Less than fifteen years ago, Netflix‘s business model looked quite different. Instead of being the global video and tech giant available on almost any device with an internet connection, Netflix was primarily a movie-rental service. That changed in the early 2010s, when its leadership decided to wade into scripted programming, becoming a destination rather than a service. Additionally, Netflix decided to operate like a traditional network, licensing scripted shows from studios for exclusive streaming rights.
The gamble paid off when the streamer landed hits like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black early on. However, those were not the only shows Netflix had. Some of its earliest shows were dramas like Lilyhammer and the Bill Skarsgård-led supernatural thriller, Hemlock Grove. Before rising to acclaim as Pennywise in the IT franchise, Skarsgård was among the main cast members of the series based on Brian McGreevy‘s books. Hemlock Grove ran for three seasons from 2013 to 2015. While critics panned the series — leaving it with a dismal 33% score on Rotten Tomatoes — audiences were far more forgiving, with a 65% rating.
Netflix announced in 2022 that all seasons of the series would be removed from the streaming service, despite the series being branded as a Netflix Original. The removal came as a result of lapsed licensing terms that required the streamer to renew to keep the show on the service, but given that it was relatively old and wasn’t a cultural phenomenon like Orange Is the New Black, Netflix passed. Back then, Netflix had not fully become both a studio and a streaming service as it is now. Hemlock Grove was later licensed to FAST and Freemium services, with seasons available for purchase on PVOD services. Even with the show having ended over a decade ago, viewers still love it. Hemlock Grove was one of the most-watched shows on iTunes in the last week, according to streaming data from FlixPatrol.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
What Is ‘Hemlock Grove’ About?
Like many terrifying stories on TV, the gothic horror-thriller takes place in the titular town. Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania, was once a thriving steel town, now a shell of its former self. The town is rocked by a murder that shifts attention to Peter Rumanceck (Landon Liboiron), a young man rumored to be a werewolf, and Roman Godfrey (Skarsgård), the heir to the town’s founding family. Peter and Roman team up and uncover the town’s terrifying underbelly and its connection to the mysterious Godfrey Estate. Famke Janssen also stars as Olivia Godfrey. The horrors of a small, decrepit town are still thrilling all these years later.
Hemlock Grove is available for purchase on iTunes or for streaming on Tubi. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
