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For the residents of the place known only as “the Town,” that feeling of being trapped in your small hometown is literal: Once you set foot in the place, you can never leave it. That’s more than just a metaphor in the sci-fi series From: the Town is surrounded by woods inhabited by bloodthirsty creatures, a fact hapless new residents the Matthews family discover only after it is too late to leave.
While statistically, there must be plenty of people out there who are perfectly content to stick around the place where they grew up, this queer boy ain’t one of them. And I can’t be alone, because there are lots of other shows about the nightmarish potential of seemingly pleasant little communities, most of them featuring characters who are in some way trapped there, including these 10 standout examples. From is streaming on MGM+.
Midnight Mass (2021)
It might not be the best of Mike Flanagan’s Netflix work, but it’s certainly the most emotionally devastating. Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) returns to the tiny, isolated community of Crockett Island, his arrival coinciding with that of Catholic priest Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater). Riley is wrestling with his justifiable guilt over a drunk-driving death for which he was responsible, while the charismatic priest is reviving the town’s once-flagging religious fervor while exacerbating local tensions. The brewing conflict, involving the limits of both faith and guilt, is fascinating, while the inseparably horrific elements are rather terrifying. Stream Midnight Mass on Netflix.
Wayward Pines (2015 – 2016)
Based on a trilogy of Blake Crouch novels, this show initially, stars Matt Dillon as a Secret Service agent investigating the disappearances of two fellow agents in the Idaho town of Wayward Pines. Things go awry pretty much immediately, and he wakes up from a car accident to find one of the agents (Carla Gugino), who’s also his ex, having settled down in the seemingly idyllic community—and 12 years older than when he last saw her only a few weeks earlier. Even more dramatically, the local sheriff (Terrence Howard) enforces a strict “no one ever leaves” policy, on pain of having one’s neck slit—fear of being stuck in a small town being both a common theme and, apparently, an American nightmare. The mysteries pile up from there. Stream Wayward Pines on Hulu.
Dark (2017 – 2020)
Dark began as a mystery involving a missing child and evolved, over its three seasons, into a wildly complex time travel narrative exploring dark family secrets over the course of several generations. The German import has a striking look and incredibly atmospheric feel, with an ensemble cast of teens and adults whose narratives are deftly intertwined. It turns out that small towns in Germany might hold as many horrors as those of the United States. Stream Dark on Netflix.
The ‘Burbs (2026 – )
By no means a tonal match for From, this fun and very loose adaptation of the 1989 Tom Hanks film finds Keke Palmer’s Samira and Jack Whitehall’s Rob moving back to his impossibly safe and tidy hometown. Their house happens to be across the street from a dilapidated Victorian eyesore that may or may not have been the location of a murder a couple of decades before—a murder of a girl who made the mistake of trying to get away. As Samira adjusts to new motherhood as well as life on the cul-de-sac, she learns that even the nicest of her neighbors (played by Julia Duffy, Paula Pell, Mark Proksch, and Kapil Talwalkar) have secrets, and comes to suspect that her husband knows more about the missing girl than he’s letting on. Stream The ‘Burbs on Peacock.
Twin Peaks (1990 – 1991, 2017)
With all due respect to every other “small towns are weird” show, I’m not sure that there’s any finer example of the form than than this groundbreaking bit of weirdness from David Lynch and Mark Frost, in which teens and adults in the deceptively quiet Twin Peaks face tragedy accompanied by supernatural threats from outside of our normal space and time. I think? The mysteries here aren’t really meant to be solved as much as pondered with an eye toward nebulous existential dread (and if that’s not your idea of fun, I’m not sure what you’re doing here). Kyle MacLachlan plays FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, who arrives in the title town to investigate the murder of teenager homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), precipitating a (very) long night of the soul as Cooper uncovers secrets and mysteries among the town’s delightfully, and often disturbingly, weird residents. Stream Twin Peaks on Paramount+.
Castle Rock (2018 – 2019)
Canceled after two (rather excellent) seasons, Castle Rock was a victim of its marketing. The show was promoted as a dive into some kind of Stephen King connected universe, promising Easter eggs without suggesting much by way of storytelling. And yet! There are actual stories here, with real dramatic heft—the first season’s “The Queen,” told from the unstable perspective of a character (played by Sissy Spacek) with worsening dementia, was one of the best, and most existentially horrifying, things on television that year. The second season introduces young Annie Wilkes, (Lizzy Caplan), the Kathy Bates character we know from Misery. The cast across the two seasons is stellar, and includes Bill Skarsgård, a creepy character not named Pennywise. There’s plenty of stuff for King fans to sink their teeth into as we dive into the backstory of a different Stephen King town, but it all works rather well on its own. Stream Castle Rock on Hulu.
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Haven (2010 – 2015)
A couple of Stephen King situations here, which feels entirely fair given the writer’s ease in situating the most horrific events imaginable in the most seemingly innocuous locales. Based on the King novella “The Colorado Kid,” this X-Files-esque procedural has got the “weird stuff in a small town” vibe down pat. Emily Rose stars as Audrey Parker, an FBI Special Agent sent to the title town of Haven, Maine on a routine case. Soon, she gets drawn into “the Troubles,” a series of harmful supernatural events that have recurred throughout the town’s history—and, by no coincidence, they are happening again. A supernatural-case-of-the-week format gives way to a bigger mystery when Audrey comes to learn that this isn’t her first time in Haven. Stream Haven on Peacock and Prime Video.
It: Welcome to Derry (2025 – )
One more from King, who’s not just great at situating horror in small towns, but in conveying the unique trauma of being a kid trapped in a small town. Set in the 1960s, this It prequel dives into the backstory of Derry and Pennywise the clown through the eyes of children who met him during his previous visit to the town. By the end of the first episode, it’s clear that even the most adorable children aren’t safe, and this is a show that will, if nothing else, go hard—and that’s before Bill Skarsgård’s memorably creepy Pennywise even shows up, and before we dig deeper into the secrets and lies of the adults of Derry. Stream It: Welcome to Derry on HBO Max.
The Returned (2012 – 2015)
A slow-burn French mystery, The Returned finds the dead returning to life in a tiny French town: a teenage bus-crash victim; a child killed by burglars; a groom who died by suicide on his wedding day; a serial killer. The arrival of these people—they’re literally zombies, but the show veers from the usual tropes—wildly complicates life for their families, even as strange phenomena accompany them, including the reveal of a town lost beneath the local lake. Audiences were split on the ambitious second season, but the first is a masterpiece. Stream The Returned on Prime Video and Tubi.
Hemlock Grove (2013 – 2015)
One of the first of Netflix’s original series, this supernatural thriller takes us to the title Pennsylvania town, where economic realities have shut down the steel mill and left residents with few options other than the two remaining employers, the Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies and the Hemlock Acres Hospital. Take your pick, but do so knowing that Olivia Godfrey (Famke Janssen), head of the Godfrey Institute, is rumored to be conducting all sorts of weird experiments. When two teenage girls are murdered, a 17-year-old Romani kid, rumored to be a werewolf, is the prime suspect. And while he actually is a werewolf, that doesn’t make him a murderer. Rent Hemlock Grove from Prime Video.
Teacup (2024)
Given his place in the horror-novel pantheon, it’s a bit surprising that Robert McCammon’s novels haven’t been adapted more than just this once (though there’s at least one more in development). Teacup takes the limited locale of From and shrinks it even further: here, the characters are not bounded by a town from which they can’t escape, but by the borders of their rural Georgia ranch. Leaving will get you killed, and even just trying to leave is likely to leave you injured. Yvonne Strahovski and Scott Speedman lead the cast of mysteriously trapped characters, and while the show was cancelled after just one season, it builds to an effective, and ruthlessly brutal, conclusion. Stream Teacup on Peacock.
