Hulu’s new horror anthology series Monsterland comes to the streaming service at the beginning of October, as reported by TVLine. The first trailer was released on September 10th, and showcases variety of well-known performers. Each episode will be set in a different American city, according to a statement made by creator Mary Laws (The Neon Demon, Preacher) in a Bloody Disgusting interview.
According to TVLine, the stories of Monsterland are adapted from Nathan Ballingrud’s 2013 short story collection North American Lake Monsters. When Mary Laws spoke with Bloody Disgusting, she discussed what viewers can expect from the first season: “We adapted the stories that felt the most current, relevant, and that we were most connected to; three episodes… are direct adaptations of Nathan’s stories, and the others are inspired by the collection.” Ballingrud himself was able to confirm the identity of at least two of the stories being adapted, “You Go Where It Takes You” and “The Good Husband,” via Twitter.
The cast of the show is stacked with familiar actors. Ballingrud’s November tweet mentions the presences of Kaitlyn Dever (Coastal Elites, Booksmart) and Jonathan Tucker (Kingdom, The Ruins) in the first episode. The list of players includes Kelly Marie Tran (Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Sorry For Your Loss), Nicole Behari (Sleepy Hollow, Miss Juneteenth), Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black, Mercy), Mike Colter (Luke Cage, Evil), Roberta Colindrez (Vida, The Deuce) and Bill Camp (The Night Of, The Outsider).
Monsterland is the latest production from Annapurna Television. They shared producing duties with Two & Two Pictures, founded by Lucan Toh and Babak Anvari, via Collider. Anvari wrote and directed the 2019 horror film Wounds, the first screen adaptation of Ballingrud’s work. The film was distributed by Hulu in the U.S.
Hulu has distributed three other horror anthology shows in recent years: Dimension 404, Castle Rock, and the holiday-themed Blumhouse Television production Into the Dark. All eight Monsterland episodes will be available to stream on October 2nd.