If a series about a cursed island causes you to roll your eyes, Katie Dippold’s Widow’s Bay will make you do an extreme rethink. It gives a fresh spark to familiar horror conventions and so, even as one recognises the slasher, the undead, or the deal with the devil, they arrive with an irresistible zing.

Widow’s Bay, an island 40 miles off the New England coast, has its share of eccentrics. The mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), a mainlander, who married an islander, wants to revitalise Widow’s Bay (that name should have told him something) and position it as an alternative to Martha’s Vineyard. To that end, he invites a journalist from The New York Times, Arthur Lloyd (Bashir Salahuddin), to write about Widow’s Bay.

In the first episode, we see Tom trying to ensure Arthur sees Widow’s Bay at its best, despite Wyck (Stephen Root), a local who believes in the town’s history, saying the coming fog signals all sorts of horrors. Tom is a widower, struggling to care for his rebellious teenage son, Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick).

Widow’s Bay has its share of quirky folk, starting with Mayor’s office staff, where Patricia (Kate O’Flynn), Tom’s assistant, Ruth (K Callan), Tom’s secretary, Rosemary (Dale Dickey); Dale (Jeff Hiller) and Gerrie (Nancy Lenehan), try to help but possibly do more harm than good.

Against all odds, including the creeping fog, and Wyck’s dire warnings, the article comes out, and Widow’s Bay is flooded with tourists. At about the same time, Tom begins to believe in the curse of Widow’s Bay and now races against time to protect the people while solving the dark mystery at its heart.

Each episode takes a genre convention — a haunted inn, the killer clown, the masked serial killer, Bluebeard, the sea hag, the wound that will not heal, or a cursed grimoire (a spell book) and presents it with a fresh, fun twist keeping one off-kilter. One is not sure if one should scream or snort with laughter.

The superb cast keeps us invested in the happenings. Rhys embodies Tom, who might not be the heroic leader he would like to be, but is a decent man trying to do the best for the town while also wishing to be the best father to Evan.

O’Flynn’s Patricia is wonderfully weird as she mixes the not-so-innocent punch at the Sunset Cocktails party, or deals with the hard-to-kill Boogeyman.

The music comfortably straddles the ominous and peppy, as does the cinematography, that creates frames of endless beauty where the placid blue-grey sea could well be hiding terrible secrets. There is a constant hide-and-seek between light and dark.

The writing is smart (”The runaway trolley is life and the lever is me”) with a touch of Tennessee Williams with “We live in a perpetually burning building and what we must save from it is love.”

Small-town vibes with a dash of Jaws (a fundamentally decent mayor with the town’s best interests at heart despite the killer shark or the demonic presence) come together in a show powered by a wonderfully off-kilter ensemble. With most of the mysteries solved, and a mind-bending twist, the season 2 renewal comes as excellent news.

Widow’s Bay is currently streaming on Apple TV+