Netflix is pushing into the original programming arena with some pretty good new series. David Fincher and Kevin Spacey‘s HOUSE OF CARDS premieres on February 1 and new episodes of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT premiere in May. Between both of those we have Eli Roth‘s HEMLOCK GROVE.
The series is based on the novel of the same name which is a modernization of the gothic novel. Here’s the plot: The body of a young girl is found mangled and murdered in the woods of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania, in the shadow of the abandoned Godfrey Steel mill. A manhunt ensues—though the authorities aren’t sure if it’s a man they should be looking for. Some suspect an escapee from the White Tower, a foreboding biotech facility owned by the Godfrey family—their personal fortune and the local economy having moved on from Pittsburgh steel—where, if rumors are true, biological experiments of the most unethical kind take place. Others turn to Peter Rumancek, a Gypsy trailer-trash kid who has told impressionable high school classmates that he’s a werewolf. Or perhaps it’s Roman, the son of the late JR Godfrey, who rules the adolescent social scene with the casual arrogance of a cold-blooded aristocrat, his superior status unquestioned despite his decidedly freakish sister, Shelley, whose monstrous medical conditions belie a sweet intelligence, and his otherworldly control freak of a mother, Olivia.
The trailer starts out looking fairly low budget and I was prepared to write it off until Famke Janssen showed up. The actress still looks pretty hot and lends a little Hollywood to the project. But, give the trailer a little more time and you begin to see that the show has the potential to be a crazy mix of multiple genres. I definitely get a TRUE BLOOD meets CABIN IN THE WOODS vibe from this, which is definitely a plus.
HEMLOCK GROVE stars Famke Janssen, Bill Skarsgård, Landon Liboiron, Penelope Mitchell, Freya Tingley, and Dougray Scott. The pilot was directed by Eli Roth. All 13 episodes of the first season premiere on Netflix on April 19.
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