Television series
Psychoville
Psychoville is a pitch-black comic thriller from two League of Gentlemen alumni, following a scattered cast of misfits and grotesques who each receive a menacing note reading 'I know what you did.' It's gleefully theatrical, thick with prosthetics, double roles and sudden lurches from slapstick into real horror. Watch it for gallows humour executed with genuine craft, not for tidy plotting or comfort.
If you liked this
Inside No. 92014
Same double act, same appetite for macabre twists, but sharpened into single-episode gems—every installment is a fresh puzzle box with its own rules and its own gut-punch.
But Standalone episodes mean no ongoing mystery to chew on, and quality varies wildly between the brilliant and the merely clever.
The League of Gentlemen1999
The show that built the sensibility Psychoville runs on—Royston Vasey's grotesques, Pemberton and Shearsmith in wigs and latex, small-town horror played dead straight for laughs.
But Rougher, nastier, and more purely sketch-based; less plot, more shock value, and some jokes have aged badly.
American Horror Story2011
A different continent's version of the same idea—starry ensemble, garish makeup, tangled backstories colliding toward a bloody reveal, played with total commitment to camp.
But Less funny than frightening, and the plotting gets baggier and sillier the longer any season runs.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Kind Hearts and Coronets1949
Both hinge on a single performer vanishing into wildly different roles while a murder plot ticks quietly underneath the comedy—Guinness is doing, in miniature, exactly what Shearsmith and Pemberton do across the whole cast.
Alec Guinness plays eight members of the same doomed family, murdered one by one by a distant relation with exquisite manners—black comedy this elegant and this cold-blooded existed sixty years before Psychoville.
But Genteel pacing and clipped 1940s dialogue will feel a world away from Psychoville's manic, prosthetic-heavy chaos.
More like this (8)
Twin Peaks1990
The small-town-full-of-secrets mystery box that taught a generation of writers how to make ordinary people feel deeply wrong; unsettling, funny, and strange in equal measure.
But Slower, dreamier, and far less interested in resolving its mysteries neatly than Psychoville ever is.
Fargo2014
Midwestern niceties curdling into violence, told with the same dry relish for grim comedy and eccentric supporting faces that Psychoville specialises in.
But Plays it straighter and colder—the laughs are quieter, the violence more brutal and less cartoonish.
Nighty Night2004no page yet
Julia Davis's sociopathic suburban comedy shares Psychoville's nerve for going further than seems reasonable, wringing huge laughs from cruelty and delusion.
But Almost entirely without warmth—if you need someone to root for, this show offers absolutely nobody.
Utopia2014
British conspiracy thriller with the same taste for sudden, shocking violence dropped into scenes that had seemed almost cosy moments before.
But Plays its horror for real dread rather than comedy—much less interested in making you laugh.
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace2004
A gleeful spoof of cheap horror television, stuffed with deliberately terrible effects and gloriously overplayed performances—kindred spirit for anyone who loves Psychoville's theatrical excess.
But Broader and more juvenile than Psychoville, a pure sketch-parody with none of its underlying mystery plot.
What We Do in the Shadows2019
Swaps psychological menace for vampiric farce but keeps the formula of a cursed household of oddballs whose secrets keep spilling out sideways.
But Warmer and much gentler than Psychoville—there's real affection here, not nearly as much dread.
Trick 'r Treat2007
Same puzzle-box engine as Psychoville—separate strange stories that turn out to be one story, built to reward anyone paying close attention to small connecting details.
A single Halloween night in one town, told through interlocking short stories that only reveal their true shape once you see how each one touches the others—pure structural pleasure.
But There's no ongoing mystery to invest in across episodes, and the horror leans gorier and less character-driven than Psychoville's.
The Elephant Man1980
Where Psychoville plays Mr Jelly's deformed hand for laughs and unease, this film asks the same question about cruelty and visible difference completely straight-faced.
David Lynch's monochrome, deeply humane drama about a man whose physical difference makes him a spectacle, treated with total seriousness rather than a single grotesque laugh.
But Utterly devoid of comedy—an unflinching, sometimes upsetting watch, the polar opposite of Psychoville's tone.
People
Cast
Reece ShearsmithVarious Characters
Steve PembertonVarious Characters
Writing
- Reece ShearsmithCreator
- Steve PembertonCreator