Based on the podcast of the same name by Aaron Mahnke, the series Lore brought a series of ghoulish stories to Amazon subscribers last year, offering the dark stories behind some of the true horrific legends that haunt people around the world. Each episode covered a lot ground, not only dissecting one main myth, but also diving into smaller tales with similar themes. But while this was good methodology for the first six episodes, it's actually a format that's changing in Season 2 -- as I recently learned from producer Gale Anne Hurd:
I think the response was that there is an incredible passion for true stories of horror. Where did these myths and legends that we love so much come from? Who were the people that these things happened to? The feedback that we got was that people love those personal stories so much that when we broke away to tell a lot of ancillary stories, it was detracting from their experience connecting with the characters.
This past weekend at San Diego Comic-Con I had the immense pleasure of sitting down with Lore producers Gale Anne Hurd and Sean Crouch, and right off the bat one of the main things we discussed was the evolution of the show. My first question was in regard to reflecting on the first season -- what they took away from the experience, and how it changed their work on the second round of episodes -- and what I learned is that the series is getting a lot more streamlined.
With episodes clocking in at less than an hour long, there isn't a ton of real estate available to dive into every related story to a particular event, so that's not what Lore is going to do in Season 2. Instead, as Sean Crouch put it, they are learning more into the anthology series side of things, and as a result each chapter will have a much narrower focus that more concretely centers on its subject. Said Crouch,
Since I wasn't on Season 1, I came in and I wanted to push the show more in the anthology, like a Twilight Zone or Black Mirror-type show, where we pluck out just one small story from the podcast. Like, we don't need to tell the whole history of Transylvania for 500 years, I just want to see three days in the life of this woman who killed over 700 women and bathed in their blood. I want to see three days in her life; I want to see one of the victims from beginning, middle and end. I want to tell that horror story.
The particular tale that Sean Crouch is referencing is the story of Elizabeth Báthory, a countess who bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth, but that is just one of the subjects in the next season of Lore. Audiences can also look forward to the tale of William Burke and William Hare, two grave robbers-turned-murderers who sold bodies/victims to the local medical school.
All of his horror and more will be coming to audiences this Fall. Lore Season 2 will be available on Amazon Prime starting October 19th -- and stay tuned for more for more of our coverage here on CinemaBlend.
