Syfy ’s new anthology repugnance show , Channel Zero , kick off its first six - episode arc tonight . It ’s subtitled Candle Cove , and it takes inspiration fromKris Straub ’s pop Creepypasta storyabout a very spooky children ’s show . The whole thing oozes slow - burn eeriness , and we spoke with Jehovah Nick Antosca and managing director Craig William Macneill about it .
We also get to see the first four episodes — though you wo n’t find any spoilers here , only a reassurance that Channel Zero : Candle Cove is essential viewing if you dig account like Stranger Things and It and Village of the Damned ( or if you were ever on the Q.T. terrify by an episode of H.R. Pufnstuf ) . It ’s about a troubled man named Mike Painter ( Paul Schneider ) who left his hometown after his twin sidekick vanished , along with several other children , when they were 12 year quondam . Now a big child psychologist , Mik finds himself pull back to the town , where a mysterious , puppet - driven television show that he remembers from his spring chicken seems to have repay for another round of terror aimed at the local kids . His childhood Friend , meanwhile , have their own questions about Candle Cove — and about Mike ’s sudden issue .
Candle Cove feels like an indie pic — it ’s gorgeously fool away , slower - pace , and has an unsettling placid to it , punctuate when needed by a delicately chilling soundscape . It ’s also got a deeply creepy-crawly quality ; you ’re never quite sure if Mike ’s frequent flashbacks , or even what he ’s seeing in the present day , are entirely in line with reality .
Nick Antosca ( Hannibal , Teen Wolf ) explicate that though Channel Zero will search a different Creepypasta tale each season , Candle Cove is specifically what sparked the idea for the show . Colorado - manufacturer Max Landis ( Chronicle , Dirk Gently ’s Holistic Detective Agency ) had ab initio eyed the story as feature - cinema material , Antosca says . But he had a dissimilar idea . “ I was already a fan of Candle Cove , but I was like , ‘ There are a million of these [ account ] . Why do n’t we do an anthology show , and every time of year could be dissimilar ? ”
At the time , Antosca says , nobody was interested in picking up an anthology show . But when the couplet circled back after working on other projects for a yr or so , the wiz array and Channel Zero found its plate at Syfy . “ We already knew what the first time of year would be , and we pitch an idea for a second season as well , which I ’m now on - typeset shooting at this moment , ” he says . ( time of year two will beThe No - End House , directed by Steven Piet . ) “ Once we got the unripe light for two season , it was like , six episode a season is just enough to have one director per time of year . And the show could be a showcase for really exciting , coolheaded , talented theater director who might not otherwise require , or be able to do , TV . Every season will have a distinct , cinematic directorial voice . ” Antosca says he specifically sought out indie - picture theater director who ’d make resourceful use of the show ’s special budget and inject agenda .
Adapting the original source stuff was a challenge . “ Not only is it an incredibly inadequate story , but it ’s not even spell in the traditional story form . It ’s sort of a modern epistolatory novel , in the sensation that it ’s written as content circuit board posts,”explains Antosca . “ So you have this brilliant core conception that Kris Straub came up with — but then you ’re hale to build around it . To a certain degree , any Creepypasta that you choose is decease to have that , because they ’re all really short . I think of it as , every season is kind of the fever dream or the nightmare that you have after you read one of these thing and go to sleep . It ’s all these subconscious , foreign , off-the-wall things that arrive out of the conception that ’s in the original Creepypasta . ”
Antosca say that what ’s arguably the most famous Creepypasta creation — the Slender Man — won’t be in condition for succeeding Channel Zero seasons if the series continues . “ I was n’t really interested in doing that because it ’s so popular , ” he enounce , mark that there ’s already a Slender Man movie in the whole works elsewhere in Hollywood . “ I was more interested in doing one that I hump personally . I ’ve convey a list of other I that , if we ’re so favourable to go beyond a time of year two , I call back would be really fat ground . ”
A key component of Candle Cove is , of course , the puppet - show - within - the - show , also called Candle Cove . It ’s about pirate and has the look of having been woolgather up by the Krofft Brothers , if they had half their usual budget and worshiped the Dark Lord in their plain time .
Director Macneill explains the maintenance that choke into repair it . “ We had all the puppets built for us , and we really want it to sense like this could be a real public - access TV show , something that would be nostalgic that you could kind of half - remember from your childhood . It ’s a cosmopolitan experience : ‘ Oh yeah I remember that thing I used to watch , when I got home from school , that would creep me out a little . ’ The props were all deliberately inexpert - looking , but they also conveyed the threat and emotion that you see in the scripts . ”
Antosca accord . “ The show - within - a - show had to be completely benign at first glance . But the more you check it , the weirder it seems , and the more it sort of ooze into your reality . ”
That command could also apply to the Channel Zero show as a whole , and Antosca points out that while Syfy has other horror programming , like zombie - action series Z Nation , Channel Zero is unique for the connection in both content and tone . “ This is the first show on Syfy that feel like this one , ” he enunciate . “ There [ could be ] a interpretation of this show that is the campy interpretation , or the jump - scare horror translation . That ’s not where we want to go . It ’s more about fostering an ambience of sinister dread and mystery . We ’re going for an experience that ’s dissimilar from a set of the revulsion that you see on boob tube . ”
Channel Zero : Candle Covebegins tonight on Syfy .
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