This Christmas looks set to be a spooky one, with Shudder launching new horror anthology The Haunted Season. Created by Kier-La Janisse, the new series was inspired by the idea of telling ghost stories during the festive period and will see different creatives helm installments, the first of which will land on December 1.
According to Fangoria, The Haunted Season won’t then return for another chapter until December 2025. Check out the teaser for its opener below.
Featuring James Swanton (who’s no stranger to playing ghoulies on screen, having starred as the Ash Man in Stopmotion, The Magician in Tarot, the Jackal in The First Omen, and more), The Haunted Season: To Fire You Come at Last was written and directed by Sean Hogan, and proved a hit during its festival run last year.
“In rural 17th century England, a group of men gathers to carry a coffin to the graveyard for burial,” the official logline begins. “Much ancient folklore and superstition surround the pathway to the church, and several members of the party are afraid to walk it after dark. The grieving father promises to double their wages if they make the frightening journey.”
In an interview with Spooky Isles, Hogan said the 43-minute film was inspired by the BBC’s long-running A Ghost Story for Christmas and Jonathan Miller’s 1968 Omnibus episode Whistle and I’ll Come to You. “Specifically for the use of 16mm black and white and the eerie starkness of the landscapes,” he noted. “There’s probably a bit of The Exorcism in there as well: the class politics, and the fact that the vengeful ghost gets to deliver a climactic monologue from beyond the grave!”
The Haunted Season: To Fire You Come at Last drops on Shudder and AMC+ on December 1. For more, check out our list of the best horror movies of all time, or our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.