With the days getting shorter and cooler temperatures finally on the horizon, we’re easing into the spirit of October with a cozy watch list of Southern Gothic movies and TV shows. Ranging from slow-burning psychological thrillers to campy horror series, this list showcases all of the hallmark elements of the genre. Antebellum mansions, Spanish moss, and drawling accents, sure, but you’ll also find complicated characters with haunted pasts, social commentary, and themes of death, decay, and the supernatural.
Sinners
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
Released in theaters earlier this year, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a mix of supernatural horror and musical drama set in Prohibition-era Mississippi. The narrative unfolds in the heart of Clarksdale in the 1930s — a small Delta town steeped in blues, spirituality, and racial tension. The way Sinners blends history, music, and folklore is captivating from start to finish: vampiric horror meets African spiritual traditions, Christian symbolism, and the legacy of colonialism. It’s a story about monsters of all kinds.
Sharp Objects
Where to Watch: HBO Max
First aired in 2018, Sharp Objects is a psychological mystery-thriller based on the novel by Gillian Flynn. The series follows a troubled journalist who returns to her small hometown of Wind Gap, MO, to cover the murder of two young girls. However, the investigation quickly takes a back seat to confronting the buried traumas of her own past.
While not technically set in the deep South, Sharp Objects is set amidst Southern Gothic sensibilities: a decaying small town clinging to old money and social appearances, a stately (see also: creepy) family mansion, and a general undercurrent of darkness. The story unfolds like a fever dream, layered with haunting imagery, unreliable memories, and a slow-burning murder mystery.
Interview with the Vampire: Film + TV Series
Film Adaptation: Tubi
TV Series: Netflix, AMC
The 1994 film Interview with the Vampire, adapted from Anne Rice’s novel, follows the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac as he recounts to a reporter a life spanning centuries. The story begins in 1791 in New Orleans, where Louis is turned into a vampire by the charismatic and morally reckless Lestat. Over time, the pair explores the price of immortality and the loss of humanity.
The newer TV series (debuted in 2022) reimagines parts of that story with updates. It shifts Louis’s backstory from the late 1700s to the early 1900s, making him a Black Creole businessman in New Orleans (rather than a white plantation owner). The series leans more into the intimate relationship between Louis and Lestat, and it modernizes some of the framing around the interview with the reporter.
The Beguiled
Where to Watch: Apple TV
Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled, released in 2017, reimagines Thomas P. Cullinan’s novel set in the later years of the American Civil War. It takes place in a remote girls’ boarding school in Virginia, where most of the students, staff, and other residents have fled or gone off to war — only a handful of women and girls remain.
A wounded Union soldier is found in the woods by one of the younger students, and the women decide to care for him, but his presence sparks tension and jealousy. Relationships shift, secrets emerge, and the power dynamics between the women and the stranger become increasingly volatile.
True Detective: Season 1
Where to Watch: HBO Max
Season 1 of True Detective (aired in 2014) is a Southern Gothic crime drama that follows two Louisiana detectives as they investigate a ritualistic murder that leads to a decades-long search for a serial killer. The story is set against the backdrop of rural South Louisiana, with decaying churches, swamps, industrial plants, and hints at the supernatural, all lending an eerie undertone to the story.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), directed by Clint Eastwood, is a slow-burning mystery set in Savannah, GA. Based on a true story, it follows a journalist who becomes entangled in the eccentric world of antiques dealer Jim Williams during a murder trial. The film is rich in Southern Gothic elements — decaying beauty, quirky yet haunted characters, voodoo rituals, and an undercurrent of moral ambiguity.
True Blood (7 Seasons)
Where to Watch: HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video
True Blood (aired 2008–2014) is a steamy, bloody, and deeply Southern take on the supernatural, set in the fictional town of Bon Temps, LA. Based on Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mysteries, the show kicks off with a world-changing twist: vampires have “come out of the coffin” thanks to synthetic blood, allowing them to live among humans. At the heart of it all is Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress who gets pulled into a world of vampires, shapeshifters, witches, and other creatures lurking just beneath the surface of small-town life.
You’ve got Spanish moss, swamps, crumbling mansions, religious zealotry, and plenty of supernatural creatures. It’s totally campy, over-the-top, and meant to be enjoyed but not taken too seriously.
American Horror Story: Coven (Season 3)
Where to Watch: Hulu
Not for faint hearts or weak stomachs, each season of American Horror Story explores a different narrative, though there is some overlap between seasons. American Horror Story: Coven (2013) is set in modern-day New Orleans, with flashbacks reaching as far back as the 1800s. The story revolves around a dwindling coven of witches.
Coven digs into New Orleans’ legacy of slavery, voodoo, and colonialism, and though it’s wildly fictionalized, the story introduces real historical figures like voodoo priestess Marie Laveau and the infamous Delphine LaLaurie. The show explores themes of race, immortality, and womanhood — with a campy (sometimes raunchy) edge.
Happy viewing!
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