A struggling mayor, a remote New England island, and a town full of people who may know exactly what kind of darkness they’re living with — “Widow’s Bay” has the makings of a sly comedy-horror series. The new Apple TV show stars Matthew Rhys as a man trying to remake his community as a tourist destination, even as the locals keep warning him that the island’s curse is anything but folklore.
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The premise is strong on its own, but the names behind the camera make the series feel a little more intriguing than a standard spooky small-town riff. Creator Katie Dippold, whose credits include “Parks and Recreation” and the 2016 “Ghostbusters,” said “Atlanta” and its director, Hiro Murai, were major influences as she developed the show.
“I wanted the audience to be transported into a very real world,” Dippold told Polygon earlier this year. “And for all the crazy places Atlanta went, it was always grounded. You have to buy that this could actually happen. Honestly, just imagining what I thought Hiro would do helped me see the show more clearly. And then he said he would direct, and I thought, Well, that’s better.”
The Emmy-winning Murai directs the series —also known for his work on “The Bear,” “Barry” and “Station Eleven” beyond “Atlanta” — with Ti West, Sam Donovan, and Andrew DeYoung also directing across the season, between Murai and West — whose “X” trilogy reestablished him as one of contemporary horror’s sharper voices — “Widow’s Bay” appears to be aiming for a blend of deadpan absurdity and genuine unease. The Stephen King comparison is not hard to see either: an isolated town, buried local history, and a civic authority figure trying to rationalize what may not want to be rationalized.
Rhys plays Mayor Tom Loftis, a local official desperate to revive a struggling island community 40 miles off the New England coast. He wants to modernize the town, bring in visitors, and build a more stable future for his teenage son. The problem is that the island’s residents believe the place is cursed, and as tourists finally begin to arrive, the old stories they’ve been warning about start to look uncomfortably real.
The cast also includes Kate O’Flynn, Stephen Root, Kingston Rumi Southwick, Kevin Carroll, and Dale Dickey. Dippold created and wrote the series, and the executive producers include Dippold, Carver, Karaszewski, Murai, Rhys, and Claudia Shin.
Apple’s synopsis reads:
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 (Matthew Rhys) is desperate to revive his struggling community. There’s no Wi-Fi, spotty cellular reception, and he must contend with superstitious locals who believe their island is cursed. He wants these people to respect him. They don’t. They think he is soft and cowardly. And he is. But Loftis is determined to build a better future for his teenage son and turn the island into a tourist destination. Miraculously, he succeeds: tourists are finally coming. Unfortunately, the locals were right. After decades of calm, the old stories that seemed too ludicrous to be true start happening again.
“Widows Bay” arrives on Apple TV April 29. Watch the first teaser trailer below.
