In the wake of winning four Academy Awards for his feature last year, The Shape of Water, Mexican director Guillermo del Toro isn’t slowing down. He’s creating scholarships for aspiring film students, opening movie theaters bearing his name, and creating new material to delight us with. Netflix has just announced del Toro will be working with them on 10 After Midnight, a new horror anthology series.
10 After Midnight is being described as a “genre-defining” series with del Toro presenting “personally curated stories” that will be a frightening as they are compelling to watch. Del Toro will be working on the series predominately as a producer, but it is said he will write and direct “selected episodes,” as well as be hand-selecting writers and directors from the horror world as well as new up-and-coming talent to work on the show. It’s unclear now how many episodes are being produced, and thus how many episodes del Toro will be lending his own writing and directing talent to.
This is the second project collaboration between the streaming service and the director. Del Toro is currently the producer of Netflix’s successful animated series Trollhunters, which itself is receiving its third and final season on May 25th.
Anthology series are becoming the law of the television landscape but there aren’t many in the horror vein yet. It was said M. Night Shyamalan was putting out a new take on Tales From the Crypt but that looks DOA. Del Toro is a man who enjoys taking horror and infusing it with history, elegance, and a touch of Old Hollywood. If done right, there’s no doubt the director could make 10 After Midnight a prestige anthology series to be proud of. If it’s got one iota of the frights we saw in Pan’s Labyrinth, we’ll be in business. Anticipation is high on this one.
There is no current release date for 10 After Midnight.