The Halloween season is in the air and Hulu is once again offering up a ton of treats ranging from movies to new shows, including the highly anticipated anthology series “Monsterland” that’s premiering October 2nd.
Created and executed produced by Mary Laws and based on Nathan Ballingrud’s short story collection “North American Lake Monsters“, the 8-part series explores the thin line between monster and man.
Bloody Disgusting has the exclusive trailer premiere for “Monsterland” that fully delivers on its promise of encounters with mermaids, fallen angels and other strange beasts, all of which drive broken people to desperate acts in an attempt to repair their lives. Fun fact too; the trailer was scored by series composer Gustavo Santaolalla, who also delivered the music for the extremely popular The Last of Us Part II!
The “Monsterland” cast includes Kelly Marie Tran (The Last Jedi), Jonathan Tucker (“Hannibal”, Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart), Taylor Schilling (The Prodigy) and Mike Colter (“Evil”).
Mary Laws, who also served as writer/producer on HBO’s “Succession” and AMC’s “Preacher” in addition to co-writing the screenplay for The Neon Demon with director Nicolas Winding Refn, spoke with Bloody Disgusting about how this anthology is constructed and different than others of its ilk.
“The episodes are all self-contained stories, but there are some easter eggs and a recurring character that weave them all together,” Laws tells us. “The hope is that you experience ‘Monsterland’ as it is structured — like different pinpoints on the same map of this country.
“Each episode of ‘Monsterland’ is set in a different American city in what was supposed to be present-day America… although, with the current pandemic, the series looks a little more like last March!” she jokingly adds.
Brimming with mermaids, fallen angels and other strange beasts, “Monsterland” surely lives up to its name. Laws tells horror fans what they can expect over the course of the first season.
“This isn’t your average horror that comes overwrought with cheap thrills and jump scares.
“While that kind of horror certainly has a place in my heart (I am a die-hard Tobe Hooper Texas Chainsaw fan), it doesn’t often afford the writer enough room to tackle real subject matter,” she explains. “‘Monsterland’ lives more within the ‘weird fiction’ sub-category of the horror genre. Think of Poe or Lovecraft, or of more emotional character pieces like Don’t Look Now or Rosemary’s Baby. ‘Monsterland’ invites its protagonists to be awakened and enlightened by the monsters they encounter, rather than merely horrified.”
Being that “Monsterland” is more in line with “weird fiction” than hardcore horror, the gore levels aren’t off the charts, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t any.
“Our finale is bloody as hell, but not in the way you might think,” Laws reveals.
“The violence in ‘Monsterland’ often skirts the line between horrific and entrancing. That’s another characteristic of the weird fiction genre: the gore doesn’t always have to shock you. It can astonish you, too.”
Laws tells us that she’s a huge fan, obsessed actually, with Nathan Ballingrud’s book “North American Lake Monsters”, which “Monsterland” is based upon, noting that the series spoke to her “because it was deeply personal, character-based horror.” She tells us what we can expect over the course of the first 8 episodes.
“We adapted the stories that felt the most current, relevant, and that we were most connected to; three episodes in ‘Monsterland’ are direct adaptations of Nathan’s stories, and the others are inspired by the collection,” she reveals. “Whenever I’m adapting a story, I always go back to the story a million times, reading it over and over, reminding myself of what is at the core of it. Of course, some of the story will understandably morph and change as you translate a work of fiction into television. But if you keep the heart of the story intact, then you’ve done your job.”
Hulu‘s anthology series “Monsterland” is premiering on October 2nd.
source https://bloody-disgusting.com/exclusives/3631205/hulu-monsterland-trailer-exclusive-anthology/
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