WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Chapelwaite Episode 1, “Blood Calls Blood,” which aired Sunday on Epix.
Chapelwaite, adapting Stephen King‘s 1978 short story “Jerusalem’s Lot,” is here, with the first episode of Epix’s 10-episode miniseries quickly moving its main cast into the eponymous estate. As Adrien Brody’s Charles Boone introduces his children to the sinister Maine mansion while grieving the recent loss of his wife, it’s immediately clear that something monstrous is lurking in the shadows, and more than just the racist townspeople that await them.
In the prologue, a young Charles Boone awakes to the sound of someone digging outside of his home in 1817 Massachusetts. Identifying the source of the noise, a horrified Charles witnesses his maddened father, Robert, brutalizing his mother before turning attention to his son. Dragging Charles to the makeshift grave outside the house, Robert warns that something is coming, and he must bury his son, as “blood calls blood.” Charles is saved by his mother, who shoots Robert dead, before she warns her son that he should go as far away from Massachusetts as possible.
Aboard the whaling ship the Narwhal in 1850, an adult Charles mourns his Polynesian wife with their three children as she’s given a maritime burial in the Sea of Japan. Before her death from an undisclosed illness, his wife urged Charles to care for their family back in New England, after his cousin, Stephen bequeathed him the Chapelwaite estate, including a manor and sawmill. Despite being haunted by his childhood trauma, and not having known Stephen particularly well, Charles decides to honor his late wife’s wishes.
Upon moving into Chapelwaite, Charles learns Stephen killed himself while mourning his beloved daughter, who died tragically in the mansion’s cellar. After handing over the keys, the caretaker abruptly resigns, and warns to keep the cellar locked. As Charles stows items into the cellar, he discovers bloodstains and ominous devices, and notices the floorboards above are infested with worms. Shaken, he instructs his children to stay out of the cellar, echoing the caretaker’s warning. As Charles puts his children to bed, he believes he hears rats scurrying inside the walls, but a home inspector the following day finds no evidence supporting this.
In town, aspiring writer Rebecca Morgan arrives and is intrigued by the Boone family. As the townsfolk struggle with an apparent disease that has claimed several lives and left households in quarantine, they view Charles’ children with thinly veiled prejudice due to their mixed race. Charles’ son Tane encounters a sick girl who accuses him of killing her rabbits before the Boones hurriedly return home, where Rebecca offers to serve as the children’s governess and teacher; Charles accepts her offer. After a restless night of hearing something moving behind Chapelwaite’s walls again, Charles confronts the workers at his sawmill, including their lazy foreman, to get back to work under his leadership.
That night, Rebecca leads the Boone children on a spooky game around the house, until they discover not only a dead bird but that the cellar door is open; Rebecca hastily locks the cellar before everyone returns to bed. The next morning, the children are denied entry to the town’s church because of their race, with Charles’ younger daughter Loa taking the news the hardest. The townspeople contemplate driving the Boones out of Maine and burning down their home. The sick girl’s father loads a wagon with oil to do the job before he is intercepted by a man in black who kills him before setting his body alight. And while Chapelwaite may be safe for now, Charles experiences a terrifying vision of being buried in worm-infested soil as he hears his father’s voice warning him something is coming. The Boones’ horrifying ordeal is only just beginning.
Developed for television by Peter and Jason Filardi, Chapelwaite airs on Epix with new episodes premiering on Sundays.
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