Although the sci-fi genre is perhaps most famous on the streamer, Apple TV has a strong history of hosting horror shows. The biggest of these is Widow’s Bay, a brilliant blend of comedy and horror that ran for ten episodes earlier this year and quickly picked up a renewal. “Widow’s Bay becomes a haunting, deeply rewarding, and oddly charming series if you stick with it,” wrote Collider’s Emily Bernard in her review of the first season, which earned incredible widespread adulation from critics.
So popular was the series with critics that it earned an astonishing 14 trophies from a total of 19 nominations at this year’s 78th Primetime Emmys. This helped make Apple TV the biggest winner on the night, as Widow’s Bay picked up a well-deserved victory in the Outstanding Comedy Series category, as well as wins for lead comedy actor (Matthew Rhys), supporting comedy actor (Stephen Root), and supporting comedy actress (Kate O’Flynn). Hoping to cash in on some of that horror success on Apple TV is one of the streamer’s most exciting upcoming projects: Ascension.
Inspired by the novel Last Days by Adam Nevill, Ascension is a must-watch upcoming horror project from the one-and-only Alfonso Cuarón, the winner of four Academy Awards. We already know that Outlander star Caitríona Balfe will lead the cast of Ascension, and now a British icon has been added in an as-yet-unknown role. Following his casting in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 2, the legendary Bill Nighy, arguably best known as Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean films, will join Balfe in Ascension. A logline says that the series follows:
“Rose, a relentless documentary filmmaker and recently divorced mother, brilliant at uncovering others’ truths but struggling to resolve her own. When Rose begins a project on a mysterious 20th-century cult known as the Church of Ascension, she finds unexpected refuge in its teachings – until she discovers something far more insidious beneath.”
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring
Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.
😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)
🧸Chucky(Child’s Play)
📞Scream(Ghostface)
🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)
01
Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.
02
You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.
03
Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.
04
Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.
05
How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.
06
Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.
07
Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.
08
Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.
The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…
Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath
your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what
it would leave behind.
A Nightmare on Elm Street · Since 1984
Elm Street
Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you
to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever
won that particular argument.
Freddy is horror’s cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot
guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your
own head is where this does its damage.
These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose
because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.
Child’s Play · Chucky · Since 1988
Chucky
Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the
person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.
Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you
describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You
know that feeling from real life too.
The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you
have met those adults.
By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.
Scream · Ghostface · Since 1996
Scream
Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost
certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.
Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be
somebody who was at the party.
You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the
same way you watch films.
The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are
the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.
The Conjuring · The Warren Files · Since 2013
The Conjuring
Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people
asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.
The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary
room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than
personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are
the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one
standing in the hallway.
Caitríona Balfe’s Latest Movie Is in Theaters
Before her starring role in this new Apple TV series, Balfe brought her credentials to a stunning new adaptation of Jane Austen‘s first publication, Sense and Sensibility. Directed by Georgia Oakley, the movie also stars Normal People‘s Daisy Edgar-Jones and Pond Life‘s Esmé Creed-Miles as Elinor and Marianne, the Dashwood sisters. So far, this acclaimed adaptation has earned just shy of $30 million at the global box office.
For more updates, make sure to stay tuned to Collider.
Leave a Reply