As superhero blockbusters, remakes, reboots, reimaginings, and legacy sequels continue to falter among audiences, horror remains as bulletproof as ever among the masses, as proven by Insidious: The Red Door knocking Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny off the top of the box office after just one week. The sentiment applies to streaming, too, based on how The Horror of Dolores Roach has debuted.
Per FlixPatrol, the live-action episodic adaptation of the podcast of the same name has wasted no time biting deep into the Prime Video most-watched rankings, having chowed down on a Top 10 spot in 50 countries around the world, enough to make it Amazon’s seventh top-viewed TV series.
Justina Machado tears the house down as the title character, recently released after a 16 year-stretch behind bars and determined to try and find her place in the gentrified neighborhood of Washington Heights she doesn’t even recognize from before she got locked up.
Naturally, that involves getting a job as an underground masseuse in the basement of an empanada shop run by one of her old cohorts, and also the murder, dismemberment, and ultimately cooking of unfortunate victims who get served up to unwitting customers.
Basically Sweeney Todd updated with a devilish vein of jet-black humor and a fantastic central performance, The Horror of Dolores Roach is already destined to go down as a cult favorite among those who prefer their horror to be as hilarious as it is harrowing, and you can’t say it isn’t well-deserved based on the widespread critical acclaim.