Can an entire town be cursed? Why not, as anyone who watched John Carpenter's supremely atmospheric ghost story The Fog from 1980 would argue.
And, as anyone who has tuned in to the rather wonderful, dark, darkly funny and slightly blood-curdling Apple TV+ series Widow's Bay will attest, this is one show that wears its horror-classic DNA proudly on its sleeve.
Well before the end titles roll on its debut episode, keen-eared viewers would have picked up on numerous Carpenter references – not just from its Fog-like opening, but even mention of a "Boogeyman" and "the night he came" to wreak havoc on the town's juvenile population.
The Thing (see what I did there) about this opener, however, was that it didn't quite convince me if the show would fully embrace the horror elements so strongly hinted at, or take the cop-out "let's leave it your discretion, O Wise Viewer" route.
So it was a little awkward initially, watching self-serving mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys, The Americans) trying his darnedest to turn the New England island community of Widow's Bay into a bigger draw as tourist season looms.
It's bad enough that he doesn't get much in the way of cooperation from his coworkers, including the (highly) idiosyncratic Patricia (Kate O'Flynn, My Lady Jane) or sarcastic Sheriff Clemmons (Kevin Carroll, The Leftovers); poor Tom also has to fend off the rantings and ravings of citizen Wyck (the ubiquitous Stephen Root, more recently seen in Prime Video's The Wrecking Crew), who is convinced the whole town is under an ancient curse.
From the second episode on, however, Widow's Bay fully leans into the horror elements of its premise, while keeping an even keel between its spooky aspects and its character-driven humour.
First, Tom is forced to spend a night in the (supposedly haunted) inn to prove it's safe for the hordes of tourists expected to arrive soon, with decidedly unexpected results.
Then, he offers a lift to a somewhat bent-over and twitchy hitchhiker (Dude! Just never, OK?) right before the Inaugural Swim to kick off tourist season, leading him to relive a Jaws moment – though it's not exactly a shark in the water with him.
The spotlight moves to Patricia as she struggles to organise a cocktail party on the town's behalf in the fourth episode, where we are introduced to a self-help book that seems a little too... precise in its advice to this particular reader.
Parks And Recreation alumnus Katie Dippold, the creator of Widow's Bay, deftly strikes two balances here with the aid of Station Eleven and Atlanta veteran Hiro Murai, who directs five of the show's 10 episodes.
First, as mentioned earlier, we have the show's nimble handling of its horror and humour.
More commendable, perhaps, is how it manages to pepper the viewer with a barrage of instantly familiar horror staples while keeping everything just so... effervescently fresh.
From LOL moments to jump scares and slow-burn builds to gruesome payoffs, the first four episodes of Widow's Bay are finely layered delights.
Best of all, they actually get us to gradually start giving a hoot about the characters, who start out expressly hard to like.
There could be redemption arcs in store for them over the next six episodes, but from the hints about the town's nature so far, pretty sure all that won't matter much when they're living over the Hellmouth. Hmm, dare we hope for a Buffy reference or two next? Wait... there was that (spoiler redacted).
New episodes of Widow's Bay is available on Apple TV.
Summary:
There's something in the fog.
