The horror comedy is a peculiar genre mash-up. The label could refer to a light-hearted gorefest (Ready or Not, Zombieland), a satire with horror elements (Bodies Bodies Bodies, Forbidden Fruits), or a laugh-out-loud sitcom with a supernatural spin (Ghosts, What We Do in the Shadows). Despite the many flavours, what unites all this film and television is that they tend to go heavier on the humour than the other half of their hybrid formula. Refreshingly, Widow’s Bay is the rare horror comedy that is actually scary.

Featuring a killer clown, a haunted fog, and a sea hag, Widow’s Bay is a compilation of horror tropes buoyed by the cosy yet creepy charm of its New England island setting—and an amusing premise that essentially makes the tourism-obsessed Jaws mayor the lead in a monster-of-the-week serial. Matthew Rhys (The Americans, The Beast in Me) stars as Mayor Tom Loftis, whose stress levels are higher than usual when he somehow gets a New York Times reporter to write a piece on Widow’s Bay and hopefully boost the economy. To his immense frustration, his team (including Kate O’Flynn and Dale Dickey) doesn’t seem to grasp the gravity of the situation, but his real issue is a panicking, curmudgeonly fisherman named Wyck (Stephen Root), who is convinced that a missing resident has been taken by a supernatural force. What Tom will soon discover is that Wyck’s tall tales may have some merit to them, and worse yet, he has a lot of scary stories to tell.