Fright Krewe (now streaming on Hulu and Peacock) was created for DreamWorks Animation by Eli Roth, known for adult horror fare like Hostel and Hemlock Grove, and James Frey, who co-authored the Lorien Legacies YA novel I Am Number Four. In the ten-episode animated series, a group of high school kids find themselves tasked with defending the city of New Orleans from a resident of the demonic realm set loose on its historic streets; as voodoo legend becomes real and blood ties are tested, “the krewe” will learn their city’s secrets and maybe a bit about what it means to make some real bonds as friends.
Opening Shot: Beasts and the undead populate the nooks and crannies of a New Orleans-style above ground graveyard as we wind our way through its vaults and wrought-iron fencing to find a group of five teenagers, who look to be in various stages of preparedness for a battle yet to come.
The Gist: “NOLA, the most haunted city in America,” Soleil (Sydney Mikayla) declares to the group of tourists she’s leading about town. In keeping with the town’s reputation, they were promised spooky frights, which the mischievous Soleil is prepared to deliver with the help of a few sound effects triggers and a contraption that seems to pull her bodily into the gaping darkness of Gravier Cemetery. It’s a goof, but Soleil does it for the love. She’s a proud local whose family lore says she’s descended from famous voodoo priestess Marie Laveau; beyond that, she’s just really into blood and creepy stuff. At school, it’s project day, and while Marie waits with a presentation involving guillotines and – wait for it – bags of fake blood, new kid Pat (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) gives his speech. “When most people think of voodoo, they think of dolls to torture your enemies. But that’s a gross oversimplification of a vibrant faith tradition…”
Because Soleil’s classmates Missy (Grace Lu) and her boyfriend Stanley (Chester Rushing) caused a ruckus during the presentations, everybody received detention. And because this is New Orleans, that detention is served on cleanup duty in a cemetery. But when Soleil is double dog dared to enter a supposedly cursed crypt known in Creole as Am Nan Pwizon, supposed rumor quickly becomes actual fact, as an errant pin prick of Soleil’s blood parts the creeping vines and gnarled trees inside the crypt and the spirit of Marie Leveau appears. (Unseen by the teens, a figure full of rotting flesh also crawls out of the tree.) Leveau’s appearance bestows on each kid a kind of guardian spirit, or loa as they’re known in the Haitian Voodoo belief system. And Pat, well versed in the religion, recognizes the deity Papa Legba right away.
For now anyway, Missy and Stanley aren’t having any of this, and fellow student Maybe (Tim Johnson, Jr.) just looks scared. But Pat brings Soleil to see his auntie Alma (JoNell Kennedy), who as a voodoo priestess herself might know what’s going on. What was it that Marie Leveau intoned? “Blood of my blood, you’ve undone my spell, unleashing an ancient evil deadset on destroying the world. Now I’m afraid it’s up to you to stop him…”
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Sydney Mikayla, who delivers a spirited voice performance as Soleil here, also voiced Wolf in Netflix’s impressive post-apocalyptic cartoon Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts. And the streamer will get you further into spooky szn with its period anime adaptation Castlevania: Nocturne. There’s a lot going on in that one, but all you really need to know going in is that the king Zahn McClarnon voices a vampire.
Our Take: Guided by animation that builds tons of character into the eyes and outfits of its main characters, and sets off its Halloween-ready backgrounds with heaps of swirling mists, craggy shadows, and renderings of New Orleans graveyards and architecture, Fright Krewe immediately takes in the viewer with its evocative look and feel. And while it’s riffing right and left on the city’s established rep for hauntings in the historical record, Krewe is also conscious to not engage in any kind of cheapening cultural theft. It establishes a respect for voodoo early on, builds on that with Soleil’s familial connection to the real-life legacy of Marie Laveau, and seems intent on broadening our understanding of Hatian Voodoo beyond, as Pat says in his project, “dolls to torture your enemies.” And since the series took no time at all to reach the point where it unites its main “krewe” with their counterparts in the spiritual realms, we’re looking forward to more of those fun and kind of spooky interactions. We didn’t see much of Belial (Jacques Coliman) in the first episode, but we’re very curious about his physical emergence from the land of the undead.
There’s an inviting team aspect to Fright Krewe, as well. While it’s established that Soleil and Missy are no longer friends, it’s clear they’ll both be integral to fighting off this demonic presence, not to mention the friendly presence of Pat and quieter, more mysterious Maybe. These are solid characters with a real dynamic to hang your witch hat or vampire cape cowl on as the first season of Fright Krewe unfolds. And who knows? Their adventures together just might make frenemies friends again.
Sex and Skin: Nothing here. But spooks and scares? Definitely.
Parting Shot: Maybe is just about to rejoin Soleil and Pat after the group got separated when his physical form seems to systematically disappear right before their eyes. Where did Maybe go? So far, all we can tell you is that it’s a place somewhere far beyond the boundaries of the French Quarter.
Sleeper Star: JoNell Kennedy makes an immediate impression here as Alma, Pat’s auntie and a voodoo priestess who also operates a positively spookifying pastry shop. (When we meet her, she’s applying eyeball garnishes to frosted cupcakes.) We’re psyched for the inevitable speech where she lays out what it means to be guided by a loa into voodoo’s spiritual realms.
Most Pilot-y Line: Soleil can’t believe how dismissive her frenemy Missy is toward what they’ve just experienced, but the latter isn’t having it. “As opposed to believing that a freaking ghost just told a bunch of teenagers it was their job to save the world? Listen, we just breathed in too much grave dirt, or whatever.”
Our Call: STREAM IT. The teens at the center of Fright Krewe are a fun group, its spooks and scares are pitched appropriately for the demo it’s aiming for, and the series seems committed to educating as much as frightening when it comes to the spirits and larger cosmology of the voodoo religion.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.