Blumhouse Developing Documentary Series About Real-Life Satanic Panic of the ’70s

Blumhouse Productions is primarily known for delivering audiences fictional tales of terror, but the studio’s successes in recent years has seen them expand their programming, with an upcoming endeavor being a TV series chronicling a town overcome with paranoia surrounding supposed Satan worshippers, per Deadline. The series is set to come to EPIX and will chronicle an exploration of a series of murders that coincided with a nation-wide obsession with cults and the impact those deaths had on a small Massachusetts town and clues that were found decades after the events that shed new light on the gruesome acts. Fall River does not currently have a release date.

Deadline describes the series, “1979 – Fall River, MA – home to the notorious Lizzie Borden, three young women were killed in a series of brutal murders. Police alleged a satanic cult was practicing human sacrifice. The cult leader, a man named Carl Drew, was captured and sent to prison for life without parole. Twenty years after the trial, the lead investigator became so haunted by inconsistencies in the stories that he re-investigated his own case after he retired. Evidence surfaced bringing the entire story into question. This documentary series will tell shocking true story of a town caught in the grips of the Satanic Panic, with new witnesses and evidence that shed light on murders that were thought to have been solved.”

Fall River is produced by Blumhouse Television (The Jinx, No One Saw A Thing, The Loudest Voice) and Pyramid Productions. James Buddy Day (The Lover’s Lane Murders, Manson: The Women, The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell) serves as executive producer and director.

Thanks to films like Insidious, Sinister, and the Paranormal Activity series, Blumhouse became a prominent force in the 2010s, with 2014’s Whiplash seeing the studio expand their offerings to deliver genre-adjacent fare. Far from being a traditional horror film, the tense tale of a drummer seeking perfection became a major hit for the studio, opening up further opportunities to expand their offerings.

In 2018, Blumhouse debuted the TV series based on their The Purge films, while also delivering the miniseries The Loudest Voice in 2019, depicting Roger Ailes’ creation of Fox News, which won star Russell Crowe the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Limited Series or Television Film.

Stay tuned for details on Fall River and its debut on EPIX.

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