5 Spooky PBS Documentaries to Stream This Halloween
Sometimes, truth is more frightening than fiction. You could mark this year’s Halloween by watching one of any number of scary movies, from influential classics like Nosferatu or Frankenstein to classic slashers like Halloween and Friday the 13th or modern hits like Backrooms and Obsession. Or, you could watch a spine-chilling documentary.
PBS has a long list of bingeable docs covering real-life spooky topics, from the origins of our vampire myths to dark stories of plague and murder. Here are five documentaries you can stream on the PBS Documentaries on Prime Video channel.
Field of Vampires: Could vampires be real? This Secrets of the Dead installment investigates the 2022 discovery of a female skeleton dating from 1650. The woman was buried with a sickle across her neck and giant padlock on her toe-double, both protection aimed to keep her from rising from the dead. And she was not the only person buried in such a manner. Who was this woman and what did these burial rituals mean?
The Woman in the Iron Coffin: PBS’s long-running series Secrets of the Dead explores all kinds of compelling historical discoveries, some with a distinctly macabre bent. This episodes looks at the 2011 discover of a the remains of a woman in an abandoned lot in Queens, New York. Follow along as historians and scientists investigate story.
Dracula’s Hidden Kingdom: There’s a reason Bram Stoker set his famous horror novel Dracula in Transylvania. This region of Romania, with its soaring Carpathian Mountains and vast ancient forests, is home to some of Europe’s last true wildernesses. Transylvania is home to some of Europe’s most charismatic animals, including wolves, bears and lynx. Learn more about this fascinating area in this 2024 episode of Nature, narrated by Jeremy Irons.
The Forgotten Plague: Tuberculosis was once one of the world’s most prolific killers. At the beginning of the 19th century, the disease had killed one in seven of all the people who had ever lived. This documentary explores the battle against the deadly bacteria and its lasting impact on the US, including its role in shaping medicine and science, social habits, economic development, western expansion, and government policy.
Jamestown’s Dark Winter: Archaeologists explore the site of the early American colony of Jamestown, where they discover the remains of a young woman, dating back to 1609, buried in the trash layer of a cellar. Forensic anthropologists help bring this woman’s frightening story to life.
Looking for other unsettling documentaries to stream this Halloween on PBS? Ric Burns’ 1992 film The Donner Party explains how an ill-fated shortcut led to the most infamous instance of cannibalism in American history. The Lost Tombs of Notre Dame investigates two mysterious coffins buried beneath the floor of the famous cathedral and only discovered after the 2019 blaze that nearly destroyed the church. Edgar Allen Poe: Buried Alive looks at the troubled life of the author of famous stories of terror, including “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
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