Get ready to check into the Haunted Hotel. The new animated comedy-horror series from several Rick and Morty directors, including Dan Harmon himself, is set to premiere next month, and Netflix released a trailer today that reveals a bit more about the cursed dwelling.
First off, this ain’t Ghosts on CBS: most of these guys look dangerous and ARE dangerous. Protagonist Katherine Freeling is in a similar situation to Rose McIver’s character; she’s inherited an old musty hotel and must find ways to attract guests despite the spectral occupants that frequently haunt it and boo people. And they’re better at it: you won’t find lawyers with no pants or an ancient Viking, but you WILL see bloody butchers, wailing severed heads, and other delights.
Kat’s brother used to run the place, and she hasn’t talked much with him in years, but they’ll have plenty of time to catch up now — because he’s a ghost too. Nathan has become friends with a lot of the spooks and thinks they have some good ideas, and he’s also able to talk some of the more vicious ones out of killing them. He’s a lifesaving ally, but he’s also Will Forte, which inevitably means he’s a pratfall-prone goofball.
We’ve been wondering who the white demonic-looking kid that appeared in screenshots is, and it turns out he literally IS a demon: Abbadon, who inhabited the body of a child in the 1700s and never really let go of it, so the “kid” is immortal. Despite the warning bells he gives off, Abbadon seems to have assimilated himself into the Freeling family, who you may recall, already has a ghost in it.
It all feels pretty wild as a concept, but something feels off about it, and I think I know what it is: it’s the art style. There are several animated shows floating around now with hideous monsters as a feature, and they’re all using stylized designs and unconventional animation to build their world. Rick and Morty, for example, has people with bugged-out eyes and asterisks for pupils. Hazbin Hotel is as wild-styled and exaggerated as you can get. Then you have this, which uses generic, off-the-shelf designs for its cast that look like something Krapopolis rejected. Despite all the boogeymen and hanging guts, it can’t help but feel tamer.
Good writing will save restrained art, but if Netflix surfers see the thumbnail and yawn, they may not get that far. Guess we’ll see what happens. I have higher hopes for Long Story Short, which premieres in a couple weeks. Haunted Hotel will follow it two weeks after that on September 10.
