John Powers

What do you mean?

When people ask me to name the scariest movie I ever saw, I always tell them Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, a 1948 romp I saw on TV as a kid.

It's a slightly embarrassing answer, but in recent days I've had two other people tell me the same thing, one a 30-year-old woman, the other an 82-year-old man.

We all agreed that what makes it so terrifying is that you think you're safely watching a dumb comedy.

then boo, you're actually in a horror movie.

Juggling laughter and fright is the strategy of Widow's Bay, a new Apple TV series that has rolled out about half of its ten episodes.

Created by Katie Dippold, who wrote the Ghostbusters remake and countless episodes of Parks and Recreation, this amusing, sometimes nerve-wracking show has a soothingly retro feel.

Looking back to horror stories of the 70s and 80s, it's like a Stranger Things intended for grown-ups.

Matthew Rhys stars as Tom Loftus, a widower who's the mayor of Widows Bay, a small, cozy-seeming island off the New England coast.

He's got the kind of quirky, exasperating staff you find in TV comedies.

Most importantly, his lonely, awkward number two, Patricia.

That's wonderful Kato Flynn, who hits him with the grieved zingers.

It's Tom's dream to turn this sleepy island into another Martha's Vineyard, crawling with tourists who drink cappuccino, read the New York Times, and make the place happening.

But the townsfolk have their doubts about his plans, partly because they don't like ponying up for espresso machines, partly because Tom can't even seem to manage his teenage son, who smokes weed and gets into trouble.

These superstitious locals also know something Tom works hard to deny.

Widow's Bay is, um, cursed.

It has a centuries-long history of plagues, ruinous typhoons, killer clowns, talk about mixing comedy and horror, not to mention all manner of supernatural visitations.

Every few years, the island goes violently crazy.

Here, Tom is in the local historical society with a travel writer researching a piece on Widow's Bay.

Tom tries to poo-poo talk of the island's dark side.