Eldritch vibes ahead: Stephen King’s H.P. Lovecraft-esque horror story is headed to Prime Video
A Lovecraftian Stephen King horror tale is headed for a Prime Video series — and, in a first for the author, it’s a U.K. production.
If you thought Stephen King adaptations were running out of steam, think again. Amazon's Prime Video is rifling through his back catalogue for even more source material, setting up a new limited series taken from King's lesser-known short, Crouch End. For those keeping score, this isn't the much-hyped Mike Flanagan Carrie project, but something that sounds even weirder: twisted cosmic horror, North London style.
Lost in London
The Crouch End story goes back to 1980—King originally published it in New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos before adding it to his own collection, Nightmares & Dreamscapes. The title refers to a real part of north London, but King turns it into a sort of haunted interdimensional zone, as a nod to H.P. Lovecraft’s brand of cosmic dread.
Crouch End was first published in 1980 and later collected in Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
The original plot follows an American couple who find themselves trapped in the area’s shifting, reality-bending streets. The TV adaptation seems to be expanding things: now it’s a full-blown mystery thriller, tracking a famous actress who turns up at a police station, raving about supernatural forces after her husband vanishes without a trace.
The Series Setup
The official logline sells it like this: “London never sleeps deeply, and its dreams are uneasy. When global movie star Doris Freeman bursts into a London police station claiming that strange phenomena are behind the disappearance of her husband, police inspector Ted Vetter must investigate whether she’s telling the truth, whether she could be a murderer, or whether there’s something even more chilling at play.”
Behind the camera, Paul Tomalin (responsible for Netflix’s Bodies) is writing, with Tom Shankland (director of The Serpent) handling direction. So at least the creative line-up is solidly experienced at the macabre and the twisty.
And just to make it clear the King hype machine is rolling full steam, here’s how the studio is talking it up—Nicole Clemens, top exec for Prime Video’s international originals, put it like this in a press announcement:
Stephen King is one of the defining storytellers of our time, and we're thrilled to bring his Lovecraftian tale to life in London with 'Crouch End'.
Currently, Crouch End is set to run for six episodes. No casting details yet, and, of course, no air date to mark on the calendar, but expect more soon. Development is very much underway, with Amazon clearly betting on more Stephen King horror to keep viewers on edge.