{"id":2393280,"date":"2026-04-28T17:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2393280"},"modified":"2026-04-28T17:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:47:24","slug":"apple-tvs-new-horror-series-is-scarier-because-its-also-hilarious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/apple-tvs-new-horror-series-is-scarier-because-its-also-hilarious\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple TV\u2019s new horror series is scarier because it\u2019s also hilarious"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kate O\u2019Flynn views comedy and horror as \u201ckind of the same thing.\u201d Both are at their best when they surprise \u2014 a laugh or a scare that comes out of nowhere hits the hardest. That\u2019s why, for the star of the new horror-comedy hybrid Widow\u2019s Bay<\/em>, mixing up the genres makes perfect sense \u2014 they heighten each other. \u201cYou\u2019re never on steady ground,\u201d she says. \u201cYour guard is down, and you\u2019re vulnerable to a laugh or a cry or a scream. It\u2019s all up for grabs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Widow\u2019s Bay<\/em>, which starts streaming on Apple TV on April 29th, tells the story of the titular island, which sits off the coast of New England. It has a rustic small-town charm and also happens to very definitely be haunted. There have been countless myths and ghost stories since the town\u2019s founding, along with a possible curse in which anyone born on the island can\u2019t leave without dying. The town\u2019s mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), is intent on revitalizing the island and turning it into a tourist destination to rival Martha\u2019s Vineyard. But in doing so he ignores the very clear signs that something is wrong. In the first episode, for instance, a sinister fog rolls into town, but all Tom can think about is a visiting New York Times<\/em> travel writer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The show is the brainchild of showrunner Katie Dippold, who has a long track record in comedy<\/a>, writing episodes for Mad TV<\/em> and Parks & Recreation <\/em>and movies like The Heat <\/em>and the 2016 Ghostbusters <\/em>reboot<\/a>. She\u2019s always been a fan of projects that manage to successfully mix the genres \u2014 the problem is that they\u2019re rare. \u201cOftentimes I\u2019ll see a new horror-comedy and I don\u2019t get either the comedy or the horror,\u201d she explains. She cites An American Werewolf in London<\/em> as a personal favorite that nailed the mix. \u201cI think about it all of the time because it\u2019s terrifying,\u201d she says, \u201cbut then they really swing hard for the comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With Widow\u2019s Bay<\/em>, her goal was to ensure that the two genres \u201ccan feed into each other, and never let the comedy undercut the story or the tension. I never wanted to have a moment where something scary happens and the characters don\u2019t react truthfully. If you\u2019re truthful, then eventually you\u2019ll find the comedy. That was the very hard rule and challenge of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Over the course of its 10 episodes, Widow\u2019s Bay<\/em> morphs almost into a horror anthology of sorts. There\u2019s the overarching story of the town and its sordid history, but each episode explores different subgenres tied to specific characters and storylines. In one episode, Tom gets a crash course on all of the various curses that have befallen Widow\u2019s Bay when he stays at a haunted hotel where time moves differently. Later, there are episodes that evoke everything from Midsommar<\/em> to Friday the 13th<\/em> to a whole lot of Stephen King. That means lumbering killers, sea witches, bizarre rituals, and, yes, even a killer clown at one point. As things progress, and the island\u2019s mysteries deepen and the tension becomes heightened, Dippold says that the comedic elements are designed in a very specific way. \u201cHopefully it can feel relatable and like a relief,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For the cast, the task was similar: approach the hybrid nature of the show in a way that felt cohesive and complementary. And doing that, they tell me, mostly meant not thinking about the genres as separate things. \u201cI think Katie built a very real world with very real people with very real problems,\u201d says Rhys. \u201cThe biggest thing is to not get in the way of it. It relieves you of the pressure of playing any genre.\u201d Stephen Root, who plays Tom\u2019s rival, a local fisherman who very much does believe in curses, adds, \u201cIt\u2019s not playing comedy, or playing drama, or playing horror. It\u2019s playing the reality of the situation and letting it unfold. And hopefully the audience will follow you because they\u2019re interested in the characters.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Kate O\u2019Flynn.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: Apple<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Dippold believes that having a background in comedy can prepare you to do great work in horror. After all, two of the genre\u2019s most acclaimed directors of the last few years \u2014 Jordan Peele and Zach Cregger \u2014 started out in sketch comedy before making films like Nope<\/em><\/a> and Weapons<\/em><\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of play to those movies,\u201d Dippold says. \u201cI don\u2019t mean that the scary parts are funny. I just really enjoy when horror has a sense of fun to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ultimately, the goal of both genres is the same: to get a visceral reaction from the audience. They often go about it differently, but the results can be nearly identical. As O\u2019Flynn notes, \u201cWhen I\u2019m scared, I laugh manically. It comes out as laughter. I think it\u2019s this tightrope of hysteria.\u201d And for Dippold, when it came to crafting the world and story of Widow\u2019s Bay<\/em>, it wasn\u2019t necessarily all that different from her previous work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhen I see a good scene in a horror movie in a theater I always laugh,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like a well-constructed joke. Writing a good joke and crafting a good horror scene are two very different things, but there\u2019s a similar energy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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