Chapelwaite TV Review

Plot: Set in the 1850s, Chapelwaite follows Captain Charles Boone, who relocates his family of three children to his ancestral home in the small, seemingly sleepy town of Preacher’s Corners, Maine after his wife dies at sea. However, Charles will soon have to confront the secrets of his family’s sordid history and fight to end the darkness that has plagued the Boones for generations.  

Review: Adapting Stephen King stories are usually perfect for mini-series or long-form television. King’s epic and sprawling tales have provided ample material over the years. Salem’s Lot, adapted twice before on the small screen, remains one of the best takes on vampire lore. The prequel short story, Jerusalem’s Lot, from King’s Night Shift collection, seems like an odd choice to adapt for a ten-episode series seeing as it only runs about twenty pages in length. I was skeptical of the adaptation, retitled Chapelwaite after the house at the center of the story, but this is a solid horror yarn expanded with solid performances from Adrien Brody and Emily Hampshire.

Chapelwaite follows the Boone family, led by whaling captain Charles Boone (Brody) and his three children as they reclaim their ancestral home. Reeling from the death of his wife, Boone aims for a better life for his children and to rebuild the prosperous mill owned by his late cousin, Philip. In the town of Preacher’s Corners, Boone discovers a deep animosity for his family whom the townspeople blame for a disease plaguing their population. As Charles tries to acclimate to his new surroundings, a deeper and more ominous presence begins to make itself known. What follows is a moody Gothic horror story full of ghosts and atmospheric horror with some vampires added for good measure.

Stephen King’s short story was told in an epistolary format and set in a time period that the author did not commonly work in. The series, from creators Peter and Jason Filardi, echoes classic works like The Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Hill House as well as the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. The production values on this series are absolutely astounding and look as good as any feature film. This is likely owed to the direction from veterans like Burr Steers (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) and others. Primarily awash in muted colors during the day and inky blacks at night, Chapelwaite uses shadow and light along with some sound editing that made me look over my shoulder more than once.

This series manages to be quite disturbing at times with some imagery that will stick with you including a deformed child as well as copious shots of worms. These moments are punctuated scenes of horror that work but feel a bit tacked onto the more realistic, psychological horror side of the story. The balancing act that the Filardis and their writing team attempt here doesn’t work consistently, but did keep me following through moments where the pacing falls a bit flat. There is a lot of talking here and quieter, character-driven moments that slow things down significantly and there is nothing wrong with that, but the series feels like it is often moving very fast or very slowly.

Adrien Brody and Emily Hampshire, two very talented actors, seem to be acting in two different series at times. Brody’s character here is dealing with madness and often vacillates between introspection and mania, sometimes within the same scenes. Hampshire serves as an interesting catalyst as this role is as far from her turn on Schitt’s Creek as anything she has ever done. Even her dramatic turn on SyFy’s Twelve Monkeys is tame compared to this. Brody and Hampshire share a lot of screentime in Chapelwaite but their scenes are some of the weakest in the series. I found the supporting characters populating the town of Preacher’s Corners to be much more interesting. The show also struggles with the balance of gothic and supernatural, psychological and physical, and even realistic versus horrific. This series gets a lot right but inconsistently.

Chapelwaite works far better than I would have expected even if it doesn’t tread any new ground. With grounded, realistic performances and a perfectly captured atmosphere, this series is one of the better Stephen King television series to date. At the very least, it is far superior to the 2004 Salem’s Lot mini-series and owes quite a bit to Tobe Hooper’s 1979 version. Despite an excellent turn by Adrien Brody, Chapelwaite falls short of being as good as it could have been while still managing to be a solid foray into period horror.

Chapelwaite premieres on August 22nd on Epix.

Chapelwaite

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