4 horrifying Netflix series to stream while waiting for 'Stranger Things' season 5

There was some potential news on the release date of the final season of Stranger Things this week, and it is still going to be a bit. Viewers might need to wait until October or November to see what happens, but that at least gives us plenty of time to catch up on other shows. If you need your horror fix then Netflix has a lot of options.

February might also be a good month to watch something scary. Sure, maybe many of the films on the Hallmark Channel dedicated to Valentine's Day might also be a bit frightening because of the acting or script, but that is all unintentional. We want our horror to also be high-quality watching.

You might have even seen the shows below before. Still, you can only watch the first four seasons of Stranger Things so many times before you get burned out and do not want to see more. Instead of seeing Eleven and her pals, maybe watch (or re-watch) these fine programs.

Four horror series to watch on Netflix while you wait for the new season of Stranger Things

The Fall of the House of Usher

Creator Mike Flanagan does an interesting thing in this series. He makes a basic modernization of Edgar Allan Poe's Usher but then uses different Poe stories to flesh out the rest of the episodes in the series. Somehow, the whole thing fits wondrously together. Plus, the show feels a bit like Dopesick, only meshed with classic scary tales.

He also uses a lot of the same actors he works with regularly, including the series below, and it comes across the screen that everyone knows their role and knows what the director wants, and it's easy scares. The show is dark and brooding just as Poe would have liked.

The Haunting of Hill House

This is another Flanagan series and the trick he consistently pulls is to get his source material from a book, or possibly from an original film of a book, and stretch that over eight or ten episodes. Anyone could do that, of course, but to make it worthwhile entertainment is something different altogether.

This series is based on Shirley Jackson's 1959 book about the Crain family and their dealings with a haunted house. Sounds simple. Under the eye of Flanagan, it's extremely creepy.

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities

Del Toro does fine work on this series that bears his name, but only to a degree. He allows other filmmakers who have worked in the world of horror to take on their own episodes. There is no real linear line as each episode is standalone, and that makes the whole thing more enjoyable.

You can kind of pick up where you want, but it's still best to start from the beginning, which is where del Toro's directing shines. Every show is based on a modern horror story, and made with great expertise.

The Walking Dead

This one is not a Netflix Original, of course, but it is still quite good. Plus, you can watch it on your favorite streaming service. In case you didn't know, this is a show about zombies and a lot of zombies. It's terrifically violent but never seems to lose its humanity. You root for some of the humans, and you root against others, as all along, the zombies are out to get them all.

The show has produced an unimaginable number of spin-offs at this point, but the original is still the best. We get thrown into the thick of the downfall of humanity quickly, and the series keeps us interested for 10 more seasons.

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