Netflix's first horror-oriented project in their slate of upcoming original programming is close to fruition. 

Deadline reports that the DVD rental and streaming service is about to order a 13-episode season of HEMLOCK GROVE, an adaptation of Brian McGreevy's yet-to-be released novel shepherded by HOSTEL and CABIN FEVER director Eli Roth. McGreevy is set to co-write alongside Lee Shipman, while Roth will executive produce and direct. The site offers up this vague bit of non-plot: "Set against the backdrop of our darkest myths, adolescent deceptions, ravenous relationships and rumors of a werewolf, the series re-imagines everything it means to be a monster as reflected in the struggle to be human."

Happily, Amazon and the novel's cover art points us in a clearer direction, revealing a possible werewolf tale:

"The body of a young girl is found mangled and murdered in the woods of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania, in the shadow of the abandoned Godfrey Steel mill. A manhunt ensues—though the authorities aren’t sure if it’s a man they should be looking for."

"Some suspect an escapee from the White Tower, a foreboding biotech facility owned by the Godfrey family—their personal fortune and the local economy having moved on from Pittsburgh steel—where some suspect that biological experiments of the most unethical kind take place. Others turn to Peter Rumancek, a Gypsy trailer-trash kid who has told impressionable highschool classmates that he’s a werewolf. Or perhaps it’s Roman, the son of the late J. R. Godfrey, who rules the adolescent social scene with the casual arrogance of a cold-blooded aristocrat, his superior status unquestioned despite his decidedly freakish sister, Shelley, whose monstrous medical conditions belie a sweet intelligence, and his otherworldly, sexy control freak of a mother, Olivia. As the crime goes unsolved and the police seem more and more willing to believe any outlandish rumor, Peter and Roman decide the only way to save their own skins is to find the killer themselves. Along the way they uncover local secrets and designs that are much bigger than some small-town murder."

"HEMLOCK GROVE is an exhilarating reinvention of the gothic novel, inspired by the iconic characters of our greatest myths and nightmares. At once a riveting mystery and a fascinating revelation of the grotesque and the darkness in us all, HEMLOCK GROVE has the architecture and energy to become a classic in its own right—and Brian McGreevy the talent and ambition to enthrall us for years to come."

HEMLOCK GROVE doesn't hit stands until March 27, 2012. Will you pick it up, or wait to see how Roth handles the material?

---

News - Latest