5 Scary Reality TV Shows That Horror Fans Have To Watch

Horror was once the domain of movie theaters, where mammoth-sized screens and deafening sound systems could elevate simple scares into bone-chilling frights. As TV took hold, though, it wasn't long before the horrors came home with audiences. To up the ante, networks in the late '90s began infusing the genre with elements from the newly-popular reality television shows, and today, horror-based competitions are their own genre niche.

Since the first horror-themed competition shows popped up on the scene, there have been dozens upon dozens that have tried to make a name for themselves. But not all of them are created equal, and their quality definitely varies. Some dazzle audiences as much as any iconic horror movie, and others go quickly forgotten. So we're here to separate the good from the bad, and to provide horror fans with a list of five essential shows to watch in this subgenre: reality shows that mix horror and competition to create something truly and spookily special.

With a name like "Hellevator," you know you're in for some goofy, gimmicky, and scary fun. That's exactly what you'll get in this 2015 series that stems from horror uber-producer Jason Blum, who founded the small budget powerhouse, Blumhouse Productions in 2000. Blumhouse is the home of horror classics like "The Purge" and "Insidious," making something like "Hellevator" a natural evolution. The series was created by Jen and Sylvia Soska, writers and directors of the cult horror movies "American Mary" and "See No Evil 2."

"Hellevator" is a frightening competition reality series involving a team of three contestants. In each episode, they're forced through a series of challenges based on whatever terrifying legend is introduced by the Soska sisters. One early episode involves a trio of nurses who take an elevator ride through a haunted hospital that, as myth has it, was built over the site of a graveyard full of convicted murderers. Other episodes revolve around horror stories based on "The Butcher, the Baker, and the Candlestick Maker," and the real-life serial killer H.H. Holmes.

Challenges in each episode escalate in difficulty, and prize money increases with each trial, from $5,000 up to $15,000. If a contestant fails a challenge, they are eliminated from the game. The surviving contestants must compete in a final, timed gauntlet challenge (known as the Labyrinth in Season 1 and the Inferno Run in Season 2). There, they compete to track down both a hidden stash of cash and one special item before the clock runs out.

One of the earliest horror-based reality shows was "Fear," which aired on MTV in 2002. While audiences may look back on it now as somewhat dated (NuMetal group Godsmack provides the intro music), it was a game-changer for the genre of reality television (even if it didn't earn a place on our list of MTV's best reality shows of the 2000s). Like most shows on today's list, "Fear" enjoyed only a brief run. It still laid the groundwork for nearly every horror-inspired reality competition that would follow.

"Fear" uses classic horror tropes for its central premise, pitting a group of contestants against the tension of a haunted house, as they are forced to stay in scary locations for several days while enduring wild challenges. Real-life locations are used, including cemeteries, prisons, and sanitariums. All kinds of nasty places were chosen for these wicked episodes, with contestants selected at random to test their fears against their alleged haunts.

A genre-shattering series that took shows like "The Real World" and "Big Brother" and gave them a spooky twist, "Fear" used point-of-view cameras mounted to the contestants to give it a claustrophobic feel, with a found-footage style reminiscent of "The Blair Witch Project" — and why not? "Blair Witch" had just broken horror records in 1999, proving that all you needed was that real feel and a horror you never really saw nor heard described. "Fear" was a pioneering reality show that every horror fan should watch, just for its trailblazing place in TV history. Plus, the show's dated, grainy look only makes it all the more nerve-wracking. Any blurry movement in the shadows can become hair-raising in a hurry.

A more recent addition to the pantheon of horror-based reality shows is the 2019 series "Killer Camp," a British production that aired in the United States on The CW. Like our other horror competitions, the series puts a group of people through a series of challenges based on horror classics. In this case, it's a summer camp that pays homage to '80s slasher movies like "Friday the 13th." The twist to "Killer Camp," however, is that its participants arrive believing they really are there for a summer camp experience, but instead find themselves fighting for survival in a series of nightmarish games.

Like "Friday the 13th," the contestants of "Killer Camp" are rounded up and forced to face off against a mysterious killer. Their job is to stay in the game while collecting clues to the killer's identity, and the person who can ID him first will walk away with a tidy sum of cash. One by one, contestants are "killed off," while the bucolic summer camp stays eerily inviting. 

Another big twist in "Hell Camp" is that the killer is one of the contestants, adding a layer of paranoia that makes alliances and friendships fraught with danger. As much a mind game as it is a physically challenging horror-slasher competition, "Killer Camp" is both nail-biting and terrifying at the same time.

While most horror-based reality competition shows take a serious route, with stomach-churning scares and blood-curdling challenges, the long-running "Scare Tactics" takes a different path. Mixing horror with laughs, the series is a hidden camera show hosted by a number of different celebrity personalities, including Shannen Doherty, Stephen Baldwin, and Tracy Morgan. The series ran on SyFy for six seasons from 2003 to 2013, before being resurrected by Monkeypaw Productions in 2024. Today it's running scared on the USA Network, with the help of Jordan Peele behind the scenes.

Like a horror version of "Impractical Jokers" or "Punk'D," "Scare Tactics" creates elaborate scenarios that turn up the frights. From faked but convincing UFO abductions to nightmarish killer clowns who feel all too real, the series puts unsuspecting targets through realistic experiences that involve complex sets, loads of extras and actors, and top-notch special effects. The results draw incredible reactions from both the audience and the prankees, creating tension that escalates until the terrified targets are finally told what show they're on.

If you love a good prank — and let's face it, who doesn't? — then "Scare Tactics" is sure to keep you cackling all night long. With over 100 episodes, it'll provide you with hour after hour of hair-raising fun.

Of all the biggest horror movie tropes we could list, the iconic "scream queen" sits right at the top. Whether she's the final girl or not, the terrors that face a young woman who becomes the target of a horrific killer can tingle anyone's spine. That's the plot gimmick at the center of VH1's "Scream Queens," which shouldn't be confused with the failed Emma Roberts horror-comedy series of the same name.

This reality TV version of "Scream Queens" fits right in with all the other shows on this list, with horror-inspired challenges faced by a group of contestants — all women — who compete for a grand prize. The trophy in this competition isn't a big pile of cash, however, but the opportunity to have a role in a then-upcoming "Saw" sequel. That's right, all the contestants of "Scream Queens" are aspiring actors hoping to become the next horror movie icon, following in the footsteps of actresses like Jamie Lee Curtis, Heather Langenkamp, and Barbara Crampton. 

To make the series even more unique, the challenges contestants face in "Scream Queens" don't test their ability to face their fears, nor are they the type of difficult physical challenges you might expect. They're all based on potential acting prowess, complete with the trope-appropriate amounts of out-of-date sexism. Not only did the winner of 2008's first season, Tanedra Howard, appear in "Saw VI," but the series would be the start of "Station 19" star Jaina Lee Ortiz's career. Even wilder, one judge was today's DC directorial hero, James Gunn, still in his post-Troma shock and splatter era.