New TV series Revival comes alive in New Brunswick's deep, dark woods
The rural noir supernatural mystery pays homage to its graphic novel roots with a mix of humour, heart and horror that plays out on the back roads of Kings County
When Revival leads Melanie Scrofano and Andy McQueen’s characters attempt an awkward hook-up outside the local roadhouse, eagle-eyed Maritimers might be tempted to shout out, ‘wait, isn’t that The Mule in Sussex.’
The darkly comic 10-episode, 60-minute horror series debuting Thursday, June 12th on CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada and SYFY in the U.S., was filmed entirely on location in New Brunswick.
Look closely and you’ll recognize shots of Sussex and Saint John, while the rural farms, forests and back roads around Norton, Bloomfield and the Kingston Peninsula help create Revival’s eerie Twin Peaks-like aesthetic.
That’s the look U.S.-based showrunners Luke Boyce and horror master Aaron B. Koontz wanted for their adaptation of Image Comics’ best-selling eight-volume graphic novel by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton.
Set in the fictional town of Wausau, Wisconsin, Revival tells the story of what happens after some of the town’s recently dead residents miraculously rise again and resume their old lives, largely indistinguishable from other residents.
That is until some gruesome, mysterious deaths start happening and suspicion of the ‘revivers’ begins to grow.
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The graphic novel’s rural noir look and feel came to life in New Brunswick’s deep dark woods courtesy of Toronto-based Blue Ice Pictures and Saint John-based Hemmings Films after a friendly conversation over beers.
As Hemmings Films’ founder Greg Hemmings tells it, he and long-time creative partner and executive producer Steve Foster met up with Blue Ice Production VP Samanta Levine a few years ago in Saint John to talk TV and New Brunswick opportunities.
Levine has a family connection to New Brunswick and told the pair she’d like to bring a project to New Brunswick, and, as is often the case with creative industries, it took a few years for the creative, acting, and financial stars to align.
Revival is the result.
“This is 100 per cent a Canadian production,” said Hemmings. “The majority of the cast, including all the leads, is Canadian; it’s an all-Canadian crew, and the IP [intellectual property] is Canadian.”
Leading the cast are a couple of familiar Canadian stars.
Melanie Scrofano of Wynonna Earp fame is back in lawmaker mode as police officer and single mom Dana Cypress, who is assigned to investigate a murder following the events of Revival Day.
Her dad and town sheriff, Wayne Cypress, is played by David James Elliott, who starred as the square-jawed naval lawyer Harmon Rabb Jr. on JAG for ten seasons.
Rounding out the main cast is Romy Weltman (Ginny & Georgia) as Martha “Em” Cypress, Dana’s younger sister with a secret she’s keeping from Dad; and Andy McQueen (Coroner) as Ibrahim Ramin, a CDC scientist trying to unravel the mystery behind the revivers.
Both the graphic novel and the series use the horror genre to explore contemporary themes of community isolation and suspicion.
After the ‘revivers’ appear, the town is placed under quarantine with no one allowed to leave or enter the area, a nod towards the initial COVID-19 lockdowns, and here on Canada’s East Coast, a reminder of our ‘Maritime bubble.’
Meanwhile, within the town, as the murder mystery grows, rumours follow, causing a rift between those who view the revivers with suspicion and those who seek to protect their loved ones.
“There’s only a handful of revivers, and only a few of them have come back a little bit nefarious, but the whole group are being painted with the same brush,” said Hemmings.
“It’s a clever way to look at how we treat marginalized communities, the way we judge people. It’s got a little bit of a social activist impact that I like about the show: a reminder not to paint everyone in a group with one brush.”
Revival is the latest entry in the supernatural TV genre, a place where Canadians have carved out a successful niche over the past two decades with a string of critically acclaimed shows such as Orphan Black (Ontario), Lex (Nova Scotia), Wynonna Earp (Alberta), Plan B (Quebec), Resident Alien (British Columbia) and Starhunter (New Brunswick).
While other provinces have been able to capitalize and scale homegrown film and TV industries, New Brunswick hasn’t. When Starhunter ended its run in 2004 after two seasons, New Brunswick went dark.
While independent filmmakers have continued to cobble together budgets for their art, such as Fredericton-based Arianna Martinez who debuted her film Do I Know You from Somewhere? at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), a New Brunswick industry capable of supporting a skilled labour force has yet to find its mark.
Perhaps a scythe-wielding zombie grandma can guide New Brunswick into the light.
In Canada, Revival airs Thursdays at 11 p.m. AT/10 p.m. ET on CTV Sci-Fi, CTV.ca, and the CTV app beginning June 12, and is available to stream next day on Crave.
In the United States, it airs Thursdays on SYFY at 10 p.m. ET with episodes available to stream a week later on Peacock.
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