Get Out meets The Haunting of Hill House: a new gothic horror series is on the way

Halloween might be in the rearview, but the appetite for spooky TV hasn't budged an inch. The streaming landscape is absolutely crawling with new horror projects: Amazon is bringing Carrie back for another round, Crystal Lake was a roaring opener for Peacock, and HBO Max just chucked out a cheeky surprise episode of It: Welcome to Derry. Not content to leave it there, the likes of Alien: Earth, Interview with the Vampire, and the reliably weird Widow's Bay all have fresh seasons on the production line.

Apparently, if you build a haunted house, we’ll all show up to get scared witless. Everyone seems to want a piece. Disney+ is even turning Afterlife with Archie into a series, because why not throw zombies at the Riverdale gang while they're at it?

A New Gothic Mystery Series

Now there’s a fresh name in the mix that could be next in line to go viral amongst horror die-hards: The Invited, which is being developed by the duo behind Get Out, has just been announced. According to Deadline, this new show is pitched as a ‘supernatural mystery thriller’ drawing on the work of Wendy Webb—she’s a bestselling author who’s carved out her own little haunted niche in gothic fiction. But here’s a bit of nuance for the purists: Webb hasn’t actually written a book called The Invited. Instead, the planned series is going the Hill House route—it’s spinning an interconnected storyworld out of themes, characters, and settings from across Webb’s entire bibliography.

The first season adapts The End of Temperance Dare, one of Webb's best-known novels published back in June 2017, featuring a tuberculosis sanatorium-turned-arts-retreat plagued by supernatural secrets.

The setting’s classic Webb: Wharton, a fictional lakeside town where virtually everyone’s either haunted or doing the haunting. If you’re imagining mist rolling over ancient piers, you’re probably not far off.

Who’s Behind It?

• Helen Black, who wrote Life and Death in the Warehouse, is co-creating
• Jeff Howard—the chap who wrote for The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass—is on board
• Shaun and Yvette Yates Redick (yep, they were behind Get Out) are producing via Impossible Dream Entertainment
• Collaboration with the UK's Wall to Wall as co-producer

So: a British production partner in the game, and plenty of horror pedigree behind the camera. There’s just one catch—The Invited hasn’t actually been snapped up by any broadcaster or streamer yet. No channel, no Prime, no Netflix, not, well, anyone. It’s shopping for a home as we speak.

Shaun Redick, when speaking with Deadline, made it clear that they’re looking to bottle the combination of drama, romance, ghostly suspense and character work that’s made Wendy Webb such a book club favourite for fans of haunted houses and slow-burn mysteries.

Here’s how Wendy Webb herself described it to Deadline, in a sort of pinch-me statement about having her work adapted by the team behind Get Out and Haunting of Hill House: "When Shaun Redick, one of the producers of the stunning Get Out— which I saw three times in the theater — contacted me about adapting my work into a series, I had to sit, staring into space, for a good long while. When he told me Jeff Howard, a writer and producer of Midnight Mass and Haunting of Hill House — which I have binged-watched more times than I care to admit — was involved, life got a little surreal. Then, I met the brilliant Helen Black, and I started bragging to whoever would listen. I am honored and privileged beyond measure to be working with these geniuses of the genre to bring my books to life."

Webb is still keeping busy on the publishing front; her latest, The Witches of Santo Stefano, landed in September 2024. If you want a taste of what the show might channel, that’s as good a place to start as any.

For anyone already digging out copies or prepping for a book binge, here’s Wendy Webb’s back catalogue (all set in her ghost-ridden mini-universe):

• The Tale of Halcyon Crane (2010)
• The Fate of Mercy Alban (2013)
• The Vanishing (2014)
• The End of Temperance Dare (2017)
• Daughters of the Lake (2018)
• The Haunting of Brynn Wilder (2020)
• The Keepers of Metsan Valo (2021)
• The Stroke of Winter (2022)
• The Witches of Santo Stefano (2024)

In short: there’s no shortage of brooding material for a series like The Invited to chew on—assuming, of course, someone actually picks it up and films the thing.