[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]
Just in case you’re embarking on a road trip this summer and think it might be kitschy fun to stop at a motel at some point, Hell Motel, premiering in Canada on Hollywood Suite and in the US on Shudder, should readily dissuade you of that notion.
The brain child of the Slasher creative team of Aaron Martin and Ian Carpenter and directed again by Adam MacDonald (who also cameos), Hell Motel checks many of the same boxes as the mothership anthology series with an ensemble cast and playing with intertwining timelines, but the physical location lends itself to a brand new setup for stories to follow.
Returning for the carnage this time around are longstanding regular members of the repertory company — Paula Brancati, Christopher Jacot, Jim Watson, Genevieve DeGraves and Mercedes Morris and newer cast members Eric McCormack, Shaun Benson, and Daniel Kash, plus a gaggle of first-timers — Michelle Nolden, Lauren Lee Smith, Brynn Godenir, Emmanuel Kabongo, Yanna McIntosh, Atticus Mitchell, and Gray Powell, to name a few.
The new series follows a set of very unlucky guests (and of course a masked killer or killers) who’ve arrived at the rural Coldwater Motel at the behest of its new owners for a preview weekend because they’re deemed influencers who will help put it on the map as a destination for true-crime aficionados. The scene of a grisly set of murders 30 years prior, the crimes have been restaged as art in the exact locations they occurred on the property, and the remaining rooms are just your garden variety accommodations with a significant price tag attached for the “experience.” Here’s a guide to who’s who in the murderous zoo.
- Hemmingway (McCormack) is a celebrity chef tasked with cooking up grotesque, IG-ready meals worthy of the location.
- Crow (Benson) is a medium who’s more interested in the spiritual aspects of the crime, and offering up a seance to bring forward one of the first victims and maybe ID the OG killer.
- Paige Harper (Brancati) is an actress who made her name playing the first victim in a series of horror films but hasn’t found it easy to transition out of that label so she’s leaning into what she knows.
- Adriana (DeGraves) is a flight attendant drawn to serial killers who’s proudly bedded several of them.
- Ruby (Godenir) and Portia (Nolden) are the new owners of the motel, launched with Ruby’s vision and Portia’s money, so Ruby’s all in while Portia is soon questioning her investment.
- Kawayan (Kabongo) is an artist who draws from true crime and lends his works to the weekend’s experience.
- Blake (Mitchell) is a true crime writer eager to dig into the motel’s dark past.
- Andy Lecavalier (Watson) is an academic studying true crime who’s ready to peace out pretty quickly.
- Shirley (McIntosh) and Floyd Dantree (Powell) are driving their RV on a cross-country trip when a brewing storm diverts them to the motel.
- Joey (Jacot) and Caitlyn Ridgeley (Smith) are the honeymooners who chose badly when they stopped at the Coldwater all those years ago.
The season runs eight episodes, and will premiere in Canada on Friday, June 13 at 9 pm ET on Hollywood Suite. That same night, there’s an in-person screening at the Revue Cinema in Toronto.
Additional episodes will follow in Canada on Tuesdays at 9 pm ET beginning June 17, and be available to stream on Hollywood Suite On Demand. In the US, the two-episode premiere will drop on Tuesday, June 17, on Shudder and AMC+, with new episodes releasing weekly on Tuesdays.
Here’s a sneak peek!
View this post on Instagram
Photos courtesy of Anthony Fascione for Shaftesbury/Shudder; video courtesy of Shaftesbury/Shudder.
