Credit: Netflix

When it comes to the designated season of spook, Netflix viewers usually branch out to find what suits them the most.

Some prefer slow-burning horror, while others go for unexpected jump scares. But all culminate in a quintessential October trend: everyone’s too afraid to switch off the lights!

While otherworldly or supernatural scares are the call of the hour, if humans scare you more than fabled monsters or cursed dolls, we have the ultimate watchlist for you.

For those scratching their heads, we’re taking October gore to a league above with five serial-killer thriller series that remind you what real panic is made of.

Five serial-killer thriller series to binge on Netflix

City of Shadows (Jorge Torregrossa, 2025)

If you’re into Spanish atmospheric thrillers, City of Shadows is the only way to kick off the serial-killer marathon. The series opens with a terrifying inciting incident: the brutal murder of a construction company CEO, who is tormented ruthlessly before being burned alive on the balcony of Antoni Gaudi’s iconic building, Casa Milà. To investigate the high-profile case, Milo Malart is reinstated despite his insubordination and suspension.

Milo joins forces with deputy inspector Rebeca to track down the killer or killers at large, who have been targeting famous Barcelona landmarks to commit their grisly crimes, secretly enacting a dark revenge plot with connections to the past. City of Shadows centres on Milo and Rebeca’s investigation of a series of symbol-laden murders in Barcelona, which turns into the perpetrators’ reign of terror.

The Chestnut Man (Mikkel Serup and Kasper Barfoed, 2021-Present)

Like any good serial-killer thriller, The Chestnut Man opens with the mass murder of an entire family in a secluded farm in 1987. The series cuts thirty years later to present-day Copenhagen, where a young woman is found murdered in a playground with an eye plucked out and an arm cut. At the crime scene, investigators find a handmade chestnut figurine, and forensic experts find an even eerier discovery.

The chestnut doll contains the fingerprint of Kristine Hartung, the missing and presumed-dead daughter of high-profile government minister Rosa. Realising the intensity of the murder case and the past ties, Detective Naia Thulin is paired with her reluctant new partner, Mark Hess, who suspects that the incarcerated man who originally confessed to Kristine’s murder may be innocent and that a dangerous serial killer with hidden agendas is now on the loose.

Absentia (Oded Ruskin, Adam Sanderson, Greg Zglinski, and Kasia Adamik, 2017)

Next on the serial-killer thriller watchlist is Absentia, which follows FBI Special Agent Emily Byrne who goes missing without a trace while investigating an infamous and elusive Boston serial killer. Although her vanishing prompts a two-year-long investigation led by her husband, fellow FBI agent Nick Durand, after years of no leads, she’s declared legally dead. As the world moves on, so does Nick, eventually marrying Alice and raising his son Flynn.

But six years after her disappearance, a tip leads Nick to a water tank where a traumatised, drained-out Emily is found, barely breathing and suffering from severe amnesia. Subsequently, Conrad, the man in prison for Emily’s murder, is released, but found dead with an old file linking Emily’s DNA to a murdered sex trafficker. Who was missing all these years now becomes the prime suspect in a murder case, and with no memory whatsoever, she must evade law enforcement to find the truth, even if it means blindsiding her ex-husband.

Copycat Killer (Chang Jung-chi and Henri Chang, 2023)

Set in 1990s Taipei, Copycat Killer is a gritty Taiwanese crime thriller about a media-savvy serial killer who turns his misdeeds into a public sensation. The story opens with the discovery of a severed hand left in a public park wrapped in a red gift box, prompting tenacious prosecutor Kuo Hsiao-chi to take charge of a case that goes beyond simple logic. While the investigation reaches a peak, a masked, elusive killer capitalises on the media to mock the police and justice system through these spectacles.

As the body count mounts and secrets are unearthed, Kuo finds himself in a race against time to track a serial killer who enjoys the cat-and-mouse chase. Copycat Killer centres on Kuo’s hardened investigation of the evil mastermind while navigating public panic, media exploitation and manipulation, and, of course, internal institutional corruption.

The Serpent (Tom Shankland and Hans Herbots, 2021)

To round out the serial-killer thriller-thon, we recommend a true-crime drama series, The Serpent, based on the crimes of notorious French serial killer Charles “the Serpent” Sobhraj, infamous for murdering young backpackers on the hippie trail during the 1970s. The series opens with Sobhraj pretending to be a charismatic gem dealer operating in Kanit House in Bangkok, Thailand, alongside his girlfriend Marie and accomplice Ajay, to victimise tourists by stealing their passports and identities.

But once his victims realise his game plan and threaten to expose him, Sobhraj turns to ruthless murders, leaving mutilated bodies unidentifiable to derail recognition. When a junior diplomat at the Dutch Embassy starts looking into the disappearance of two Dutch backpackers, they finally get a hunch about Sobhraj’s criminal network. But will that be enough to convince law enforcement and unmask the cruel culprit?