Shudder has announced a new original, Hell Motel, an eight-episode limited horror series developed and produced by Toronto-based Shaftesbury in association with Hollywood Suite.

Hell Motel is created and executive produced by Aaron Martin and showrunner Ian Carpenter, creators of the Shaftesbury horror anthology Slasher. Executive producers include Shaftesbury’s Christina Jennings and Scott Garvie as well as director Adam MacDonald and Thomas P. Vitale. AMC Networks holds distribution rights.

Hell Motel was developed as a follow up to Martin and Carpenter’s Slasher series, but was rebranded as a way to find a new audience for the series, a Shaftesbury spokesperson told Playback Daily. Slasher was initially commissioned by U.S. network Chiller and Canada’s Super Channel in 2016. In 2017, Netflix ordered two additional seasons after acquiring the streaming rights to season one, but did not renew it following season three. Shudder revived the series in 2020 and has since aired two more seasons.

The series follows 10 true crime obsessives who are invited to the opening weekend of a newly reopened motel that was the site of a 30-year-old unsolved satanic mass murder. Soon, they become stranded and begin being picked off one by one.

Hell Motel stars Canadian-American Eric McCormack (pictured) as well as Paula Brancati, Shaun Benson, Jim Watson, Genevieve DeGraves, Brynn Godenir, Atticus Mitchell, Yann McIntosh, Gray Powell, Michelle Nolden and Playback‘s 10 to Watch 2024 alum Emmanuel Kabongo. Icesis Couture, winner of Canada’s Drag Race season two, will make a guest appearance.

Production on Hell Motel began on August 3 and wrapped on Nov 1, with shooting across Toronto and Cobourg, Ont., according to the spokesperson.

The series will debut on Hollywood Suite in Canada on June 13, and will also be available on Hollywood Suite on Demand. In the U.S., it will premiere on Shudder and AMC+ on June 17.

Hell Motel was made with the financial participation of the Bell Fund.

With files from Jamie Casemore

Image courtesy of Shaftesbury