The new horror series Widow's Bay is now streaming on Apple TV+, with only the first two episodes available and future instalments releasing weekly. It has debuted with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is being hailed as one of the year's best new shows. The series stars Welsh-born actor Matthew Rhys as Tom Loftis, the Mayor of Widow's Bay, a quaint island town located 40 miles off the coast of New England, where something sinister lurks beneath the surface.
Tom is desperate to put Widow's Bay on the map and transform it into a must-visit tourist destination. However, the island has no Wi-Fi, and Tom must contend with superstitious locals who believe their island is cursed. Unfortunately, the locals are right—after decades of calm, the old stories that seemed too ludicrous to be true start happening again. But is Widow's Bay a real place you can visit? And where was the series filmed? Here's all you need to know.
Where Was Widow's Bay Filmed?
In the opening episodes, we learn that Widow's Bay is 42 miles off the coast of New England. As Matthew Rhys' Mayor Tom attempts to turn the island into the next hot tourist destination, some locals warn him that the entire island is cursed and is 'waking up'. Fortunately for anyone hoping to visit the real locations, the haunted town of Widow's Bay is not an actual place. However, production for the series did choose nearby New England for its filming locations.
According to Decider, creator and writer Katie Dippold was inspired by visiting two places: a haunted house in Long Branch, New Jersey, as a child, and later a diner in Marblehead, Massachusetts. She said: "It was very lived-in, cosy, nostalgic. I kept wondering about what a place like this could hide, and what could happen if stirred."
The real-life locations of Widow's Bay are a collection of different places, particularly for its interiors. Two notable locations are Vita Bella Ristorante in Essex, Massachusetts, and Forest Lane in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The production may have dressed the restaurant to suit its needs, as online photos do not match exactly. Green Lane is a wooded area that appears to have been used for driving scenes. Additionally, Vincent's Bar in Worcester, Massachusetts, matches key scenes of a future episode, serving as Widow's Bay's only dive bar. The real venue has been operating for over 20 years and is known for live music and meatball sandwiches.
If you want to feel like you are on a proper visit to Widow's Bay, you need to go to Rockport, Massachusetts, where the vast majority of exterior filming was done. Specifically, Comic Book Club Live states it is the Bearskin Neck peninsula on the coastline of Cape Ann. Although it has a population of only 7,000, Bearskin Neck is a tourist destination in its own right. It was also used for filming the 2009 rom-com The Proposal starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, as well as the Oscar-winning CODA.
In the show, Widow's Bay's actual location is purposefully non-specific. As Dippold explains: "It's a long ferry ride, you don't know exactly if the ferry comes from Massachusetts or Maine, but I purposely wanted to keep that a little vague… I really wanted to tap into that Stephen King atmosphere."
A lot of sets were constructed for interior scenes, created by production designer Steven Arnold. Dippold said: "I really think he was able to make his own Disneyland for this show. The centuries-old haunted Breakwater Inn. A wood-panelled New England town hall. The sticky-floored, neon-lit dive bar that Loftis would never set foot in. A timeworn seafood restaurant. He created a very special world."
Widow's Bay is streaming on Apple TV+.
