Van Helsing

Van Helsing takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where vampires have already taken over, and it is built around one woman standing in the middle of that ruin. Kelly Overton plays her, in a series inspired by Zenescope's Helsing graphic novels, created by Neil LaBute.

This is not jump-scare horror. It is the creeping, exhausting kind, the dread that comes from knowing the monsters have already had the run of the place for a long while before anyone starts fighting back properly. I would put it around a three for fear, more unsettling than outright terrifying, the sort of tension you can sit with over a full episode rather than flinch through in short, sharp bursts. It builds slowly and stays with you rather than jumping out at you.

It is one for a proper dark-night watch, blanket on, lights low, when you want a vampire story that takes its own apocalypse seriously instead of playing it for camp. Save it for a night when you fancy dread rather than shocks, because that is really what it deals in. Not one to save for daylight, put it that way.