The Halloween series may have humbly returned to the masked slasher formula after the failure of Halloween III: Season Of The Witch—a film that has since been thoroughly redeemed in the eyes of horror fans—but horror studio Blumhouse is hoping to learn from John Carpenter’s mistake with its new series, Into The Dark. The approach is twofold: First, make it clear that this is an anthology series, with entries connected only by name, from the jump. Second, don’t call them movies. Call them “standalone super-sized episodes” that just happen to be feature length.
Into The Dark is a co-production of Blumhouse and Hulu, which will release a “standalone super-sized episode” on the first Friday of every month, each one inspired by a holiday from that month. The first of these, called The Body, stars Tom Bateman as Wilkes, a cocky hitman who decides to take advantage of Halloween by “transporting his latest victim in plain sight, correctly assuming that self-absorbed LA partiers will simply be enamored with his elaborate ‘costume.’” Rebecca Rittenhouse (The Mindy Project), Aurora Perrineau (Blumhouse’s Truth Or Dare), David Hull (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), and Ray Santiago (Ash Vs. Evil Dead) co-star as the various adversaries and wannabes who glom on to Wilkes as he hauls a body bag around L.A. That one’s out on October 5.
The Body is based on director Paul Davis’ 2013 short film starring Game Of Thrones’ Alfie Allen as the overconfident contract killer, which you can watch below. The second installment in the series, the Thanksgiving-and-familial-trauma themed Flesh & Blood, premieres on the first Friday of November.