror Story2011
Want the same haunted-place dread turned louder, campier, and more maximalist? The original AHS still hits — a house soaked in every sin its residents ever committed.
But Tonally erratic and deliberately trashy in places; the restraint that makes Marianne unsettling is nowhere to be found here.
Ring1998
The granddaddy of 'a story that kills' horror — a cursed videotape instead of a cursed novel, but the same idea that fiction can reach out and take you.
But Its scares are quaint by modern standards and the pace is deliberate; go in expecting atmosphere, not jolts.
Hereditary2018
A family-curse film that trades jump scares for dawning horror and genuine grief, with an ending that reframes everything before it — Marianne's tonal cousin in feature form.
But Unrelentingly bleak with no comic relief; the slow first hour is punishing rather than gripping for some viewers.
The Fall of the House of Usher2023no page yet
Flanagan once more, this time gothic and grand — a family destroyed by its own sins, told with the conviction that guilt is the real monster.
But Eight episodes of near-constant misery and moralizing; its Poe references can feel more clever than scary.
It Follows2015
A patient, dread-soaked horror film about an inescapable curse passed person to person — no jump scares, just the constant low hum of being hunted.
But Almost nothing happens for long stretches; if you need incident to stay engaged, the pace will frustrate you.
Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre2023no page yet
Same core idea as Marianne — a creator's imagination bleeding into the real world — but told in ink and animation instead of live-action dread.
An anime anthology where ordinary obsessions curdle into cosmic horror, rendered as gorgeously grotesque animation instead of live-action dread — unsettling in a completely different register.
But Anthology format means uneven episodes, and some stories lean grotesque-comic rather than genuinely frightening.
Misery1990
Both are about a writer trapped by their own creation; Misery just removes the ghost and makes the horror entirely human.
Strip out the supernatural and you get Marianne's other half: a novelist held hostage by the consequences of her own fiction, with Kathy Bates terrifying as the fan who won't let the story end.
But No demons, no folklore — if the supernatural dread was the appeal, this straight thriller may feel like a different show entirely.
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Cast
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- Samuel BodinCreator