Hudson Williams and Carrie-Anne Moss Just Made The Next 'Widow's Bay'-Style Horror Hit
Between It: Welcome to Derry, Crystal Lake, and Widow’s Bay, it’s a great time to be a small town with a big, possibly supernatural secret. Crave and AMC+’s Yaga takes that formula and drops it where it makes the most sense: Canada. Starring a who’s who of Canadian actors and telling a story of feminine rage and folk horror, this series is a pitch-perfect watch for the spooky season — and a startling view of where horror lies in pop culture today.
Yaga follows charming private investigator Charlie Rapp (Noah Reid) as he hesitantly joins up with local officer Carson (Clark Backo) to investigate the disappearance of Henry Park (Hudson Williams). As they peel back layer by layer of this mystery, they discover a secret society that may or may not be tied to the mysterious, milf-y Professor Katherine Hargrove (Carrie-Ann Moss), who earns the apparently affectionate nickname “Boner Beast” by her students.
In the beginning, Yaga appears as though it’ll just be another buddy cop odd couple drama like True Detective or Fargo, but that’s just its first impression. From each episode containing a Slavic cover of a pop song to the running joke of referencing how John Wick also explored the concept of Baba Yaga, this is a creative, self-aware story from playwright-turned-showrunner Kat Sandler.
The biggest strength of Yaga, though, is its cast. Hudson Williams, a breakout thanks to Heated Rivalry, is of course the biggest draw, but despite the fact that he plays two characters — Henry Park and his weirdly identical roommate — he’s barely in it. But even beyond him, everyone is a proven Canuck superstar: Noah Reid was in Schitt’s Creek, Clark Backo was in Letterkenny, Megan Follows is basically Canadian royalty for playing Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables, and even Ginger Snaps’ Kathryn Isabelle shows up by the end.
And thankfully, everyone knows just what kind of tonal tightrope act is going on here, balancing the supernatural and the horror elements with the crime thriller and drama. It’s officially described as an “erotic thriller,” which is as big of a surprise for a show that plays by so many different rulebooks, but it delivers on that one, too — clearly, this show borrowed more than just Hudson Williams from Heated Rivalry; the nudity is there too. Rapp will shamelessly flirt with every female suspect (and they are mostly women), and everyone in this town seems to be cool with that.
Perhaps shows like this are the future of TV: slightly formulaic but mostly weird streaming shows that could be compared to Lost and Twin Peaks in the same breath. It’s experimental, but it also isn’t, making for an incredibly watchable show that doesn’t exactly push boundaries, but it definitely gives them a firm-but-gentle shove.