10 Horror TV Shows That Got Cancelled After Just One Season

Lovecraft Country deserved more! Resident Evil? Not so much.

By Martyn Warren /

Ever since The Twilight Zone and 13 Demon Street aired on television screens back in 1959, horror shows and episodes would slowly grow in popularity over the coming decades. Today, their influences on the genre can be felt, with so many titles produced to scare audiences as much as becoming hot properties in popular culture, including American Horror Story, The Walking Dead, and Stranger Things.

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But with the growth of television shows throughout the decades, not all of these series survived beyond their first season. Whether they were cut due to low ratings or had controversial productions and marketing changes that greatly impacted them, such series would never grow to their full potential and become long-running franchises.

However, while some of these were justifiably cut, others who met the same fate became beloved cult series that have remained some of the best horror shows on television. These same productions even pushed some of their stars into the mainstream spotlight, boosting their careers in other fantastical productions or even allowing them to once again play the same characters they helped to bring to life.

No matter what, these series should at least be remembered for trying to tell new and terrifying stories in the overcrowded world of horror films and television.

Here, then, are just some of the best horror television shows that got cancelled after one season.

10. Helstrom

Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe would eventually take over television screens through Disney+ as much as the cinemas it still dominates, ABC was responsible for producing a variety of shows based on multiple Marvel characters and superhero teams, including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Runaways, and Cloak & Dagger. Easily their most short-lived however, was the horror series, Helstrom.

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Based on the Marvel comic book characters Damian and Satana Helstrom, the show tells the story of two siblings who hunt down and stop the most despicable and vile humans from causing harm to the innocent. Damian and Satana both also possess their own unique powers that they may or may not have inherited from their father, who was only known as a serial killer with tremendous abilities of his own.

Helstrom's cancellation may not be the biggest shock for fans of the MCU, as Marvel Studios were moving into producing television shows that would tie directly to their cinematic universe, which caused Helstrom and several other series and planned Marvel projects to be scrapped altogether. Hopefully, the dark and brooding Helstrom siblings will return to screens at some point now that Doctor Strange's multi-dimensional travel has already opened up the possibility for returning familiar faces.

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