20 best shows like The Returned (2012)

A small town that is turned upside down when several local people, who have long been presumed dead, suddenly reappear; their presence creates both positive and negative consequences. As families are reunited, the lives of those who were left behind are challenged both physically and emotionally.

Based on Neil Gaiman's fantasy novel about an ex-con who becomes the traveling partner of a conman who turns out to be one of the older gods trying to recruit troops to battle the upstart deities.

As a chain of horrific and inexplicable events start to unfold in their small town on the northern hemisphere, an ensemble of high school students will be forced to face their darkest fears in order to overcome a supernatural force feeding on chaos and the misery of mankind.

A horror anthology series inspired by “Creepypasta” online tales.

Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders is a drama about the specialized International Division of the FBI tasked with solving crimes and coming to the rescue of Americans who find themselves in danger while abroad.

In a place where young witches, vampires, and werewolves are nurtured to be their best selves in spite of their worst impulses, Klaus Mikaelson’s daughter, 17-year-old Hope Mikaelson, Alaric Saltzman’s twins, Lizzie and Josie Saltzman, among others, come of age into heroes and villains at The Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted.

Consumed by the mystery surrounding the donor heart that saved her life, a young patient starts taking on sinister characteristics of the deceased.

FBI agent Audrey Parker arrives in the small town of Haven, Maine to solve a murder and soon discovers the town's many secrets—which also hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of her lost past.

This three-part, self-contained limited series is about the newest member of the Midnight Society, her first scary tale, and what happens to the group when the terrifying events of her story start to actually happen in their small town.

When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one strange little girl.

When they were boys, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. Subsequently, their father raised them to be soldiers. He taught them about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back roads of America ... and he taught them how to kill it. Now, the Winchester brothers crisscross the country in their '67 Chevy Impala, battling every kind of supernatural threat they encounter along the way.

Horror stories told from the perspectives of multiple characters whose lives are affected by the Birch, a bloodthirsty monster deep in the woods. Once you summon her protection, you never escape.

Father Vergara—an exorcist, boxer and ex-convict—lives in a remote village in Spain. Hoping to be lost and forgotten, Vergara’s demons catch up to him.

Young Nancy Drew makes plans to leave her hometown for college after high school graduation, but finds herself drawn into a supernatural murder mystery.

When her friend suffers a bizarre accident, Rosa realizes the secret student society they've just joined is built on demonic secrets from Dutch history.

Vera, a mother of two children, is left by her husband and looses her job all at once. She gets a job offer in another town, grabs her children and their belongings and moves there for a fresh new start in life. Before she gets there she hits a boy with her car. In chock, she assumes the boy to be dead. But is it really Vera who killed him?

Rooted in the conflict between characters connected to the deity Santa Muerte and others allied with the Devil, this saga explores an exciting mix of the supernatural and the combustible reality of 1938 Los Angeles, a time and place deeply infused with Mexican-American folklore and social tension.

A brilliant surgeon searches for proof of life after death.

The disastrous meltdown of a nuclear power plant in Northern Spain created a contaminated no-go zone and left the nearby provincial city and inhabitants in a state of shock and mourning. Three years later, while the city prepares for the commemoration ceremony, a mutilated body is found in a warehouse. Police inspector Hector Uria's search for the murderer takes him deep into the no-go zone and into his own past.

Thousands of dead people have risen from their graves and nearly destroyed Britain. A cure has been found - but can the treated zombies be rehabilitated back into living society?

A pie-maker, with the power to bring dead people back to life, solves murder mysteries with his alive-again childhood sweetheart, a cynical private investigator, and a lovesick waitress.

Stripped of everything, the survivors of a horrific plane crash must work together to stay alive. But the island holds many secrets.

Ichabod Crane is resurrected and pulled two and a half centuries through time to unravel a mystery that dates all the way back to the founding fathers.

Detective Inspector Eva Thörnblad returns to Silver Height seven years after her daughter Josefine disappeared by a lake in the woods. The body was never found and the girl was believed to have drowned. Now a boy has vanished without a trace and Thörnblad wants to find out if there is a link to her daughter's disappearance. At the same time , she will take care of the legacy of her father, the great entrepreneur Johan Thörnblad, who built an empire of timber and timber processing on the large forest owned by his ancestors. As the plot deepens more children are kidnapped and what initially seems like a police drama takes a more sinister and stranger twist with each episode.

After her mother dies in a fire, Cassie Blake moves in with her grandmother in the beautiful small town of Chance Harbor, Washington. As Cassie gets to know her high school classmates, including sweet-natured Diana and her boyfriend Adam, brooding loner Nick, mean-girl Faye and her sidekick Melissa, strange and frightening things begin to happen.  They are all descended from powerful witches, and they've been waiting for Cassie to join them and complete a new generation of the Secret Circle. What Cassie and the others don't yet know is that darker powers are at play, powers that might be linked to the adults in the town - and that Cassie's mother's death might not have been an accident.

A spin-off from The Vampire Diaries and set in New Orleans, The Originals centers on the Mikaelson siblings, otherwise known as the world's original vampires: Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah. Now Klaus must take down his protégé, Marcel, who is now in charge of New Orleans, in order to re-take his city, as he originally built New Orleans. Klaus departed from the city after being chased down by his father Mikael, while it was being constructed and Marcel took charge. As Klaus has returned after many years, his ego has provoked him to become the king of the city. "Every King needs an heir" says Klaus, accepting the unborn child. The child is a first to be born to a hybrid and a werewolf.

Are You Afraid of the Dark? is a joint Canadian-American horror/fantasy-themed anthology television series. The original series was a joint production between the Canadian company Cinar and the American company Nickelodeon.The episode "The Tale of the Twisted Claw" was aired as a pilot on the evening of October 31, 1991 in the USA and in October 1990 in Canada. Are You Afraid of the Dark? was aired from August 15, 1992 to April 20, 1996 on Nickelodeon's SNICK. The series also aired on the Canadian television network YTV from October 30, 1990 until June 11, 2000.A revived series with new directors, writers, and cast was produced by Nickelodeon from 1999 to 2000 and also aired on SNICK. The sole member from the original lineup to return for the sixth and seventh seasons was Tucker, although Ross Hull returned for the concluding miniseries, which notably broke from the show's established format by blurring the line between story and "reality".

Stephen King's take on the masterpiece series by Lars von Trier. The story takes place in a hospital in Lewiston, Maine, built on the site of a Civil War-era mill fire in which many children died.

After Portland homicide detective Nick Burkhardt discovers he's descended from an elite line of criminal profilers known as "Grimms," he increasingly finds his responsibilities as a detective at odds with his new responsibilities as a Grimm.

Out to avenge his mother's death, a college student pledges a secret order and lands in a war between werewolves and practitioners of dark magic.

Doctor Henry Morgan, New York City’s star medical examiner, has a secret. He doesn't just study the dead to solve criminal cases, he does it to solve the mystery that has eluded him for 200 years—the answer to his own inexplicable immortality. This long life has given Henry remarkable observation skills which impresses his new partner, Detective Jo Martinez. Each week, a new case and their budding friendship will reveal layers of Henry’s long and colorful past. Only his best friend and confidant, Abe knows Henry’s secret.

American Horror Story is an anthology horror drama series.

As her 16th birthday nears, Sabrina must choose between the witch world of her family and the human world of her friends. Based on the Archie comic.

Bedlam was a British supernatural drama television series created by David Allison, Neil Jones and Chris Parker. It first aired on 7 February 2011 on Sky Living and Sky Living HD. The series finale was aired on 15 March 2011. In December 2011, it was announced that a second series had been commissioned for airing in Spring 2012 with an updated cast. Series 2 began airing in June 2012 with Lacey Turner taking the lead as a suspended paramedic who can see dead people. On 13 November 2012 Jack Roth who plays Max in the series revealed that Bedlam may return for Series 3 and that a decision on the shows future is to be made around Christmas 2012. On 11 March 2013 Roth announced on Twitter that Bedlam would not be returning for a third series.

Each episode transports the audience to worlds of wonder through the lens of today’s most imaginative filmmakers, directors and writers. A reimagining of the original anthology series by Steven Spielberg.

A young priest enlists the help of a demon hunter and a paranormal expert to search for a kidnapped girl in the underworld of Mexico City.

In the year 2093, a team of scientists aboard the Nightflyer, the most advanced ship ever built, embarks on a journey to find other life forms. Their mission takes them to the edge of the solar system, and to the edge of insanity, as they realize true horror isn't waiting for them in outer space—it's already on their ship.

After finding his mom killed, Satoru's time-traveling ability takes him back 18 years for a chance to prevent her death and those of three classmates.

Based on the stories of Stephen King, the series intertwines characters and themes from the fictional town of Castle Rock.

Cassie Bedford has visions... whether she likes it or not. Sometimes she encounters unsettled spirits who need her help. When her father, Detective Tom Hackett, and his new partner, former FBI agent Damien Asante, need assistance, Cassie reluctantly uses her abilities and helps solve some of the city’s most challenging cases.

Elena Micheals thought she left the world of supernatural behind when she left Stonehaven behind 'for good this time' she thought. Until the night she got the mysterious call from her pack leader asking her to come back. So now she is heading back, leaving her life as a normal photographer in Toronto for the moment to re-enter the world of werewolves, rules about protect the pack and a man she has spent years trying to get out of her system. Oh and did she mention she was the only living female werewolf in existence?

The anthology horror series follows 25-year-old Atticus Freeman, who joins up with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America to find his missing father. They must survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the malevolent spirits that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.

Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from the 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. Torchwood follows the exploits of a small team of alien hunters, who make up the Cardiff branch of the fictional Torchwood Institute, which deals mainly with incidents involving extraterrestrials.

In this fantasy anthology series, encounters with mermaids, fallen angels and other strange beasts drive broken people to desperate acts in an attempt to repair their lives, ultimately showing there is a thin line between man and beast.

Set in a single room of an average American motel, each episode tells a different story of the assorted characters who pass through it.

Newlywed Melinda Gordon tries to help the dead communicate with loved ones, 'but sometimes the messages she receives are intense and confusing.' Most of Melinda's efforts involve resolving conflicts that are preventing the spirits from passing over. The sentimental drama is 'inspired by the work of medium James Van Praagh.'

A retired FBI serial-profiler joins the mysterious Millennium Group, a team of underground ex-law enforcement experts dedicated to fighting against the ever-growing forces of evil and darkness in the world.

Inspired by the Internet’s “404” error code, Dimension 404 aims to evoke that 3 AM feeling of wandering onto the weird side of the web, stumbling upon stories that cannot be explained in the world that we know.

Set in the present, the series offers a bold, subversive take on Archie, Betty, Veronica and their friends, exploring the surreality of small-town life, the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome facade.

Tales of science fiction, fantasy and the occult, exploring humanity's hopes, despairs, prides and prejudices in metaphoric ways. Next stop ahead The Twilight Zone.