October means cooler weather, campfires, and all things that go bump in the night. As spooky season begins, now is the perfect time to catch up on any creepy TV shows or movies.
The music changes, signaling something is about to happen, as a tingling wave washes over you, leaving your temperature rising and your heart beating a little faster. That’s fear, and it will leave anyone looking around every corner.
Anime has its fair share of shows and movies that will leave one wishing they had watched it with a friend. If no friend is brave enough to watch, then lock your doors, grab yourself a bowl of popcorn, and be prepared for a night of terror as you watch some picks for the creepiest must-watch anime.
Perfect Blue
When Mima Kirigoe, one of the most popular members of a music group known for their wholesomeness, decides she wants to quit the music industry and move into the acting world, her entire world begins to unravel. Her biggest fans become her worst critics, and even those she trusts turn against her.
As Mima is stalked by two crazed people, her imagination takes over, and that’s when things get trippy. When people around her start getting murdered, Mima – and the viewers – are left wondering if she really did kill these people. It’s often difficult to tell what’s real and what’s not, as it even disorientates the viewers.
If you want a creepy yet thought-provoking story, this is a must-watch.
Watch on Shudder or Amazon Prime Video
Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories (Season 1)
This is a story about ghost stories, presented by an old man in a yellow mask, who visits this town and shares ghost stories through traditional kamishibai — a form storytelling that utilizes paper art.
Just like ghost stories told around a campfire, the tales are short but terrifying enough to make send chills up your spine. Based on Japanese myths or legends, these stories are meant to share a moral lesson, because the characters pay the price based on their lack of adherence to the wisdom present in the narratives.
Watch on Crunchyroll
The Promised Neverland
First presented as a story about cute kids inside the Grace Field House orphanage, the anime takes a dark turn as the children’s idyllic life is shown to be part of a breeding farm for demons.
The true purpose of the orphanage is only revealed after a girl named Conny is “adopted,” promising to write to everyone before she leaves. Some of the kids don’t believe her because all the “adopted” kids promise to, but never write. When Conny accidentally leaves her favorite stuffed bunny rabbit, Emma and Norman rush to take it to her but discover her dead body instead. The two terrified children then overhear the demons making plans with “Momma” for more sacrifices.
The compelling story’s power lies in seeing how the children come together to save themselves or die trying. It would be exciting to see this anime made into a live-action film.
Watch on Netflix
Midori-Ko
The animation style and music in Midori-Ko are creepy, leaving the viewer feeling unsettled right from the beginning. It’s almost like looking at a moving painting, with music from Halloween playing. There’s just something not quite right.
A woman who grew up vegan because she doesn’t want to eat anything with a face on it now lives in a dystopian world full of hunger. Still eating her veggies, Midori comes to a crossroads when a new superfood meant to end world hunger, is a cross between plant and animal.
The anime plays out almost like a nightmare and leaves one feeling confused and uneasy.
Watch on YouTube
Kagewani
Kagewani was created by the same people who made Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories, with a similar paper art type of anime.
Based on stories about dangerous monsters, this anime is like an animated version of The X-Files, with Dr. Sousuke Banba instead of Fox Mulder. Banba wants to know the reason these mysterious monsters, classified as Kagewani, attack humans.
It’s set up like a monster-of-the-week but pulls it all together at the end.
Watch on Crunchyroll
Serial Experiments Lain
Lain Iwakura is a junior high student with distant parents who ignore her. After people at school begin receiving emails from a dead classmate, Chisa Yomoda, Lain finds the deceased girl’s old computer to check for outgoing emails.
Lain connects with Chisa, who tells her that she isn’t dead, she has just left the physical world. Before she knows it, Lain is caught up in a virtual realm where the real and virtual worlds are indistinguishable from one another.
Watch on Crunchyroll
Higurashi: When They Cry
Higurashi: When They Cry is a mind-bending trip that places the protagonist into a Groundhog Day time loop of terror.
In the rural village of Hinamizawa, people are murdered every year during the annual festival. The anime is violent and mysterious, with every loop changing the timeline a bit and different people being murdered.
The time loop creates a transfixing plot structure as the story progresses within it, making for an anime with repeat watchability.
Watch on Crunchyroll
Corpse Party: Tortured Souls
While bidding farewell to a friend, a group of kids at Kisaragi Academy performs a ritual that, when performed correctly, gives the people eternal friendship. The Kisaragi Academy students do not perform it correctly, transporting them back in time to the Heavenly Host Elementary School, where a school teacher murdered several of her students.
Sealed inside the school, the students are hunted and murdered by the ghosts of the students. The four-part anime is full of tension and nail-biting suspense.
Watch on YouTube
Another
While recovering in the hospital with a collapsed lung, Koichi meets a girl named Mei, who he discovers in Class 3 of his new school. Mei warns him that he’s not supposed to be talking to her, and he finds out about the Legend of Class 3, where a girl named Misaki died 26 years ago.
The class is now cursed and pretends Misaki is still in their class while ignoring one human person. In this class, it happens to be Mei they ignore. Since Koichi, who had no idea about the curse, spoke with Mei, people begin to die around him.
Koichi and Mei team up to figure out how to stop the Final Destination-type of curse.
Watch on Crunchyroll