Widow's Bay Review: Parks And Rec Meets Midnight Mass In Apple TV's New Horror Series

If you've ever wondered what "Parks and Recreation" mixed with "Midnight Mass" would look like, with a little of John Carpenter's "The Fog" thrown in for good measure, check out Apple TV's new horror series "Widow's Bay." Blending absurd humor with ever-mounting dread, this show created by Katie Dippold feels self-contained while also leaving lots of room for more lore to be explored. It's not all entirely successful — the story keeps inventing rules for itself that paint it into a corner — but there's plenty to grab hold of.

The New England island town of Widow's Bay has the potential to be the next Martha's Vineyard ... if anyone actually knew about it. But Widow's Bay has languished in obscurity, and there's a reason for that: locals think the island is cursed, and there's a long history of death and dismemberment to back those rumors up. Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), the energetic town mayor, wants to change all that, hoping to turn Widow's Bay into a new tourist hot spot for the summer. This doesn't sit so well with some locals, including grumpy fisherman Wyck (Stephen Root), who is all-in on believing. 

Tom says he doesn't believe in all that curse nonsense, and yet ... he's made sure his teenage son Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick) has never gone to the mainland, because it's said that anyone born on the island will die if they try to leave (Tom, it turns out, wasn't born on Widow's Bay; he only used to visit in the summers when he was growing up). There are also various tragic events from the past, including a serial killer nicknamed The Boogeyman, a supposedly haunted local inn, and even a murderer who dressed up like a clown.

"Widow's Bay" is clearly drawing on familiar tropes and storylines — The Boogeyman is obviously influenced by "Halloween," and killer clowns have become a staple of the genre. The series also is heavily indebted to several other horror properties, including Netflix's "Fear Street" trilogy (let's just ignore that terrible fourth "Fear Street" movie they made, okay?). But non-horror series "Parks and Rec," which did a great job creating a town full of oddballs, and the many horror shows of Mike Flanagan seem to be the primary influences here. Hell, a major actor from one of Flanagan's best shows even pops late in the season (I'm not going to tell you who because it'll be more fun to keep it a surprise).

The town's curse comes in phases after lying dormant for years. Sure enough, Tom's plans to inject tourist dollars into Widow's Bay coincides with the latest phase, and a series of supernatural events begin unfolding at a pace so rapid that even the supposedly skeptical Tom can't overlook them. Rhys is predictably good at playing the increasingly unhinged Tom, who tries so hard to keep his cool and clearly can't. Tom has finally found a way to get tourists to the island, and now they all might end up getting killed during their vacation.

Tom isn't the only one dealing with these problems. The local lawman, played by Kevin Carroll, seems to be the only person in town with any sense, and thus he wants to get the heck out of there. Meanwhile, Tom's coworker Patricia (Kate O'Flynn, the show's MVP), an odd, lonely woman with seemingly no friends or family, also gets mixed up in all the mayhem, and one of the best episodes of the season revolves around Patricia trying to throw a party to impress a group of mean women whom she went to high school with. This episode is perhaps so successful because it feels like a completely standalone story, so much so that I found myself wishing "Widow's Bay" was more of an anthology with self-contained episodes rather than one big narrative about Mayor Tom dealing with the curse.

For a period there that's almost what the show seems to be doing, as the characters grapple with one supernatural threat after another: a sea hag, a haunted hotel, a cursed book, a killer storm, and more. But as "Widow's Bay" draws to a conclusion, the story goes into overdrive trying to tie everything together while also filling in a backstory that might've been best left for future seasons ... assuming there are future seasons, that is. It's as if the series is so hellbent on forging an overly-complicated mythology that it forgets to have some fun with its premise. One of the most frustrating moments comes near the end, where a character literally forces everyone to sit down so they can spell out what happened. It's meant to be amusing, but I found it annoying.

That's not to say "Widow's Bay" is without its charms. I'm a sucker for spooky stories set in remote island communities, so I got a kick out of what the show was whipping up, even if a lot of it seemed overly familiar. I also approve of the way the first season wraps up in a way that can be read as both finite and open-ended. If there are no further "Widow's Bay" seasons, we still got a complete story. But there's also plenty of wiggle room for more.

While never as scary nor funny as it could be, "Widow's Bay" is still an enjoyable place to visit, with enough Stephen King-ish shenanigans going on to keep horror fans interested, even if they've encountered a lot of what's being offered here before.

/Film Rating: 6 out of 10

"Widow's Bay" premieres April 29, 2026 on Apple TV.