Widow’s Bay: The best place on TV for a terrifying yet funny holiday

Apple TV’s award-winning horror-comedy is a blend of Stephen King, The Fog, Jaws, Lovecraft, Dredge, and more. It’s a lot of fun.

Widow’s Bay initially looks like a lovely spot for a holiday. I grew up reading Stephen King, James Herbert, and H.P. Lovecraft, so I have always been suspicious of America’s northeast coast. Murder, She Wrote didn’t exactly improve my impression of the region, either.

Now you can add Widow’s Bay to the ‘seemingly nice, but something’s a bit off’ list of locales to avoid.

Widow’s Bay is a ten-part Apple TV horror-comedy set on a remote New England island with a picturesque harbour, charming old buildings, eccentric residents, and a centuries-old curse. There’s also no Wi-Fi, virtually no mobile phone reception, and a three-hour ferry journey to reach the place.

Not exactly ideal for the modern tourist.

Matthew Rhys plays Tom Loftis, the island’s well-meaning but rather hopeless mayor. He desperately wants to revive the local economy by attracting visitors, but the residents aren’t particularly enthusiastic about the idea.

For one thing, they believe the island is cursed and that terrible things happen when outsiders arrive. Tom dismisses their warnings as ridiculous superstitions and carries on trying to promote the place. He’s a bit like the mayor in Jaws but with a supernatural threat.

Naturally, things don’t go particularly well.

Horror and comedy make surprisingly good companions

What makes Widow’s Bay so entertaining is the way it balances genuine horror with some wonderfully absurd comedy.

There are plenty of creepy moments, supernatural creatures, mysterious disappearances, and things lurking, ready to pounce. Some of the horror scenes are genuinely creepy. At the same time, the characters’ reactions to these increasingly bizarre events can be hilarious. The way the show balances this is one of the reasons it succeeds.

This isn’t funny horror like the runaway hand in Evil Dead 2. It is creepiness and then slightly separate humour. Although sometimes they overlap. Think Twin Peaks kind of humour.

Matthew Rhys is superb. He’s probably best known for more serious roles, particularly The Americans, but here he shows he is pretty good at comedy. His increasingly desperate expressions as he tries to maintain some semblance of control over his island are often funnier than anything he actually says. There are also a couple of scenes, one where he inadvertently drinks something, which are hilarious.

The supporting cast is equally good, particularly Kate O’Flynn as Patricia, Tom’s socially awkward assistant, and Stephen Root as Wyck, an eccentric local who firmly believes the island is cursed.

Patricia is especially brilliant. She’s an unusual character who gradually becomes one of the show’s biggest attractions. Her story also provides some of the series’ funniest and most frightening moments. There are party she hosts that… Alright, I’ll stop. You’ll know what I mean.

A love letter to classic horror

The show is packed with references to horror classics, particularly Stephen King, John Carpenter and Steven Spielberg.

The Jaws influence is especially obvious. Both stories feature an island community dependent on tourism and a mayor desperately trying to convince everyone that there’s nothing to worry about, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. The writer and creator, Katie Dippold, said that she could feel the spirit of Jaws when they made Widow’s Bay.

There are also echoes of The Fog, The Shining, Twin Peaks, and Lovecraftian cosmic horror. Which can only be a good thing. The isolated coastal setting and sinister things beneath the water even reminded me of the excellent fishing horror game Dredge. (You can read my review of that here.)

Yet despite borrowing liberally from so many familiar sources, Widow’s Bay manages to develop its own distinctive personality.

Interestingly, creator Katie Dippold spent around 18 years developing the idea. An early version of the script even helped her land a writing job on Parks and Recreation back in 2009, which might explain why the show’s small-town politics and workplace comedy work so well. It’s a bit of a genre jump, but I loved both shows.

Dippold has said that she was inspired by childhood visits to a haunted-house attraction in New Jersey. She wanted to recreate the peculiar pleasure of being absolutely terrified and laughing about it at the same time.

I’d say job done.

Is Widow’s Bay worth watching?

There are a few minor issues. Some episodes are stronger than others, and the larger mystery doesn’t always progress as quickly as you might like, as there are kind of haunted side-missions. I really enjoyed it all though. The first season also leaves some questions unanswered, presumably for the already-confirmed second season.

But these are relatively small complaints about a series I really enjoyed.

And apparently, I’m not alone. Widow’s Bay has received extraordinary reviews, with a 98% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. It also won an astonishing 14 Emmy Awards in September 2026, breaking the record for the most Emmys won by a comedy series in a single year.

That’s quite an achievement for a show involving sea monsters, ancient curses, supposed ghosts, and creepy buildings everywhere. It’s not a sitcom.

If you enjoy supernatural mysteries, quirky characters, classic horror, and a healthy dose of dark humour, I’d thoroughly recommend paying Widow’s Bay a visit.

Just not literally, obviously.