When the sun vanishes early and the chill of darkness comes on deep and fast, there has always been an instinct to gather around a source of warmth and illumination for tales of fearsome happenings. Especially during the holidays. In Victorian times, the telling, or reading, of ghost stories was a Christmas tradition; the most enduring Yule-time tale — Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” written in 1843 — is first and foremost a ghost story.

Almost 200 years later, the electronic hearth offers plenty of chilling tales with which one can continue the tradition and honor the rattling chain of Jacob Marley’s ghost. Here are a few personal favorites.

“The Haunting of Bly Manor” (Netflix)

This contemporary retelling of Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw” is a masterpiece of modern gothic. As in the original story, a young woman, here an American named Dani (Victoria Pedretti), takes a job as governess to two young children, Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and Flora (Amelie Bea Smith), who live in a grand and isolated manor with housekeeper Hannah Grose (a terrific T’Nia Miller). The children, as ever, are both charming and odd, and tragedy moves through the echoing corridors of Bly Manor. Tragedy, and many other things, as Flanagan blurs the psychological and the supernatural even more vigorously than James did.

“The Haunting of Hill House” (Netflix)

This series, which predates “Bly Manor” and shares many cast members, is a modern-day adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s classic of the same name. Steven Crain (Michiel Huisman) has become a bestselling author with a book based on a family tragedy that took place while his parents, Olivia (Carla Gugino) and Hugh (Henry Thomas), were renovating an (you guessed it) isolated mansion where things are not as they seem. As adults, Steven’s siblings are still angry at their brother’s betrayal and, more important, haunted by what happened to them in Hill House, which we see in a series of increasingly terrifying flashbacks as the house continues to call to them.

“Midnight Mass” (Netflix)

After serving four years in prison for a drunk-driving accident in which a woman was killed, Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) returns to his isolated (naturally) hometown on Crockett Island where a new priest, Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater), is attempting to revitalize the local church. Flynn attempts to rebuild his life even as mysterious events begin plaguing the island. With one of the best midseason reveals in TV history, “Midnight Mass” has plenty of jump scares while exploring, with surprising delicacy, the need for, and perils of, religious faith.

“Mama” (Amazon)

An exquisite, heartbreaking and genuinely terrifying contemplation of trauma and familial love. Five years after his twin brother has gone on a murderous rampage and abducted his daughters after losing his fortune in the 2008 stock market crisis, Luke Desange (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) finally finds the girls in a remote cabin. Filthy and feral, Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lily (Isabelle Nélisse) have apparently been surviving on their own, though Lily insists it was “Mama.”

Adapting to life with Luke and his girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain) is difficult, in part because whatever kept them alive in the forest is not prepared to let them go.

“Crimson Peak” (Amazon)

A true Victorian Gothic tale in which budding author Edith (Mia Wasikowska) marries the mysterious Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), who convinces her to move to his dilapidated and (say it with me now) isolated mansion so he can use his newly invented digging machine to revitalize his family mine. There she meets his sister Lucille (Chastain), to whom Thomas is disturbingly attached, and encounters all manner of spooky threats, often in her long white nightgown.

“The Ritual” (Netflix)

After one of their friends is killed during a robbery, four men decide to take a hiking trip in Sweden to mark his passing. When one is injured, they leave the trail and take a shortcut through the brooding forest. Big mistake. Frightening talismans lead to bigger, bloodier scares and larger threats that include a cult, an ancient forest monster and an obvious message: Always stay on the trail!

“Sleepy Hollow” (Hulu)

In modern-day Sleepy Hollow, fallen Continental Army officer (and friend of Gen. Washington) Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) wakens, 230 years after he beheaded a mysteriously evil horseman. He meets Sheriff’s Lt. Abigail Mills (Nicole Beharie), who, after some convincing, joins him in his quest to foil the Horseman who has also risen again. Originally on Fox, this is a charming, family-friendly series, with plenty of time-displacement comedy (and some very loose historical references) to alleviate the scares.

“La Forêt” (The Forest) (Netflix)

A girl has gone missing from a village near Belgium’s dense and eerie Ardennes Forest and the town’s new detective, Gaspard Decker (Samuel Labarthe), works with local police officer Virginie Musso (Suzanne Clément) and a concerned teacher to find her. This is essentially a French detective series but the forest of the title looms over the narrative like an additional character. Terrible things have happened, and may lurk, within and the vibe is very creepy, even with subtitles.

Tribune News Service