From sea hags and immortal knife-wielding killers to witches and dark curses, there is something wrong in Widow’s Bay. The fictional New England island that gives the recent hit horror-comedy TV show its name is the site of countless terrors, but for anyone familiar with New England’s on-screen reputation, that’s probably not shocking. From the demons and monsters that fill the pages of Stephen King’s books to the on-screen horror of movies like “The Witch,” the region is fodder for storytellers looking to make things go bump in the night. There’s a good reason for that, according to historians and folklorists: New England has a real history of horror.
“Widow’s Bay,” which follows the town’s local mayor as he tries to turn his clearly cursed island into a tourist destination, is fiction, but it draws on very real stories and folktales, from the Salem witch trials of the 1700s when scores of people were tried and prosecuted for alleged sorcery to the 1890s case surrounding Lizzie Borden, who was acquitted of brutally murdering her father and stepmother with an ax. These events have seeped into New England’s cultural firmament, becoming folklore that takes on a life and meaning of its own. Over the years, telling these stories has helped make New England “the creepy attic of America” and turn these legends into powerful reminders of the past, said Jeff Belanger, an author, folklorist and host of the Emmy-nominated PBS series “New England Legends.”
