Horror connoisseurs Eli Roth and Brian McGreevy are creating a new series to be released exclusively on Netflix Instant. The new series, “Hemlock Grove” will premiere an entire 13-episode season for viewers to watch at their own convenience, or marathon on Netflix Streaming.
Due to the success of horror-based shows “The Walking Dead” and “American Horror Story”, other filmmakers are looking to capitalize on the genre’s budding mainstream popularity.
While some of these contenders (among them a revamp of “The Munsters”) are likely just jumping on the bandwagon, Roth and McGreevy hope to have created something unique.
Roth recently did an interview with the website, ShockTillYouDrop regarding his new television project:
If you do something well and you have an original take on something, then absolutely go for it.”
The series, based on McGreevy’s novel of the same name, has a dark and mysterious premise. The official synopsis describes it as:
The body of a young girl is found mangled and murdered in the woods of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania, in the shadow of the abandoned Godfrey Steel mill. A manhunt ensues—though the authorities aren’t sure if it’s a man they should be looking for. Some suspect an escapee from the White Tower, a foreboding biotech facility owned by the Godfrey family—their personal fortune and the local economy having moved on from Pittsburgh steel—where, if rumors are true, biological experiments of the most unethical kind take place. Others turn to Peter Rumancek, a Gypsy trailer-trash kid who has told impressionable high school classmates that he’s a werewolf. Or perhaps it’s Roman, the son of the late JR Godfrey, who rules the adolescent social scene with the casual arrogance of a cold-blooded aristocrat, his superior status unquestioned despite his decidedly freakish sister, Shelley, whose monstrous medical conditions belie a sweet intelligence, and his otherworldly control freak of a mother, Olivia.
Roth went on to tell the site that the series will deal with the supernatural.
It’s actually a drama set in this world and has the themes of vampires and werewolves and monster mythology, Frankenstein mythology. It’s this new biotech world.”
Fans of Roth’s blood-and-guts style of direction need not worry about the show being toned down for television. Being a Netflix Original, Roth won’t have to worry about advertisers or ratings boards. He’ll be able to focus on content without having to censor himself, allowing for more mature subject matter.
That’s what I liked about it. That we could do something that was adult subject matter, and if we want to go dark and violent, we can. If we want to have the language, we can. We have the freedom to do something like it’s on cable… to go as R-rated or as NC-17 as we want. Where the teenagers could really behave like modern adolescents.”
While gore and shock value are crucial elements in Roth’s films, he said the story will be his top priority with “Hemlock Grove.”
We don’t want to make a show where you watch one episode and go, ‘Oh God, why did I see that?’ Roth said. “I want people to watch the show and go, ‘Holy fuck, I can’t believe what they did on Hemlock Grove. Did you see that transformation scene? That was awesome, I want to watch more.’ I think there’s a fine line between kicking an audience’s ass and making them feel like they’ve been kicked in the balls.”
On March 21, 2012, Netflix announced that “Hemlock Grove” will be coming to the instant streaming collection in early 2013.