Chapelwaite dials up the creepiness in these 7 terrifying ways

The creators of Chapelwaite have managed to take a Stephen King short story and miraculously expanded it into a 10-part series. Although the ending seems conclusive, it has been renewed for a second season.

If you have read King’s second published novel, Salem’s Lot (1975), you’ll know the horror involves vampires. The short story Jerusalem’s Lot, a prequel, appeared in his collection, Night Shift, published in 1978. It’s also worked into the 2005 illustrated and weighty tome Salem’s Lot, as a series of letters that grow increasingly sinister and disturbing. That’s King for you – Jerusalem’s Lot is a fictional town in Maine where he sets many of his stories, and the Constant Readers, as he calls us, will often discover crossovers, both in place and characters.

At the centre of Chapelwaite, which is set in the 1850s, is Captain Charles Boone (Adrien Brody), whose wife dies and is buried at sea, leaving the widower with three children, Honor (Jennifer Ens), Loa (Sirena Gulamgaus) and little Tane (Ian Ho).

No sooner has the unnamed woman been dispatched to the deep than Charles receives a letter from his late cousin Stephen (Steven McCarthy), who has bequeathed to him his house, Chapelwaite, near the muddy grey town of Preacher’s Corner. The sun rarely shines, which adds to the sombre mood of this cursed part of the world.

The grieving family duly arrives to find the house dilapidated and vandalised, the housekeeper saying, no, thank you very much, I will not be staying on, and whatever you do, keep the cellar door locked (spoiler: they don’t). an almost complete reluctance of anyone willing to take on the job of being live-in governess for the children. Plus, there are strange sounds in the walls.

In town, Charles finds himself ostracised, and forbidden to attend church, mainly on account of his mixed-race children, who are also bullied at school. The sawmill he inherited along with the house is staffed by recalcitrant men. Any of this should be reason enough to abandon the house and get the heck out of Dodge but then we wouldn’t have this series.

Here are some creepy moments, in no particular order, to make your skin crawl

1. The worms. There are a lot of worms in the first few episodes – in the bath, dropping through the ceiling, and inside Charles’s nose. Their significance becomes apparent later, although they themselves disappear from the narrative.
2. When Charles was a boy, his father, apparently mad as a hatter, tried to kill him and bury him in the back garden. This has understandably left him with some trauma.
3. The 19th-Century asylum is terrifying. Charles visits it to try to understand what made his cousin – and Stephen’s father, Phillip (Julian Richings) – tick because it’s clear they were not normal.
4. “Treatments” like ice baths are being carried out on inmates, the likes of which we would consider torture today. The boss of the asylum, having drawn some information out of Charles, suggests it would be a good idea to check himself in as his particular mental disorder is hereditary.
5. A young woman in the town gives birth to a monstrosity of a baby. It’s deemed to be her fault on account of being out of wedlock and refusing to name the father. Stick around, this is going to come out later and has shocking consequences for all parties.
6. There is a strange “sickness” in the town; the afflicted cannot abide the light of day, and take to wandering around at night. For some reason, the folk are convinced it came from the deceased Boones (they’re not entirely wrong), and all their prejudices are projected onto the current Boones.
7. Mysterious murders take place, carried out by a shadowy man in a flapping coat and top hat.
   As part of his investigation, Charles digs up his cousin’s grave. Surprise, the coffin is empty. Is – gasp! – Stephen in fact alive? You’ll have to watch to find out.