Shudder has announced it will be dipping its toe in to limited TV later in the year with new series Hell Motel. The eight-episode series, from Slasher series creators Aaron Martin and Ian Carpenter, will debut with two episodes on Tuesday, June 17, 2025.
The series sees a group of 10 true crime obsessives invited to the opening weekend of the newly renovated Cold River Motel, the site of a 30-year-old unsolved Satanic Mass Murder. History repeats itself when the guests get stranded and start getting knocked off one by one during a murder spree that grows exponentially more gruesome than the original with each kill.
Watch the series’ trailer in the player below:
Hell Motel is set to star Emmy Award-winner Erick McCormack (Will & Grace) who takes on the role of Hemmingway, a chef with a wickedly sinister flair. McCormack will be joined by fellow motel guests Paige (Paula Brancati), a former scream queen actress looking to revive a career that has seemingly left her behind; Crow (Shaun Benson), a new-age medium with an apparent connection to the massacre’s victims; Blake (Atticus Mitchell), a true crime writer and himself a survivor of a mass killing; Kawayan (Emmanuel Kabongo), a talented artist with a dark focus on murder; Andy (Jim Watson), a bookish academic at the forefront of contemporary true crime studies; and Adriana (Genevieve DeGraves), a hybristophilic flight attendant with several notorious serial killer notches on her bedpost. Canadian drag queen Icesis Couture (Canada’s Drag Race) also makes a guest appearance as Magenta, a stylish real estate agent who sells the Coldwater Motel to its new owners Ruby (Brynn Godenir) and Portia (Michelle Nolden).
Hell Motel is a Shudder Original Series, developed and produced by Shaftesbury, in association with Hollywood Suite and with the financial participation of the Bell Fund. AMC Networks holds distribution rights. The series is created and executive produced by Martinand showrunner Carpenter. Additional executive producers include Christina Jennings, Scott Garvie, Thomas P. Vitale and director Adam MacDonald.
Hell Motel debuts during a milestone year for Shudder, as the streamer celebrates its 10-year anniversary of the best in horror. A year-long event, Shudder 10 will feature the service’s most terrifyingly ambitious slate to date, along with special fan events, a nationwide screening series, customed merchandise and more. The milestone follows a successful 2024 for Shudder as the streamer claimed six of the year’s top 10 titles on Rotten Tomatoes 2024 Horror list with Late Night With the Devil in the #1 spot.
