Two horror series on Apple TV are the real deal this summer

Quebec television has served up strange visions of horror lately—frozen pizza on Survivor Québec, drag transformations on Si on s'aimait encore, meringue disasters on Chefs. But if you want actual dread designed to disturb your sleep, two series are glinting on Apple TV.

La baie de la veuve (Widow's Bay) is one of the spring's pleasant surprises. Don't judge by the first episode, which undersells this tale of terrifying legends and occult phenomena wrapped in dark comedy. The series unfolds on an isolated island off New England where cellphones don't work and the mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), struggles to lure tourists away from Martha's Vineyard. The island carries a cursed reputation—old fishermen remember stories of a killer clown, a creature hunting schoolgirls, a sea witch who clawed sailors and tracked them home. When thick fog rolls over the port, the cursed island awakens, unleashing supernatural forces that have shaped generations of horrifying tales.

La baie de la veuve borrows office-comedy rhythms from The Office and Parks and Recreation, then plunges its eccentric town-hall staff into Stephen King–style horrors: a haunted hotel, a seance, powerful magic mushrooms. The disparate elements cohere into something coherent and unsettling. One full episode plays as an 18th-century flashback explaining the island's colonization and the origin of its 200-year-old evil. A myth says people born on the island can never leave—those who try to cross back to the mainland will die at sea.

Les nerfs à vif (Cape Fear) ditches the comedy for gothic thriller intensity. It's the remake of the remake: Martin Scorsese's 1991 film adaptation of the 1962 thriller becomes Apple TV's psychological thriller, available in French. It's violent and worth watching if you've drained your patience for levity.