When the promotional campaign for ‘The Curse of Widow’s Bay’ was launched last April, something didn’t add up: the comedian and comedy scriptwriter Katie Dippold (‘Parks and Recreation’, ‘Special Corps’, ‘Ghostbusters’) debuting as a creator with a horror series directed, among others, by a specialist in the genre like Ti West (‘The House of the Devil’, the ‘X’ trilogy)?
When I saw the teaser, which emphasized the horror elements, my surprise was greater than that of Hugh Jackman the day he received a script about a sheep detective. Has Dippold become the new Jordan Peele, who also made the leap from comedy to horror, or is it that Apple already gives the green light to anything and this is going to be a disaster?
It only took 5 minutes of the series for all the pieces to fit together. ‘The Curse of Widow’s Bay’ contains some of the most successful horror sequences of this year (the one with the clown, the harpy, the masked killer), but it is also a hilarious comedy, full of gags that work wonderfully. But it even ends up revealing itself to be a surprisingly emotional drama, supported by a background of melancholy and mourning.
Dippold manages to harmonize with extraordinary skill all these registers, genres and tones, without any one imposing itself on the others. As if she were one of the witches of the island Widow’s Bay, the creator has cooked in a (magical) cauldron a stew of references that include everything from the mayor of ‘Jaws’ or Michael Myers of ‘Halloween’, to the towns of Stephen King, the characters of ‘Twin Peaks’, haunted houses, 17th century witchcraft, folk horror, J-horror… All of this, as has been said, seasoned with a lot of humor.
The series is very well written and directed (in addition to Ti West, Hiro Murai, director of ‘Atlanta’, ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’, participates), but it also stands out for the chemistry and talent of its two protagonists. One is a sure value, Matthew Rhys (‘The Americans’, ‘Perry Mason’). The other is a real discovery: Kate O’Flynn, an actress seasoned in the British theater, who here plays the role of Patricia, a grumpy, meticulous and apparently anodyne civil servant, whose past is full of ghosts.
Hers are two of the best episodes of the series: the fourth, where she organizes one of those parties that are remembered for a long time, and the eighth, where she becomes an improbable and hilarious “final girl.” Just for those two chapters the series is worth it.
