10 Genuinely Spooky, Underrated Horror Anime

Light one candle, turn your phone face-down, and promise yourself you’ll only watch one episode — then proceed to immediately break that promise. These picks hide in festival lineups, late-night slots, and dusty corners of the catalogue. They’re the kind of horror that crawls into your memories and refuses to leave. Here is a list of underrated horror anime that you can add to your Halloween binge list.

1) Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek (short film, 2004)

Rating: 9/10
Vibe: Folk-horror fairy tale — children’s game turns occult nightmare.
A 25-minute cel-shaded short about a forbidden hide-and-seek game in an eerie, ruined city; atmosphere > explanation. Perfect for one-sitting dread.

2) Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack (movie, 2012)

Rating: 8.5/10
Vibe: Gross body-horror surrealism — grotesque and bleak.
Junji Ito’s fever-dream on screen: walking, rotting sea-creatures and a suffocating, absurdly gross atmosphere. Not cozy. Expect nausea + fascination.

3) Kowabon (shorts, 2015)

Rating: 7.8/10
Vibe: Micro urban-legends — modern-tech folk horror in bite-sized doses.
Three-minute vignettes tied together by a stringy-haired ghost and handheld/security-cam presentation. Minimal animation, maximum “did you just see that?” chills.

4) Ghost Hound (TV, 2007–08)

Rating: 8.7/10
Vibe: Slow-burn psychological/occult — haunted small-town nightmare.
Production I.G. + Chiaki J. Konaka make a haunting about OBEs, childhood trauma and an “unseen world.” It’s dense, strange, and gets under your skin rather than relying on cheap scares.

5) Shōjo Tsubaki / Midori (The Camellia Girl) (film, 1992)

Rating: 8.6/10
Vibe: Ero-guro grotesque — exploitation as art, deeply unsettling.
Not for the faint or easily offended: a freak-show tale of abuse and degradation that’s brutally disturbing and linger-heavy in its imagery. Famous for being controversial and rare.

6) Mōryō no Hako (The Goblin’s Box) (TV, 2008)

Rating: 8.4/10
Vibe: Period mystery with baroque creepiness.
A 1950s Tokyo-set mystery where grotesque crimes, ritualistic hints and occult undertones meet investigative drama — atmospheric and underseen compared to modern horror staples.

7) Night Head Genesis (TV, 2006)

Rating: 8.2/10
Vibe: Psychic dread + suburban paranoia.
Two brothers with dangerous psychic powers drift into a slow-burn apocalypse of strange phenomena and violence. It’s eerie because it treats psychic horror like a slow, spreading infection.

8) Pet Shop of Horrors (OVA / mini-series, 1999)

Rating: 8.0/10
Vibe: Gothic anthology — morally uncanny shopfront tales.
Count D sells “pets” that come with serious strings attached. Each episode is a dark fable about desire and consequence — low-episode count, high creep factor.

9) Kowaii (Kaidan / Regional folk short anthologies & obscure OVAs) (various shorts/anthologies)

Rating: 7.7/10 (varies by episode)
Vibe: Old-school kaidan (ghost story) energy — oral folklore turned visual.
If you enjoy folklore horror and uneven, strangely effective pacing, hunt down anthology releases and festival shorts — they’re hit-or-miss but often contain diamonds.

10) Yami Shibai (TV, 2013)

Rating: 7.8/10
Vibe: Japanese urban legends, short and chilling.
Five-minute horror tales told like paper puppet shows. Minimalist but effective—great for those “one more episode” nights that end with the lights on.

Final Verdict:

So there you have it—10 chilling gems that slipped through the cracks of mainstream hype. From eerie absurdism to haunted folk tales, these series prove that true horror doesn’t need jump scares—it just needs time to crawl under your skin.

Now go light that candle, hit “play,” and remember: if you hear footsteps behind you while watching… don’t turn around. 👻

Image credit  Yamato Works