Love, Death & Robots: 10 Scariest Stories, Ranked

Season two of Tim Miller’s Love, Death & Robots debuted on Netflix on May 14, 2021, instantly becoming one of the Top 10 most-viewed TV shows on the streaming service. Reduced from 18 episodes to eight, season two seems more focused on the highest quality of animation rather than a large number of stories. However, both seasons feature genuinely unnerving tales of technological terror.

In addition to the thematic human vs. robot motif, several of the animated shorts also feature humanity facing off with evil aliens, mutated monsters, deadly demons, ghoulish beasts, savage serial killers, and more. Here are the absolute scariest vignettes from Love, Death & Robots so far.

10 Automated Customer Service – Season 2, Episode 1

In what plays like an animated version of Scream‘s infamous opening scene, “Automated Customer Service” plays on the universal fears of a sentient robotic uprising. Set in an upscale assisted living community for seniors, a woman is relentlessly stalked by her robotic vacuum.

With tentacular hoses, bat-like lint traps, metal rods, and other impossible gadgets, the robot goes into unstoppable “Purge Mode” and begins destroying everything in sight. The meta-horror movie tropes, alarming musical stings, and inescapable claustrophobia are both fun and frightening.

9 Helping Hand – Season 1, Episode 11

Equivalent to 127 Hours meets Gravity, “Helping Hand” is a terrifying story about a lone astronaut named Alexandria who becomes marooned in outer space and is forced to make a grave decision to ensure her survival.

In addition to the spooky atmosphere and crippling silence of outer space, the horror escalates when Alexandria attempts to repair an external satellite. After a piece of debris punctures her air supply, her oxygen level rapidly decreases. Knowing she hasn’t much time left, Alex opts to lop her own arm off in order to reach safe haven.

8 Sonnie’s Edge – Season 1, Episode 1

The inaugural episode of Love, Death & Robots was so determined to terrify its viewers that the episode ends with the query “Are you scared yet?” The gritty dystopian cyberpunk episode “Sonnie’s Edge” is full of grotesque mega-monsters and hyper-gory violence.

The story concerns Sonnie, a skilled fighter in deadly underground tournaments featuring otherworldly creatures. The first battle takes place between a vicious sharklike biped with lashing tentacles and a hulking rock mutant of some kind. With brutal eruptions or gore, the story boasts a jarring twist ending.

7 Life Hutch – Season 2, Episode 7

In one of the few instances to feature a live actor (Michael B. Jordan), “Life Hutch” adds a level of veracity that increases its overall terror. Jordan plays Terrence, a downed astronaut on a barren planet who must make it to shelter until reinforcements arrive.

Once he enters the shelter, Terrence is immediately accosted by a gigantic quadrupedal robot that resembles a ferocious guard dog with a glowing green eye. The simple story is an exercise in visceral terror as Terrence is trapped inside a small room where he must use his mind to outwit the relentless killing machine.

6 Shape-Shifters – Season 1, Episode 10

Due to the startling left-turn that it makes in the final 10 minutes or so and given the superbly realistic CGI, “Shape-Shifters” is one of the most unsettling episodes of the show so far. The characters are also authentic and well written that true sympathy is felt for their plight.

Two U.S. Marines with extrasensory powers stationed in Afghanistan begin to sense something afoul with one of their own. After investigating, a rabid race of hyper-violent werewolves is revealed as a newfangled military weapon to fight enemies. The episode has no shortage of grisly gore and harrowing shocks.

5 The Secret War – Season 1, Episode 18

A perfect double-bill to watch along with “Shape-Shifters” is “The Secret War,” the epically eldritch season one finale. The episode immediately establishes a chilling atmosphere when a bloody massacre is revealed in a snowy mountain outpost.

As the Russian Army investigates the gruesome slaughter, they trek deep into the wooded mountains and uncover a race of monstrous quadrupedal mutants who can leap and fly through the air at great distances. The giant grotesque beasts are merciless in their attack on the army, leading to a massive bloodbath sure to chill viewers to the core.

4 The Tall Grass – Season 2, Episode 5

In a deft blend of tension, suspense, and dreadful atmospherics, “The Tall Grass” is a genuinely mortifying episode. With absolutely stunning CGI, the story follows Laird, a train passenger whose curiosity gets the best of him when the locomotive breaks down in the middle of nowhere.

Surrounded by rows of tall grass with flickering bulbs of light, Laird investigates and suddenly runs into a band of freakishly mutated alien monsters with huge mouths and countless razor-fangs. The deliberate pacing and sudden eruption of violence make the story extremely creepy.

3 All Through The House – Season 2, Episode 6

Although it’s one of the shortest episodes in the series, “All Through the House” asks viewers to identify with their inner-child during Christmastime. This adds to the vulnerability of the story, which features perhaps the single scariest monster in series history.

Billy and Leah wake up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve to the sound of what they believe to be Santa Claus delivering presents. Eager to catch Saint Nick in the act, the two tykes are scared to near-death when a hideously repulsive, slimy pink ghoul with giant fangs slowly approaches them. When the ghoul vomits a neatly wrapped Christmas gift, the kids realize it was Santa Claus all along.

2 The Witness – Season 1, Episode 3

“The Witness” is the most heart-pounding and viscerally thrilling episode in the entire series. With jolting and kinetic camerawork, sublime CG animation, and fiendish ferocity, the story serves as one protracted chase sequence.

After witnessing a murder through her apartment window, the killer spots The Woman across the alleyway. Determined to end her life, as well, the killer indefatigably hunts The Woman through the graffiti-strewn streets of Japan. With unmatched style and intensity to go with barbarous stints of carnage, The Witness is as wicked as they come.

1 Beyond The Aquila Rift – Season 1, Episode 7

With a haunting existential terror bound to linger with viewers and shake them to the core, “Beyond The Aquila Rift” is often hailed as the best episode of Love, Death & Robots. Rather than scaring viewers with visceral onslaughts of violence, the story goes places no other has dared so far. It also features some of the finest CGI in the series to date.

Based on the Alastair Reynolds short story, the episode concerns a space crew grappling with the reality of traveling too far into the cosmos. However, the story builds up to one of the most hellish and nightmarish conclusions imaginable as the crew enters uncharted territory.