Plot: Widow’s Bay is a quaint island town 40 miles off the coast of New England. But something lurks beneath the surface. Mayor Tom Loftis is desperate to revive his struggling community. There’s no wifi, spotty cellular reception, and he must contend with superstitious locals who believe their island is cursed.
Review: When you think of New England horror stories, everything from In The Mouth of Madness and The Fog to the novels of Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft comes to mind. The oldest settlements in America have a long history in that part of the country, with folklore and creative fiction running rampant alongside urban legends and fairy tales. Widow’s Bay evokes those tales blended with a dose of comedy for a fun and frightening new series starring Matthew Rhys and Stephen Root. Taking all sorts of genre tropes and combining them into a new story that delivers an original twist on familiar themes, Widow’s Bay offers a horror story wrapped in a quirky, funny format that balances the laughs with the scares in equal measure.
Widow’s Bay presents the titular island community off the coast of Massachusetts, where Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) is awaiting a travel writer from the mainland to help boost the name recognition of the island to rival Cape Cod or Martha’s Vineyard. The town is full of oddball locals, including Wyck (Stephen Root), who believes they are cursed. Going back centuries, Widow’s Bay has suffered through mysterious fogs, serial killers, and other supposed supernatural events that Tom does not give credence to. Tom, a widower, is raising his son Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick) in Widow’s Bay in keeping with his wife’s wishes, but does not believe what the locals do. Soon, Tom himself starts to experience things he cannot explain, which unveils the long history of the curse that may actually be true. Could the curse be lifted, and what would it take to free the residents of Widow’s Bay once and for all?
Through the ten-episode first season, Widow’s Bay blends elements from multiple familiar horror tales, including a Michael Myers-esque slasher, folk horror involving lurking demons, witchcraft, clown killers, and ghosts. The way the series combines these within a larger curse narrative makes for some funny moments involving the strange townspeople, including Patricia (Kate O’Flynn), who claims to have survived the slasher during high school, Rosemary (Dale Dickey), who is indifferent to the crazy goings on, and other residents played by Neil Casey and Toby Huss. There is also an episode halfway through the season that takes the story back to the island’s original residents in the 18th century and features some surprising guest stars. All ten episodes play the story straight, with the laughs coming mostly from the foibles and off-kilter interaction between Tom and the locals, who range from incompetent to just weird.
As I started watching Widow’s Bay, the early episodes grabbed me the same way Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass did, with a fully realized community off the coast that has an identity all its own. The humor is just present enough that it made me chuckle, but it never overtakes the seriousness of the subject matter. The scares are also just creepy enough to qualify this as a horror series that happens to be funny rather than a comedy that is scary. There are moments when I’m reminded of Amity from Jaws, with the quaint seaside town feeling welcoming and safe despite the things lurking beneath the surface. Matthew Rhys is also game to have a lot of fun playing Tom as an outsider who moves from skeptic to believer. Rhys has turned in fantastic dramatic performances in The Americans, Perry Mason, and The Beast In Me, but he is also very good as a comedic actor. Rhys plays well opposite Stephen Root, whose long career in comedy is offset by this more serious turn. Kate O’Flynn is also excellent in a role I expected to be annoyed by in the early episodes before warming to her as the series progressed. O’Flynn also does standout work in a midseason episode focused on a slasher that takes on the cliches of the subgenre and how much running the final girl often has to do.
Kate Dippold, best known for scripting The Heat and the divisive 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, created Widow’s Bay. Dippold’s experience writing Ghostbusters and the 2023 version of Haunted Mansion may have you thinking that this series will have a certain style of comedy, but Widow’s Bay is vastly different than those films. Dippold and her writing team have crafted a very distinct horror story that is character-driven and organically funny with the island feeling like the denizens of Parks & Recreation, a series she also wrote for. Directing duties are led by Atlanta‘s Hiro Murai, who directed some of the more surreal episodes of Donald Glover’s FX series. Murai brings a dark, sinister sense of dread to his episodes, making it even funnier when something makes you laugh before the scene pivots to something scary. Other directors on the series include Andrew DeYoung, Samuel Donovan, and Ti West, who carry Murai’s approach throughout.
Widow’s Bay is scary enough to creep out those who can’t stomach horror, but it’s also a good way to get into the genre without being truly terrified. There are some genuinely scary moments in the series that will likely have you keep your lights on after watching, but you will be invested in the story, the mystery, and the great cast of characters. Matthew Rhys makes for a fantastic lead in every project that he appears in, but Widow’s Bay has given me a new view of his talents as an actor with his balance of funny and frightening. Widow’s Bay is the best new horror series I have seen on television, and another winner for Apple TV. I am confident that if you check out the first episode, you will want to stick through to the finale, but pay special attention to the sixth and eighth episodes, which are highlights of the entire series.
Widow’s Bay premieres with two episodes on Apple TV on April 29th.
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