Matt Curler Talks ‘Haunted Lodge,’ Hidden Horror References Galore & Making a Crossover Expertise (VIDEO)

The mashup of horror and animation is a long-standing custom that stretches again nearly 50 years, to the times when 5 teenagers and their Nice Dane solved mysteries in a inexperienced van and groovy ghoulies rocked out with teenage witches.

Through the years, the mixing of cartoon aesthetics with horror hijinks has created an everlasting custom, if not slightly on the campy facet. What started as light-weight scares for youths has steadily advanced into one thing darker and way more fascinating, with grownup animation embracing horror and comedy to create one thing new. The style has shifted from mystery-solving teenagers and goofy ghouls to twisted tales that embrace each the grotesque and the hilarious, pushing the boundaries of what animation can depict and proving that cartoons aren’t only for children anymore.

Showrunner Matt Curler continues the trajectory of the toon evolution with Netflix’s Haunted Lodge. The story follows single mother Katherine (Eliza Coupe), who makes an attempt to remodel a haunted lodge right into a thriving enterprise after inheriting the “scare B’n’B” from her late (however nonetheless very current) brother Nathan (Will Forte). She’s joined by her two children, Ben and Esther (Skyler Gisondo and Natalie Palamides), in addition to her adopted little one, Abaddon (Jimmi Simpson), a demon trapped within the physique of a kid from the 1700s. Collectively, the household navigates spectral company, ghostly shenanigans, and the occasional serial killer whereas trying to show the Undervale Lodge into a house.

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Curler, who beforehand served as a co-executive producer on Dan Harmon‘s Krapopolis and as a author on Son of Zorn, Rick and Morty, and Archer, has crafted not only a daring animated outing that Fangoria followers would get pleasure from, however a full celebration of the horror fandom itself. Each nook of the Undervale Lodge is filled with references for eagle-eyed viewers, making the collection as a lot a treasure hunt for style devotees as it’s a story of spectral chaos.

Matt Curler sat down with TV Insider to speak about his undertakings with the Undervale, his love of all issues spooky, and who ought to try Haunted Lodge (trace: everybody).

When did you first get the concept for the Undervale?

Matt Curler: Again once I was engaged on Season 2 of Rick and Morty… That’s not once I wrote it precisely, but it surely was a short while after that [when] I began digging in on the script.

I cherished engaged on Rick and Morty, and I cherished the wild tales we might inform there, but it surely was very sci-fi targeted, and my ardour has at all times been within the horror house. And so I needed to create a horror model of Rick and Morty.

And that didn’t imply, like one-to-one, simply swap out everybody and put them in a horror setting, but it surely was sort of the genesis of the concept as a result of I had a number of horror films that I needed to riff on as a substitute of sci-fi films. So I got down to create a world that I might simply play in endlessly.

What impressed the premise of Haunted Lodge?

I assume it got here from two issues. It got here from wanting a world the place I might simply play within the horror style. I needed as massive a sandbox as potential. In order that’s why a haunted lodge felt like a great place to begin. You understand, like we are able to have some 40 rooms on this place, so conceivably, 100 episodes in there might nonetheless be locations we haven’t seen.

Then there are the woods outdoors, the lake, and the cliffs — we are able to at all times set up one thing that enables us to play nonetheless we wish to. And that’s half the sport.

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I believe the opposite origin was having relationships within the story that I cared about. Clearly, the core one is between Katherine and Nathan — the dwelling lady and her lifeless ghost brother. This form of second probability, they should type a relationship and be taught from one another, and simply be shut in a means that they weren’t in life.

I believed that was actually fascinating, in a means that we are able to at all times dig deep if we wish to, and contact on the more durable features of that. But it surely’s additionally only a household comedy. We are able to additionally simply be gentle with it, and it’s the youngsters now have a surrogate father determine, and he’s attempting to determine what objectives he conceivably obtain for the remainder of his afterlife, [like] if he’s locked to this property, and it simply felt like a solution to inform relatable tales that haven’t been informed earlier than.

The Funky Phantom, The Groovie Goolies, Scooby-Doo, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy… There’s a lengthy custom of mixing horror with humor to create kooky cartoons. Which of them impressed you within the creation of Haunted Lodge, and the place do you see your present becoming inside that lineage?

I’m undoubtedly impressed by Scooby-Doo, which is a humorous sentence to say. I believe what I like about it’s that the characters, for all of the wacky hijinks, are on the grounded facet of issues, and the stakes are actual.

I believe one thing I needed to do on this present was not have folks be killed willy-nilly, or have big, disastrous issues occur that you simply couldn’t conceivably stroll again. So I assume I took classes as properly from household sitcoms, live-action ones the place, nonetheless insane issues get, it must be plausible that by the tip of the episode, everybody can be okay, and so they might maintain operating this lodge.

We don’t actually homicide a visitor for no cause as a result of in my thoughts, that might imply the cops would come and really rapidly, this complete factor would unravel. So I believe I used to be drawing some inspiration too, from a number of the household sitcoms that I’ve labored on.

Do it’s a must to be a horror aficionado to understand Haunted Lodge? And if not, would you contemplate this gateway horror?

We took a number of care on this to make it extra of a comedy about horror, relatively than a horror comedy. You don’t want any horror data to observe this and revel in it, however when you do have horror data, you’re going to grasp a number of the references.

I believe perhaps when you watch the slasher episode [Episode 3, “Randy Slasher”] and when you’re curious what we’re pulling from, and so that you go watch Halloween or Friday the thirteenth. The second episode [“Unfinished Business”] has some fairly apparent references to The Ritual, which is an superior horror film I like. There are such a lot of horror references on this.

I’d love for folks to go watch the flicks that impressed the tales.

You’ve stated that this can be a love letter to horror followers. What ought to they appear out for whereas watching Haunted Lodge?

There are someplace abover 80 easter eggs within the present. And so they get fairly deep cuts. For instance, have you learnt the bayonets in The Orphanage? I do.

I actually needed — and I’m not saying that is an iconic a part of the film — however I needed some ingredient of that constructing within the lodge, and above the entrance door in The Orphanage, there’s a extremely cool stained glass arc, and we had that on the entrance of the lodge for the longest time, after which it didn’t work with like, the geography we’re attempting to ascertain. So what I did as a substitute, amongst different issues, was the wallpaper in that very impactful closet [scene], which once more, was not one thing you see for lengthy…we put that wallpaper within the lodge in just a few totally different locations.

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After they’re within the outdoors wooden shed, at one level, you’ll be able to simply see a bunch of instruments round, however when you look extra particularly, you’d see there’s a sledgehammer, there’s a scythe, there’s a machete, it’s the enduring killing instruments from quite a lot of horror villains. The instruments themselves, singularly, wouldn’t [standout]…however [when] we put it subsequent to all the opposite ones, perhaps you discover.

I assume I’d problem folks to seek out the Easter eggs. A few of them are fairly apparent, like shot references, and a bunch of the background wall artwork… as a result of a lodge simply must be stuffed with artwork. It might have been simple to make it only a bunch of landscapes.

Each time we had time and will, we tried to be extra particular. One thing we did a number of was put horror buildings within the background,  just like the Amityville home, and Michael Myers’ home as artwork on the wall…

There’s a number of furnishings within the lodge from horror films, which isn’t fascinating, and folks could not even discover, however why not be particular? As an alternative of a generic sofa in our parlor, we put the sofa [for Ti West‘s The House of the Devil]. And there’s a number of that. I simply re-watched all of the horror films I appreciated, and pulled furnishings, curtains, and wallpaper from them, and gave these to our artists as strategies for tactics to populate our world and make it richer and simply extra particular to the style.

A scene from ‘Haunted Lodge’ makes use of a sofa from Ti West’s ‘The Home of the Satan.’ (Netflix/ MPI Media Group)

And do you assume that there’s a big crossover between individuals who get pleasure from horror and individuals who get pleasure from animation?

I hope there’s, as a result of this present exists, and I believe there’s some proof of that in Gravity Falls, Useless Finish, Paranormal Park… clearly, Scooby-Doo, we’re most likely the extra the current one that’s going at it most instantly, and embracing horror and precise horror films, relatively than similar to horror as like a theme or a style.

If Haunted Lodge ran lengthy sufficient to outline a technology, what would you hope for followers to say is its place in animation historical past?

I believe it could be good to be an iconic horror comedy. I believe the present leads with empathy. I believe all of the characters are fairly expressive about who they’re. It’s not a nihilistic present. Folks share their vulnerabilities and aren’t mocked for them. We play it for comedy. Ben could be very open about the truth that he’s bullied, however he additionally worries about his bully, and I believe that’s simply such an fascinating perspective for that man to have.

So I believe having a horror present that, in a bizarre means, has a kindness to it, versus a cynicism and killing folks for no cause. I believe that tone is one thing I’m actually glad about. I hope folks discover, even when they don’t know what they’re noticing.

Haunted Lodge, Season 1, September 19, Netflix