Haunted Hotel follows a family dealing with ghosts, demons, and monsters
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Netflix has made major investments in adult animation, producing original hit shows including Big Mouth, BoJack Horseman and Disenchantment. Now the streaming service is expanding on that library with Haunted Hotel, a new show from Rick and Morty writer Matt Roller that offers a horror spin on the long-running Adult Swim series’ blend of sitcom and genre tropes.
The first trailer for the 10-episode series, which launches on Sept. 19, introduces the extremely haunted Undervale Hotel and the Freeling family, who run it. Nathan (Will Forte) died and left the hotel to his estranged sister Katherine (Eliza Coupe), but now he’s a ghost and still wants to provide plenty of input on how to run things. Recently divorced, Katherine is looking for a fresh start along with her kids Ben (Skyler Gisondo) and Esther (Natalie Palamides). She also somehow winds up taking care of Abaddon (Jimmi Simpson), a demon trapped in the body of a child from the 1700s.
Like Rick and Morty, Haunted Hotel mixes family-sitcom chestnuts like school projects, house parties, and dating with much wilder plots including possession, slashers, and tentacled monsters. Netflix’s own Tudum reports that Roller sold the series to Netflix in a highly competitive auction, so the streaming service is clearly hoping that the horror parody can generate the sort of following and critical acclaim that has kept Rick and Morty on the air for eight seasons.
