Horror Shows That Were Canceled For The Strangest Reasons

With so many streaming platforms and broadcast channels, it's a challenge for shows of any genre to find an audience and thrive. This is especially true of the horror genre, which feels more niche in appeal than sitcoms and prestige dramas. However, not every cancellation has to do with low viewership, particularly with recent changes across the entertainment industry. From studio politics to fickle viewer attention, some shows get cut short for the oddest of reasons.

These horror shows were each canceled for relatively unconventional reasons, not entirely having to do with ratings or production costs. With everything from acclaimed international productions to adaptations of popular licensed properties, nothing is safe from behind-the-scenes drama and obtuse content strategies. The only thing scarier than some of these shows is the inane rationale that ended them before their time.

One of the biggest Max original series in the platform's first year was the horror sci-fi series "Raised by Wolves." Created by Aaron Guzikowski, the series had some serious Hollywood talent behind it, with Ridley Scott directing the first two episodes and executive producing the show. "Raised by Wolves" follows two androids overseeing a colony of human children on a faraway exoplanet after Earth is destroyed in a devastating war. The androids quickly discover how evil human nature can be as monsters beset humanity's last chance for survival.

"Raised by Wolves" gained critical acclaim over two seasons between 2020 and 2022. In the midst of the show's run, the platform's parent company WarnerMedia merged with Discovery to form the new media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery in April 2022. In the face of this corporate restructuring and revised strategy for the studio's streaming priorities, "Raised by Wolves" was canceled the following June. Adding insult to injury, the show was delisted on Max by the end of the year and licensed to outside streaming platforms.

Filmmaker Mike Flanagan has made a growing home for his television horror projects at Netflix, including the well-received "The Haunting of Hill House" and "Midnight Mass." In 2022, "The Midnight Club," based on the literary works of Christopher Pike, was set to continue Flanagan's winning streak on the platform. The show follows a group of terminally ill patients at a hospice facility who tell each other scary stories each night. As this nocturnal tradition progresses, the patients have increasingly frightening supernatural experiences themselves in the real world.

Unlike Flanagan's single-season projects with Netflix, "The Midnight Club" was intended to run for two seasons to complete its story. However, Netflix canceled the series three months after its premiere, leaving its season finale tease unresolved. In a statement following the cancelation announcement, Flanagan attributed changing internal priorities at Netflix for the show's premature end. There has also been speculation that the streamer decided to cancel the show after Flanagan signed a multi-year development deal with Prime Video. This was fueled by the deal being announced the same day news broke that "The Midnight Club" was canceled.

The Archie Comics brand found new life on television, starting with the premiere of "Riverdale" on The CW in 2017. Netflix launched the horror-tinged sister series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" the following year, and found its own critical and audience success. The show starred Kiernan Shipka as teenage witch Sabrina Spellman, who contends with the forces of Hell and her own demonic parentage. "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" ran for two seasons, divided across four blocks of episodes, and received a surprise holiday special in 2018.

Though a fifth block of episodes was planned by series creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Netflix canceled the series between its third and fourth blocks in July 2020. "Sabrina" was part of a wave of canceled Netflix shows that year, including "GLOW" and "I Am Not Okay with This," despite receiving tentative renewals. As the COVID-19 pandemic shut down entertainment productions worldwide, Netflix decided to cancel several of its shows to cut costs in the face of prolonged uncertainty. Shipka's Sabrina later appeared on "Riverdale," while Aguirre-Sacasa turned his story ideas for unrealized "Chilling Adventures" episodes into a comic book.

The French Netflix series "Marianne" serves as sort of a nightmarish twist on the 2006 movie "Stranger than Fiction." The show follows novelist Emma Larsimon (Victoire du Bois) who discovers that characters from her books are roaming the real world. This includes Marianne (Délia Espinat-Dief), a fearsome witch who begins to target Emma's family and friends as part of a bloody vendetta. As Emma is stalked by her terrifying creations, she must contend with alternate realities and what she has unleashed on the world.

Upon its premiere in September 2019, "Marianne" performed well in international territories, with creator Samuel Bodin planning a second season. However, as with "1899," Netflix claimed the French series suffered from a low completion rate among its viewership. Specifically, Netflix cited a low completion rate in the show's native France to justify not proceeding with additional seasons. Despite glowing critical reviews worldwide and a cliffhanger ending, "Marianne" was officially canceled in January 2020.

Capcom's "Resident Evil" franchise popularized the survival horror genre, and continues to be a major video game property decades after its launch. Netflix put its own spin on the "Resident Evil" mythos with a live-action television series premiering in July 2022. Taking place primarily across two time periods, set in both 2022 and 2036, the show follows devious scientist Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick) and his two children after the world is overrun by zombies. As the 2022 storyline reveals how the zombie apocalypse begins, the 2036 sequences depict the last bastion of humanity fighting for survival.

In its first week on Netflix, "Resident Evil" actually posted impressive viewership numbers, briefly replacing the fourth season of "Stranger Things" as the platform's most-watched. However, viewership plummeted in the face of negative word-of-mouth and poor critical reviews after this honeymoon period. The following month Netflix canceled "Resident Evil," leaving its story incomplete after a cliffhanger closed out its only season. Between this and the failure of the feature film "Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City," it might be a while before we see the franchise return to live-action.

Bruce Campbell's horror movie hero Ash Williams has been one of the most beloved figures in the genre since his 1981 debut in "The Evil Dead." Campbell reprised his iconic role in the Starz continuation series "Ash vs Evil Dead," reuniting with filmmakers Sam and Ivan Raimi to bring the property to television. The series followed an older Ash who is dragged back into the world of monster-slaying as evil forces seek to unleash literal hell on Earth. Armed with his shotgun, his chainsaw hand, and his usual wisecracks, it falls upon Ash to save the day.

Premiering on Halloween 2015, "Ash vs Evil Dead" ran for three seasons on Starz, before being canceled with the conclusion of its final season in April 2018. Though the show struggled to find an audience with its linear broadcast on Starz, it performed well after being licensed to stream on Netflix. Several years after its cancellation, Campbell was more publicly sanguine about the circumstances regarding the end of "Ash vs Evil Dead." Campbell blamed the lower viewership on the obscurity of Starz as a platform overall, noting that the show's popularity on Netflix came too late to save it.