Cursed islands are a well-worn horror trope, but you’ve never been to one quite like the setting of Apple TV’s new series Widow’s Bay. The locals know there’s a darkness hanging over them—it’s just another part of life in this quaint village located 40 miles off the coast of New England.
Here, there’s no wi-fi, but there are plenty of strange creatures, odd weather patterns, and legends that hew far closer to actual history than to folklore. That becomes a problem when the town’s ambitious mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), launches his plan to turn Widow’s Bay into a bougie tourist destination at the exact moment the island starts “waking up” in all sorts of supernatural ways.
Across 10 episodes, Widow’s Bay mixes offbeat humor with freaky scares. Ahead of the show’s premiere next week, io9 talked to creator, showrunner, and executive producer Katie Dippold (Parks and Recreation, The Heat, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call) and director and executive producer Hiro Murai (Atlanta, Station Eleven) to learn more.
This interview has been slightly edited and condensed.
Cheryl Eddy, io9: Apple TV is such a destination for sci-fi, but we haven’t seen it do too many horror shows. What does it mean to you to be one of the first horror shows on the streamer?
Katie Dippold: It’s exciting. I mean, I have to give Apple credit. In the pitch, we didn’t necessarily say “horror show,” but we said we wanted to do both horror and comedy and that we didn’t really have a direct [comparison] for it. And so to Apple’s credit—that’s nerve-wracking for a studio to hear.
Hiro Murai: Yeah, they really didn’t flinch.
io9: Widow’s Bay has some obvious influences—including John Carpenter’s The Fog and Halloween, Jaws, and H.P. Lovecraft. What was the genesis of the Widow’s Bay story, and how did you decide to incorporate those inspirations?
Dippold: I would say the inspiration was trying to capture a certain feeling that I’ve always wanted. As a kid in New Jersey in the ‘80s, there was a haunted house that I would always go to with my family. It’s terrifying. I was way too young for it. But I loved that I would go, and it was terrifying, and I would scream, but we would also laugh, and it’s very communal. And so I’ve wanted to capture that feeling. And I’ve always wanted a place like this to actually exist. Like, I want to go to this island. I want to go to the weird inn, and I want to go to the Salty Whale. Just to feel like there’s these nooks and crannies you can discover is very exciting to me.
[As for the inspirations], you’re absolutely correct. We especially talked about Jaws a lot, and I think it was important for us to feel like [we weren’t doing] a parody of it or doing it exactly—but just [feeling] the spirit of it.
Murai: I also think this island [is] remote and it’s kind of disconnected from time, and they don’t have modern technology, and there’s something kind of inherently nostalgic about it. I think when we’re touching on things like Jaws and The Fog, to us it was conjuring the nostalgia of being kids and watching those movies at the same time. That was something that we were trying to harness, the feeling of watching those movies more than the movies themselves maybe.
io9: Widow’s Bay has an offbeat tone that shifts between deadpan humor and dark horror. How did you go about getting that balance just right?
Dippold: We tried to make sure the horror never felt too bleak. The show goes to dark places, but I think the balancing act of horror and comedy—it kind of wants to feel in the same spirit of joy, even if it’s just truly scary. Another important thing is that the scary thing isn’t usually funny. That was important to us, to really take it seriously and not let the comedy undercut the horror. So to be honest, we were constantly molding and finding things and discovering things that worked and didn’t work. And it was a very organic, creative journey.
Murai: Yeah. Sometimes we would film things, we’d do a take, and then we’d just look at each other like, “That didn’t feel good. And we don’t know why.” And so we would change the way it was staged or the performances. It was very much a discovery process.
io9: The character of Tom has to be a guy you root for even as he’s doing things he knows he shouldn’t. How did you know Matthew Rhys was the right choice?
Dippold: Not until we met him, because we had been thinking about it for a long time. Casting was one of the hardest parts, because it’s like—there’s so many people that are so funny that would be a dream to work with, but then it just doesn’t feel right for the tone of the show, and you wouldn’t necessarily buy them living on this island. And then if that’s the case, then you wouldn’t really feel the tension. Matthew [is] an amazing dramatic actor; we were both big fans. We met with him on Zoom, and he was just so funny and just so lovely, and we just had a great meeting. When Hiro and I got on the phone afterwards, [we were] like, “This feels good!”
io9: The lore of the island is so detailed. Did you come up with a huge list beforehand of stuff you wanted to include, or did it come up organically while the episodes were being written?
Dippold: It was a lot of trial and error. There were so many different things that I just wanted to see and just wanted to do, and sometimes we know we would brainstorm that in [the writers’] room, and it just didn’t feel right for the show, and then some stuff did feel right for the show. Also, a key component was making sure we’re using the horror tropes to also explore the characters. A lot of the horrors of being a human being are really the most important, and just using that sort of as a way to explore it.
io9: I loved the weirdly sinister board games that Tom finds at the inn. It’s definitely a “pause and look twice” moment.
Dippold: One of the things I love about the way that [Hiro] shot it is, like, just [moving the camera past a game called] She Shouldn’t Have Said That. And it’s never explained, which is my favorite kind of humor, where you’re not saying, “Here is the joke.” I think Hiro is especially awesome at [that]: “Oh, did you catch it? Okay. Well, maybe not, but keep moving.” And so that did tickle me.
io9: Without spoiling any plot points, when we get to the end of the season, it feels like there could be additional chapters to this story. Did you envision it as a contained, single season, or is there a possibility to do more?
Dippold: I like a season ending where you feel satisfied but also could continue. So there’s definitely much more that could be done.
Widow’s Bay stars Matthew Rhys (who’s also an executive producer) along with Kate O’Flynn, Stephen Root, Kingston Rumi Southwick, Kevin Carroll, Dale Dickey, K Callan, and Jeff Hiller. It premieres April 29 on Apple TV.
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