An award-winning horror Western is expanding its haunted frontier with an entirely new series.
The 2024 movie A Town Called Purgatory will serve as the basis for Madlands & Badlands: The First Circle of Purgatory, a 10-episode scripted horror audio drama scheduled for release in 2027.
South Florida-based storytelling studio ZealZaddy has licensed the movie to create the new series, which will take place in the same supernatural Old West but will not retell the film’s story.
Instead, each episode will introduce new characters and stories involving gunslingers, prospectors and drifters who discover that something sinister is lurking on the frontier.
“Audio lets us take listeners places the camera couldn’t: further out into the dust, and deeper into the dark,” ZealZaddy co-founder and creative director Scott Coventry said in a statement.
ZealZaddy’s executive editor and principal Cliff Dunn is writing the series alongside A Town Called Purgatory creators and stars Ken Arnold and Dan DeLuca.
Season 1 is currently planned for 10 episodes and will feature a professional voice cast and original score. However, the series could ultimately become considerably larger.
ZealZaddy plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign for Madlands & Badlands on Friday, Nov. 13, with a sample episode giving listeners a preview of the project. Stretch goals could expand the first season from 10 episodes to either 20 or 30.
“We imagined Purgatory from the ground up,” Arnold, who developed the movie’s original story with DeLuca, said. “Watching it grow into a full series, with new characters and new dilemmas, has been an amazing ride.”
“These are the stories a single movie never has room for,” added DeLuca, who co-developed the story, wrote the screenplay and starred opposite Arnold.
Horror fans will also have an unusual opportunity to become part of the expanding universe themselves.
Arnold and DeLuca will appear at Spooky Empire in Orlando, Fla., from Oct. 30 through Nov. 1. Fans who visit the ZealZaddy booth can read a scene from Madlands & Badlands with the two actors for a chance to be cast in a future episode.
On Halloween, Saturday, Oct. 31, A Town Called Purgatory will also screen in the convention’s Filmmakers Lounge from 2 to 4 p.m., followed by a Q&A. The screening is included with convention admission.
Directed by Matt Servitto and written by Arnold and DeLuca, A Town Called Purgatory follows a Yankee lawman and former Confederate during the Civil War era as they pursue a gang of train robbers into a ghost town, only to discover something terrifying waiting there.
The movie earned several honors on the festival circuit, including Best in Show at the Sci-Fi Horror & Action Film Festival and Best Feature at both Creature Feature Weekend and the Tombstone Film Festival. It also received top horror honors at the Garden State Film Festival and FirstGlance Philadelphia.
A Town Called Purgatory is currently streaming on Prime Video and Tubi.
Madlands & Badlands: The First Circle of Purgatory is expected to debut in 2027.
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