While watching the third episode of Widow’s Bay, Apple TV’s delightful horror/comedy hybrid, I jotted down the following:
Genuinely funny.
Genuinely scary.
Genuinely compelling.
Now, I want to be clear here about what “funny + scary” means in the case of Widow’s Bay, because that can mean a lot of things. I absolutely don’t mean funny/scary in the spoof sense, like the Scary Movie franchise. And I also don’t mean funny/scary in the satire that’s actually a romp sense, like Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead movies.*
* Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn is an absolute classic of this form by the way. Long live Bruce Campbell.
Widow’s Bay is closer to the original Scream movie in what it’s trying to do. Scream, the 1996 movie starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Skeet Ulrich, and (briefly!) Drew Barrymore, playfully riffs on the-killer-is-in-the-house horror tropes while also being legitimately thrilling and popcorn bouncing off the ceiling scary.
With Widow’s Bay, the source material is every this-island-is-haunted nightmare you can imagine: sea hag stalkers, ghost-riddled houses, spooky premonitions, you name it. Then throw in a sprinkling of Stephen King source material befitting the New England maritime setting (It-like cycles of supernatural terror, killer clowns!) and you’ve got a heady concoction of tropes to play with.
Speaking of Stephen King, It: Welcome to Derry recently attempted to do something similar-ish, casting the net wide on King’s IP in an IT prequel series. However, it lacked the tight focus and exquisitely quirky and hilarious vibes that Widow’s Bay consistently delivers.
Widow’s Bay, on the other hand, manages to be consistently funny in a grounded way while creepy elements descend on the island from all angles.
What’s holding it all together is star Matthew Rhys as the town’s mayor, Tom Loftis. Rhys is fantastic in everything, and he’s spectacular here as a guy desperate to bring tourism to his sleepy little island (no cell phone reception!) while it’s increasingly obvious that, wait, no – everyone should abandon this island.
There are countless details that add up to making Widow’s Bay a superior prestige horror show. One of my favorites is a recurring bit where we’ll occasionally see a television showing grainy footage promoting the wonder and creepy lore of the island to tourists. Each one seems weirder and creepier than the last, and I grin every time one shows up. I also found myself wondering if these bits contain allusions to The Ring and The Blair Witch Project. For example, one promo video running at the (also super unsettling) local museum ends with the dude turning around and facing the corner of the room as the camera continues to awkwardly and disturbingly linger on him.
Who knows, but it’s a hell of a fun ride.
The rest of the cast is flawless as well. It seems crazy that Stephen Root and Rhys haven’t been featured in a TV show together before now, but I’m grateful that we finally got there. Root is one of the best character actors of all time, and it’s so much fun to watch how grounded he is as Wyck, the blue-collar local (don’t call him a hick!) most convinced that the scary legends are more than just legends. But then of course, Root has this incredible way of inserting an ironic little angle into everything he says.
If any of this sounds remotely appealing to you, I could not recommend Widow’s Bay more. There’s still plenty of time to hop on the ferry to Widow’s Bay as we’re just halfway through Season 1’s scheduled 10 episodes. New episodes are released on Wednesdays on Apple TV.