The Best Horror Anthology Series Ever Now Streaming, Dive Into This Masterful Collection

Masters of Horror was the brainchild of writer/director/actor Mick Garris, an industry veteran who had already established himself in the horror anthology business. His previous work on Amazing Stories and Freddie’s Nightmares positioned him well over the next decade, where he directed Psycho IV: The Beginning, The Stand, and The Shining (1997). Over his years working in horror, Garris developed relationships and contacts with the greatest names in the industry, and imagined a show where these minds could all collaborate.

But having multiple directors and screenwriters working on one single project would be a case of too many cooks. Garris assembled his friends and contacts over a dinner one evening and concocted a show where each “master” of horror would direct an episode. Each mini-movie would be an opportunity for the assigned director to make a unique entry into horror, which culminated in the series Masters of Horror.

The first episode of Masters of Horror was directed by Don Coscarelli (Phantasm) and aired on October 28, 2005. The story, “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road,” followed a deformed serial killer stalking a woman in the woods. This was followed a week later with a screen adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story “Dreams in the Witch-House, with Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, The Dentist).

Subsequent episodes that first season brought in Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist), Dario Argento (Suspiria), Joe Dante (Gremlins), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), and Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, among others, who brought to life works by Clive Barker, Richard Matheson, and other genre writers.

Masters of Horror took audiences into the homes of mild-mannered neighbors that are serial killers, into the wilderness where mythological creatures are thought to be hunting people, and into a movie theater to see a film that allegedly drives the viewers to commit murder. Some episodes were satirical, others full of nail-biting suspense. But a good number of the 26 episodes that spanned two seasons were downright terrifying, giving viewers the fuel that nightmares are made of.

Masters of Horror focused on human monsters almost as much as it did the supernatural ones, though there was typically a supernatural or occult overtone that guided the human predators. But traditional monsters were also featured occasionally, most notably the third episode of the second season, “The V-Word,” where two teenagers decide to break into a mortuary and become victims of a vampire.

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It’s difficult to imagine being able to assemble names like John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, and Tom Holland to make a series work. But Garris was able to accomplish it for two seasons with Masters of Horror, giving the genre one of its greatest anthology shows to date.

You can stream both seasons of Masters of Horror for free with Tubi, Hoopla, and Roku. Season 2 only can be rented with Vudu.