Television series

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

Name: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels
Genre: Drama, Horror, Supernatural
Released: 2020
Cast: Jessica Garza, Johnathan Nieves, Daniel Zovatto, Natalie Dormer, Nathan Lane

Fantasy

A supernatural noir set in 1938 Los Angeles, where Mexican-American characters navigate a city corrupted by demonic forces and fascist ideology. It's gothic and grimy, steeped in religious folklore and historical dread. For fans of horror that roots itself in real trauma and communities under siege, not just jump scares.

TVMaze rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you loved the slow-burn gothic dread of the original Penny Dreadful and want it rooted in a real place and era, with faith and folklore carrying the weight.

Skip it if the pace is deliberate and the social tension often sits closer to the front than the monsters, which frustrates viewers wanting pure scares.

What it asks of you: Ten hour-long episodes that take their time, building dread slowly rather than through constant jolts, so it wants a few evenings of steady, unhurried attention.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Twilight Zone1959

Seminal anthology that proved horror works best when it's rooted in social reality and moral ambiguity. Each episode is a perfectly constructed trap that catches something true about human nature.

But The pacing is glacial by modern standards, and some episodes fall flat. You need patience for slow-burn dread.

American Horror Story2011

Combines historical setting, religious horror, and institutional evil with the same gothic intensity. Ryan Murphy at his peak, before the show became a celebrity gimmick factory.

But It's edgy for edginess's sake sometimes, and the plotting gets messy in the second half. Lurches between devastating and ridiculous.

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer2021

A Chicago reporter hunts the supernatural in a city that feels corrupted from within. Urban gothic before that was a trend. Every episode is a small masterpiece of paranoia and atmosphere.

But Only two seasons and the format feels repetitive if you binge it. The effects are obviously low-budget, which some find distracting.

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Devil's Backbone2001

Both films weaponize supernatural horror to explore fascism and the corruption of communities; both center children caught between spiritual and historical violence.

Guillermo del Toro's Spanish Civil War ghost story. Like City of Angels, it uses supernatural horror to explore fascism, violence against the vulnerable, and a haunting rooted in historical atrocity. Operatic and heartbreaking.

But In Spanish. The ghost logic is dreamlike rather than plot-driven. Some find it more melancholic than scary, more about loss than suspense.

Constantine2014

Dark, occult-heavy series about a demon hunter navigating modern cities. Shares City of Angels' commitment to real theological and folkloric depth rather than generic spookiness.

But Cancelled after one season with the story unresolved. The pilot is stronger than what follows. Requires tolerance for Matt Ryan's brooding intensity.

Midnight Mass2021

Mike Flanagan's masterpiece: a small town gripped by faith and terror, exploring what happens when religion is weaponized. Devastating, beautifully shot, morally serious.

But It's a slow-burn miniseries that asks a lot of patience. Religious themes might feel heavy-handed if you're not in the mood for genuine theological questions.

Lovecraft Country2020

Horror and historical racism braided together. Black characters navigate both supernatural threats and American apartheid. Wildly ambitious, gorgeously made, thematically rich.

But Cancelled after one season. The second half gets narratively scattered and the tone becomes uneven as it adds more plot.

The Leftovers2014

A show that treats the supernatural as a vehicle for exploring grief, faith, and community fracture. Visually stunning and emotionally punishing in the best way.

But Genuinely bleak and asks viewers to sit with uncertainty. Not comforting. Some find the pacing indulgent and the mythology frustrating.

Carnivàle2003

Depression-era America shadowed by ancient evil. Carnival setting, biblical scope, gorgeous production design. A show that trusted its audience to piece together something larger.

But Cancelled on a cliffhanger after two seasons. Narrative threads go nowhere. Requires commitment to a show that never resolves itself.

La Bête Humaine1938

Renoir's fatalistic masterpiece from the same year City of Angels is set. A man hunted by something inside himself, shot in shadowy trains and small towns. The mood is precise.

But In French with subtitles. The pacing is meditative rather than propulsive. The horror is psychological, not visual, which some find slow.

High and Low1963

Both explore how evil metastasizes through social systems; both use period setting to investigate how a society permits cruelty; both feature morally compromised characters who discover their culpability.

Kurosawa's Tokyo noir about class, morality, and inherited guilt. A wealthy man's life is methodically destroyed by someone he's wronged. The genre is crime, not horror, but the dread is absolute.

But Nearly three and a half hours. Black and white. Japanese, and the subtitles move fast. The second half is police procedural rather than psychological thriller.

Santa Sangre1989

Both films weaponize Catholic and indigenous religious imagery to explore family trauma and moral corruption; both are willing to be operatic and grotesque in service of emotional truth; both feature spirituality as genuinely dangerous.

Jodorowsky's surrealist horror-drama set in Peru, steeped in Catholic imagery and familial trauma. Visually hallucinatory, genuinely unsettling, and rooted in folklore and spiritual corruption rather than jump scares. A film that stays with you.

But Extremely surreal and non-linear. Contains graphic violence and disturbing imagery. Not narrative-driven in any conventional way. Requires surrender to strangeness.