This October, if you’re searching for a scary television show that is kid-friendly, look no further than Apple TV+’s Curses!. The all-ages animated series follows the exploits of the Vanderhouvens. When their father Alex is turned to stone due to a multigenerational family curse, siblings Pandora and Russ must return ancient artifacts their ancestor stole to their proper owners to restore their dad back to flesh. Think of it as a globe trotting reverse Indiana Jones filled with spooky adventure, action, and thrills.
Recently, we spoke with the co-creators and executive producers Jim Cooper and Jeff Dixon along with director Leo Riley. They spoke about various aspects of the series from how they developed the premise, why they made a family horror series, what may come in the future, and more.
Curses!: An Unlikely Partnership
Cooper and Dixon were not writing partners prior to Curses!. They actually met at their kids’ school. While walking back after drop off in the mornings, the pair would casually converse and learn that both were writers. Dixon mostly wrote in horror while Cooper worked in children’s animation. They thought it would be interesting to collaborate on a horror family animation series that would be scary but accessible to the whole family.
The actual premise is based off of an old joke within Cooper’s family. He said, “We joke that my family has a curse. That my dad and his brother and brother in laws all died at a relatively young age. And so we’re like, ‘Ooh, family curse.'” He then showed a picture of his grandfather holding a human skull, which he humorously declared the origin of the Cooper family curse.
Cooper and Dixon used the photo as a jumping off point to expand into a story. Cooper continued, “How does one solve a curse? It really got us thinking about the nature of curses. The nature of family curses. There’s a really interesting show here. Once you start going down that rabbit hole of where cursed artifacts come from and how do you make right by them, it kind of leads to the concept if that makes sense.”
Curses! Helps Kids Overcome Their Fears
Making a family horror series requires a good balance. Due to Cooper and Dixon’s respective backgrounds, they were able to pull each other back when the narrative became too dark or too zany to achieve that sweet spot.
Dixon explained their approach to the horror. “We weren’t trying to push as many scares as possible. And because I’m a firm believer that I think it’s actually a good thing to scare kids. Because when kids actually experience scares, they can actually learn to overcome their own fears. I think people shouldn’t talk down to them. They can actually experience some scares.
He added, “We can’t go full Alien or something like that in scares. We created an atmosphere. So, I think what we’re the most proud of with our show when we landed is we created an atmosphere that is scary. There is not always something that is popping out, but there is the atmosphere that something could be. This is a world that is scary or that could be scary at all times. It’s kid safe that it’s not constant gore or scares, but it is actually scary for them as well. It is finding that balance so where we lacked in the pure scares, we made up in the atmosphere that is kid friendly.”
Art imitates Life
While writing the stories about artifacts, Cooper noticed that they were in the news quite frequently. “The most interesting for me was how often, while working on the show, news programs would come up about so and so just got nailed for looting artifacts and had to be sent back. Some museum was sending something back. Until you start to notice it, it happens a lot. This is really an issue. Honestly, I don’t know if I would have noticed it as much had we not been working on the show. Doing the research, that is the thing in real life I find fascinating.
The very nature of the different cultural artifacts required plenty of research. They even used several consultants and past preservers that helped make everything feel authentic. Though they did not want to use actual items from history. Dixon explained, “What was fun was we would always try to come up with some sort of unique and made-up artifact within this authentic culture, and you’d be surprised how many times the things that we would just come up with out of thin air was actually really close to things that existed. It happened a lot…It was walking that line between being very authentic but very being respectful.”
Curses! Retro Feel
Curses! draws inspiration from 80s adventure films including the previously mentioned Indiana Jones franchise as well as The Goonies. The aesthetic has some hand drawn qualities to the animation that creates a retro feel compared to conventional CGI.
Riley discussed the approach to the visual style. “Early on, myself and David Chung, who was the art director on the production, spent a lot of time looking over materials and trying to figure out a style that we thought would complement the material. In it being a gateway horror show, we thought a good reference would be the DC Comic The Vault of Horror and Tales from the Crypt as an immediate visual reference that people who had seen that content, horror fans would get, but also be visual arresting in an animated form.”
The future of Curses!
The way that the season ends, there is the possibility to further explore this world. With regards to the future, Dixon said, “Honestly, we have ten seasons worth of ideas in our brain.” Cooper then stated, “We had to put a cliffhanger in every single episode. We’re not going to not put it in the finale.” Dixon jumped in, “It’s the horror trope. We needed to end on the horror trope of ‘Is it really the end?'”
Curses! launches Friday, October 27, on Apple TV+.
Join the AIPT Patreon
Want to take our relationship to the next level? Become a patron today to gain access to exclusive perks, such as:
- ❌ Remove all ads on the website
- 💬 Join our Discord community, where we chat about the latest news and releases from everything we cover on AIPT
- 📗 Access to our monthly book club
- 📦 Get a physical trade paperback shipped to you every month
- 💥 And more!
You must be logged in to post a comment.