As it turns out, Crunchyroll has given us a selection of their scariest horror anime for Halloween in 2022. It’s just in time for this year’s THS Fright-A-Thon to boot.

Horror Anime to Make You Scream?

For Halloween in 2022, Crunchyroll has given us a list of horror anime for our viewing pleasure. The list includes not just pure horror shows, but also hilarious horror comedies. No matter what your tastes are, there’s something on this list for everyone.

Unfortunately, Crunchyroll has locked almost all of these anime series behind the shiny new paywall they’re busy putting up in front of all of their older anime series. In fact, the only anime on this list that you can even watch for free with ads is Jujutsu Kaisen. Even then though, I have no idea how long that’s going to last. Personally, I think if Crunchyroll wanted people to watch these less well-known anime, they might think about making them free with ads like they did prior to this paywall business, but that’s just my opinion on the matter. I doubt they’ll be changing their minds on this anytime soon. Especially since Crunchyroll did this with zero announcements on the subject, hoping people don’t notice.

Anyways, enough of my griping on the subject of Crunchyroll. Here’s a list of their horror anime highlights if you want to pay for a premium account:

Crunchyroll Horror Anime Highlights

Chainsaw Man (MAPPA)

Rev ’em up, and cut ’em down!

Denji is a teenage boy living with a Chainsaw Devil named Pochita. Due to the debt his father left behind, he has been living a rock-bottom life while repaying his debt by harvesting devil corpses with Pochita. One day, Denji is betrayed and killed. As his consciousness fades, he makes a contract with Pochita and gets revived as “Chainsaw Man” — a man with a devil’s heart.

Mieruko-chan (Passione)

"Mieruko-chan" key art.
AKA: what if a girl’s horrific chuunibyou visions are real, but she desperately wants to hide it?

She can see dead people…she just chooses to ignore them. That’s Miko’s plan, anyway, with horrifying (and sometimes hilarious) results.

Looks like a horror-comedy anime for the ages.

JUJUTSU KAISEN (MAPPA) 

"JUJUTSU KAISEN" key art.
AKA: BLEACH, but with more emphasis on the horror.

Yuji Itadori is a boy with tremendous physical strength, though he lives a completely ordinary high school life. One day, to save a classmate who has been attacked by curses, he eats the finger of Ryomen Sukuna, taking the curse into his own soul. From then on, he shares one body with Ryomen Sukuna. Guided by the most powerful of sorcerers, Satoru Gojo, Itadori is admitted to Tokyo Jujutsu High School, an organization that fights the curses… and thus begins the heroic tale of a boy who became a curse to exorcise a curse, a life from which he could never turn back.

Ryomen Sukuna somehow manages to be even freakier than Hollow Ichigo.

Vampire Knight (Studio Deen)

"Vampire Knight" key art.
An oldie anime vampire tale, but still a goodie.

Yuki Cross is a first-year general education student at Cross Academy. As a member of the Disciplinary Committee, along with her childhood friend Zero Kiryu, her duty is to keep the infatuated Day Class students from chasing the beautiful Night Class students, all while performing the important task of protecting the secret of the Night Class. The secret…that all members of the Night Class are vampires!!

AKA: what Twilight wanted to be, but completely failed to do so.

MARS RED (Signal.MD)

Ooh, looks appropriately dark and creepy for Halloween.

It’s 1923, and until recently, vampires kept to the shadows. When the mysterious blood source Ascra appears, their numbers swell, leaving Japan covered in bodies. In response, the government spawns its own coven to infiltrate the dark. With S-rank vampire Defrott and the rookie Kurusu, this kill squad is made for one reason: to hunt the undead. Bloodsuckers beware; the night belongs to Code Zero!

Boogiepop and Others (Madhouse)

"Boogiepop and Others" key art.
Looks like a warm outfit for that snowy weather.

Takeda Keiji was waiting for his girlfriend and junior in school, Miyashita Touka. But she doesn’t show up at the time they agreed on and he can’t get a hold of her. The sun starts to set and Takeda decides to give up and head home. But then, he sees a man unsteadily wandering around with tears in his eyes. Takeda and the other people around him quickly realize the man is not normal and decide to ignore him when a mysterious figure approaches the man. A mysterious figure wearing a cape and a bizarre hat. That figure happened to have the same face as Touka, the girlfriend who ditched Takeda…

Ooh, looks like a great dark and urban fantasy anime. Reminds me of Fate/stay night in some ways.

Higurashi: When They Cry – GOU (Studio Deen)

"Higurashi: When They Cry - GOU" key art.
Okay, I can’t tell what this anime is about aside from the blood and horror.

New kid Keiichi Maebara is settling into his new home of peaceful Hinamizawa village. Making quick friends with the girls from his school, he’s arrived in time for the big festival of the year. But something about this isolated town seems ‘off,’ and his feelings of dread continue to grow. With a gnawing fear that he’s right, what dark secrets could this small community be hiding?

Looks like a romcom anime gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Sankarea (Studio Deen)

"Sankarea" key art.
Oh, I loved this zombie horror/romcom/comedy-horror anime!

Zombie-obsessed Furuya is making a potion to reanimate his dead cat when he meets Rea. She’s about as miserable as a girl can get, thanks to her creepy, domineering father. When the pain becomes too much, she tries to commit suicide with a sip of Furuya’s weird elixir. The potion doesn’t kill her—but it does turn her into a zombie!

Wonder if they’re ever going to make a season 2 to animate the rest of the manga?

Rosario + Vampire (Gonzo)

"Rosario + Vampire" key art.
Hmm, I have mixed feelings about this anime.

Tsukune’s horrible grades are making it tough for him to get accepted into any of the private schools he wants to attend. When one finally lets him enroll, his life takes an unusually strange twist: all of the other students are hiding supernatural secrets beneath their human disguises! It’s all too much for him—until he meets Moka, a gorgeous girl who is actually a vampire!

Not least of which because of how unfaithful the anime is to the manga.

Corpse Princess: Shikabane Hime (Feel and Gainax)

"Corpse Princess: Shikabane Hime" key art.
Ooh, now this is a dark and gruesome anime.

Makina Hoshino is already dead, but she can’t let go of this twisted world. She burned to death along with her entire family in a fire started by freaks that wouldn’t stay buried. Makina knows she doesn’t belong among the living, but that won’t stop her from unleashing the full fury of her twin MAC-11 machine guns on the rotting remains of those who refuse to die. She’s hell-bent on filling every empty grave she can find with the monsters that should be six feet under. Makina is a Shikabane Hime — a Corpse Princess — and it’s her job to finish off the undead leftovers haunting the dark corners of a city that used to be safe.

Gun nuts will like this anime too.

Hellsing (Gonzo)

"Hellsing" key art.
Very little relation to the original Prof. Van Helsing in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Witness the blood-soaked roots of a legend in Hellsing, the action-horror series that launched the careers of some of anime’s brightest stars. The vampire Arucard and his servant Seras Victoria protect the British Empire from ghouls and satanic freaks. Together, they haunt the shadows as a sinister force of good—and tonight the streets of England shall flow with the blood of their evil prey.

But still bloodily epic.

Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san (DLE)

"Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san" key art.
Is it just me, or does this look a bit bright and cheerful for a horror anime?

Honda-san is at war – with business, with out-of-print books, and with people who love manga! Who knew there were so many laughs to be found at the manga counter of a bookstore?! These are the day-to-day happenings that take place at a certain bookstore where the love of manga is abundant.

Yep, this is pure 100% unadulterated comedy.

Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (Lerche)

"Toilet-bound Hanako-kun" key art.
This also doesn’t quite look like a horror anime to me.

Kamome Academy is rumored to have many mysteries, the strangest of which involves the mischievous ghost of Hanako-kun. When occult-loving high schooler Nene Yashiro accidentally becomes bonded to him, she uncovers a hidden world of supernatural beings. Now the two of them are conspiring to keep the peace between student and supernatural—that is, if they can only stay out of trouble themselves.

Okay, I take it back. Hanako is slightly creepy.

Source: Crunchyroll