In a big year for horror, Widow’s Bay still stands apart

Horror is having a moment. In 2026, the genre is especially well-represented: new blood is dominating the box office through films like Backrooms and Obsession, established names like Sam Raimi and Damian McCarthy are at the top of their game, and long-running franchises like 28 Years Later and Resident Evil continue to stay relevant. But the most impressive piece of horror this year might just be found in the world of TV comedy: Widow’s Bay, a series that manages the delicate balance of mixing scares with laughs, while also doubling as a loving tribute to the genre. It’s the kind of combination that often doesn’t work, which is part of what makes the show so remarkable.Widow’s Bay just wrapped up its first season — a second has already been confirmed — and it tells a story that at first sounds incredibly derivative. It takes place on an isolated island in New England, which has a sordid history due to what the locals believe is a curse. In the first episode, a terrifying fog rolls into town, suggesting that a powerful evil is waking up again. Cue the Stephen King comparisons.But it’s not long before Widow’s Bay’s distinct brand of horror / comedy makes itself clear. The show is largely centered on the island’s hapless mayor, Tom (Matthew Rhys), who has a misguided desire to turn Widow’s Bay into a tourist destination that can rival Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod. This, of course, runs counter to the whole curse thing. And the incoming fog is just the first sign that things are not going to go well for him and his plan, though Tom ignores the signs at every opportunity.Image: AppleWhat makes the show work is that, at its core, it’s just a really scary and tense story. From the very first episode, when Tom is stressing out about a visiting travel writer from The New York Times, there’s a steadily rising sense of dread: a tour through the island’s history that’s full of stories of death and, uh, cannibalism; a calendar about wolves that for some reason also has car crash photos; a ferry captain who says simply “bad things happen here.” The show makes you feel as uneasy as the island’s residents.That sensation only grows over the course of the season, as each episode explores a different horror genre while building on the cursed lore of the island. The second episode takes place in a clearly haunted hotel, complete with a killer clown; later there’s a demonic party planning book that leads to a terrifying and unsettling beach gathering. Tom’s assistant Patricia (Kate O’Flynn) gets hunted by a Jason Voorhees–style slasher villain, and there’s even a darkly inventive take on a drug trip sequence, complete with jarring time skips.It’s because it’s such a well-crafted horror story that the comedy in Widow’s Bay hits so hard. It’s not the easiest genre mix to pull off, as creator and showrunner Katie Dippold — who knows a thing about how funny horror can be — told me ahead of the show’s premiere in April. “It can be a great combo, but it can also be a bad combo,” she explained, noting that projects that successfully blend the two genres are “few and far between.” As if to prove her point, the new Scary Movie released this month was entirely toothless.But unlike more overt attempts at infusing horror with comedy, most of the gags in Widow’s Bay are comparatively subtle — and scary in their own way. When Tom is looking through a collection of board games at the local inn, he finds one simply called Teeth; inside, there’s nothing but a pair of pliers. When Patricia finally kills the “boogeyman” who has been stalking her, she keeps her shotgun trained on his corpse at all times — from the ambulance to cremation — just in case. Even the episode titles can be hilarious. The finale, where just about everything goes wrong, is called “We hope you enjoyed your time!”Image: AppleThis means that the jokes not only fit into the eerie nature of the world, they actually heighten it. And that was the goal all along. “I never wanted to have a moment where something scary happens and the characters don’t react truthfully,” Dippold told me. “If you’re truthful, then eventually you’ll find the comedy. That was the very hard rule.”This all comes to a head as the show wrapped up its first season. Leading into the finale, Tom was put in an impossible situation, forced to choose whether to kill his adorably inept secretary Ruth (K Callan) in order to end the curse for good, or doom the island by not acting. In the last episode, with the town’s residents and tourists stuck in a shelter due to a destructive storm, Tom finds himself in Ruth’s house, and it’s genuinely painful watching him try to decide the right path. But amidst all of this tension, there are still funny bits, like Ruth casually noting that an old boyfriend “got bit by an animal and became that animal,” or a cheerful instructional video on ritual sacrifice. And this being Widow’s Bay, things are a bit more complex than they appear, leaving Tom with an even more difficult task in front of him.You don’t just have to take my word for it. Guillermo del Toro recently called the series “hands down one of the most mesmerizing acts of narrative prestidigitation in horror.” That’s some high praise. But so is the fact that Widow’s Bay has managed to claim its own distinct lane in such a crowded moment. The finale title turned out to be incredibly accurate: I did, in fact, enjoy my time.The first season of Widow’s Bay is streaming now on Apple TV.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Andrew Webster