10 Short Horror Anime Series Perfect for Halloween

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Ignacio Weil

Entertainment - October 16th 2025, 22:00 GMT+2

The Summer Hikaru Died 2025 — The Summer Hikaru Died (2025) – 12 episodes

There’s something deeply unsettling about how this series mixes the mundane with the uncanny: best friends, a quiet village, and then the supernatural sneaks in through grief and memory. The atmosphere doesn’t scream horror right away; it slides in quietly, making even the warm glow of summer feel unsafe. Over twelve episodes the tension grows steadily, with secrets lurking behind familiar faces and each encounter leaving you more doubtful of what you thought you knew. It’s the kind of story that takes something ordinary, like childhood bonds, and twists it into something you can’t stop thinking about. By the finale, you’ll realize the true horror isn’t always what changes, but what refuses to. | © CygamesPictures

Tengoku Daimakyou / Heavenly Delusion (2023) – 13 episodes

Dark fantasy collides with post-apocalyptic survival in a way that feels both eerie and strangely beautiful. Children raised in a sheltered paradise discover that the world outside is full of danger, monsters, and truths that shake everything they believe in. Each episode pulls back another layer, replacing hope with unease and safety with something much more fragile. The characters aren’t neat heroes; they stumble, doubt, and sometimes break in ways that feel unsettlingly real. As horror goes, it’s not about jump scares – it’s about the quiet dread of knowing the world isn’t what it pretends to be. For a short series, it leaves a surprisingly heavy mark. | © Production I.G

Cropped Summer Time Render 2022 — Summer Time Render (2022) – 25 episodes

What begins as a story about returning home for a funeral quickly spirals into one of the most chilling mysteries anime has offered in recent years. The island setting lures you in with its familiarity, only to reveal a supernatural threat that makes every shadow suspicious. At its heart are “Shadows” – eerie copies of people who shouldn’t exist, and whose presence turns the town into a nightmare. Each time you think you’ve solved the puzzle, the story pulls the rug out and resets the stakes. Over its 25 episodes, the tension never lets up, balancing emotional moments with pure horror. By the end, you’ll wonder if daylight is really safer than the dark. | © OLM / XFlag

Cropped devilman crybaby 2018 — DEVILMAN crybaby (2018) – 10 episodes

The story barrels forward in ten episodes that feel like an emotional gut-punch, fusing grotesque violence with moments of heartbreaking humanity. Its visual style is deliberately unpolished at times, flowing in ways that make the horror hit harder and the beauty stand out sharper. What begins as a tale of demons and transformation soon becomes a meditation on love, betrayal, and the collapse of everything we hold together. Every episode escalates, faster and faster, until you’re left staring at the credits, wondering how it all went so wrong. It’s brutal, brilliant, and unforgettable. | © Science SARU / Aniplex

Another 2012 — Another (2012) – 12 episodes

If Halloween is about turning ordinary things into nightmares, this show has it mastered. A quiet classroom becomes the stage for a curse that makes every desk, every stairwell, and every whispered rumor feel dangerous. The mystery behind the curse unravels slowly, tightening with each sudden and often gruesome death. It doesn’t rely on cheap tricks; instead, it builds dread out of stillness and silence, the moments when nothing seems wrong – until it is. By the end, even a simple umbrella might have you looking twice. Creepy, tragic, and memorable, it’s a horror staple for a reason. | © P.A. Works

Cropped Shiki 2010 — Shiki (2010) – 22 episodes + 2 OVA

The sleepy little village of Sotoba feels like the last place horror would bloom, but that’s exactly why it works so well. At first, the deaths seem like coincidence, then illness, and before long the truth slithers out: something predatory has taken root among the townsfolk. What follows is slow-burn terror, the kind that builds with every new discovery and moral compromise. Characters aren’t just victims or villains; they’re people caught in a nightmare, forced to question their own humanity. With each episode, the sense of suffocation tightens until even sunlight doesn’t feel safe anymore. It’s a chilling meditation on fear, community, and survival. | © Daume / Aniplex

Aoi Bungaku Series 2009 — Aoi Bungaku Series (2009) – 12 episodes

The Aoi Bungaku Series is an impressive anthology that brings classic Japanese literature to life in a powerful way. Six significant works are adapted into 12 episodes, including No Longer Human and Run, Melos!, and each story explores profound human emotions such as despair, guilt, love, and isolation.

The series captivates with its dark, often expressionistic style, which visually underscores the psychological abysses of the characters. Unlike typical anime series, it focuses less on action and more on intense character studies and the power of storytelling.

As a result, it leaves a lasting impression and shows how anime can bring literary themes to life in a unique way. | © Madhouse

Box of Goblins 2008 — Box of Goblins / Mouryou no Hako (2008) – 13 episodes

On the surface, it looks like a mystery with a detective’s logic – but this series delights in dragging you into something stranger. The story revolves around a bizarre string of murders tied to a mysterious box, blending crime drama with elements of the supernatural. The pacing is methodical, demanding patience, but rewards viewers with a steadily rising sense of unease. Conversations stretch longer than expected, filled with cryptic hints that seem harmless until the dread clicks into place. The horror doesn’t come from sudden shocks, but from the realization that reason itself might not be enough to survive what’s happening. It’s slow, meticulous, and quietly disturbing. | © Madhouse / Kyōdō Television

Cropped Higurashi no Naku Koro ni 2006 — Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (2006) – 26 episodes

Creepy laughter, a cheerful village festival, and bloodied violence shouldn’t belong in the same sentence, but that’s the exact mix this series thrives on. At first, Hinamizawa looks like the friendliest countryside town in the world, only for paranoia and murder to spread like wildfire once the annual festival rolls around. The time-loop structure lets the story reset, showing you how the same events unravel differently – and more horrifically – each time. By the halfway mark, you’re no longer asking “who did it,” but “how bad will it get this round?” Its mix of mystery and psychological horror makes it one of the most iconic series in the genre. | © Studio Deen / Frontier Works

Serial Experiments Lain 1998 — Serial Experiments Lain (1998) – 13 episodes

Not a lot of shows from the ’90s manage to feel just as unsettling now as they did then, but *Lain* is one of them. This is less about jump scares and more about existential dread, technology, and the blurring of reality. As Lain is drawn deeper into the Wired – a digital network that feels eerily prophetic of the modern internet – her sense of self begins to fracture, and so does yours as a viewer. Each episode feels like slipping further into a fever dream, filled with distorted visuals, unnerving silences, and cryptic dialogue that keeps you guessing. It’s horror at its most abstract, leaving you with questions you can’t easily shake. Perfect Halloween fuel for anyone who enjoys their scares cerebral. | © Triangle Staff / Geneon

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When Halloween rolls around, not everyone has the time to dive into a 100-episode anime marathon. Sometimes, the best way to get into the spooky spirit is with a series you can finish in just a few nights – eerie atmospheres, unsettling mysteries, and bone-chilling twists included. Horror anime has a way of burrowing under your skin, and many of the shorter series pack just as much punch as the long-running classics. From psychological nightmares to ghostly tales drenched in atmosphere, these bite-sized shows are perfect for binging during the Halloween season. Here’s a list of ten short horror anime series that will give you the creeps without devouring your entire month.