Another all-female horror anthology is on the way, with the CW picking up Black Rose Anthology from Drew Barrymore’s production company, Flower Films.
The series will be written and directed entirely by women, with each hour-long episode seeking to explore a different type of terror, all from a female perspective. Episodes are expected to be vignettes on “guilt, jealousy, repression, paranoia, insanity, sexual obsession and survival through a modern and distinctly feminine lens,” according to Deadline, with the pilot set to be written by former Scream showrunner Jill Blotevogel.
Black Rose follows in the footsteps of XX, an anthology of four horror shorts written and directed by women, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year. Horror remains one of the genres in which women directors, already underrepresented in Hollywood, are least likely to work, despite women comprising at least 50 percent of the genre’s audience. Both XX and Black Rose seek to correct this discrepancy.
The new show is also part of a concerted effort on the part of the CW to try to recoup some of its lost female audience—since network president Mark Pedowitz came on board in 2011, the CW audience has gone from 70–30 female-male to around 50–50. Supergirl, Riverdale, and Dynasty are all part of this strategy, as well as several projects in development, including a workplace gender discrimination drama, an adaptation of a female gladiator novel, and a female-centric Supernatural spinoff.
Black Rose is equally on-brand for Barrymore, who herself currently stars in a horror-tinged TV show, Santa Clarita Diet. Her production company with Nancy Juvonen has produced a number of female-centric films, including Charlie’s Angels, How to Be Single, and Whip It.
The CW has not yet announced an air date, but the internet is already buzzing about the nuanced, emotional terror Black Rose is expected to serve up.
