Westworld Writer Reinvents Horror with Stillwater Series

Carly Wray and Greg Berlanti adapt Chip Zdarsky and Ramon K. Perez's graphic novel Stillwater into an eight-episode Prime Video horror thriller about a town where no one dies, blending psychological dread with moral questions about immortality.

Lena CarterLena Carter.
Westworld Writer Reinvents Horror with Stillwater Series

3 Minutes

No one ages in Stillwater. No one dies. No one leaves. It sounds like a fever dream, until an ex-con named Daniel West arrives with a letter promising answers and a mysterious inheritance.

Carly Wray, a writer who helped shape Westworld's labyrinthine mysteries, has teamed with Greg Berlanti, the architect behind Arrowverse hits, to adapt Chip Zdarsky and Ramon K. Perez's graphic novel Stillwater for Prime Video. The project, produced by Amazon MGM and Prime Video alongside Warner Bros. Television, Berlanti Productions and Skybound Entertainment, is an eight-episode, one-hour drama that leans hard into psychological dread rather than cheap jump scares.

Expect atmosphere over exposition. The premise reads like a morality play wrapped in horror: a seemingly eternal town forces its inhabitants to reckon with what immortality demands of community, power and identity. How far would people go to keep a status quo that looks like paradise on the surface but hides rot beneath?

Wray and Berlanti describe the series as more than a high-concept riff on endless life. They call it a thriller that probes the human cost of permanence, a place where everyday choices are amplified into ethical crucibles. Zdarsky and Perez's source material supplies a world that is as emotionally raw as it is unsettling, which the creative team says they intend to honor: strange characters, slow-burn reveals and moral contradictions at every turn.

Industry voices are already betting on this creative pairing. Channing Dungey, head of Warner Bros. Television Group and WBD US Networks, praised Wray and Berlanti for translating beloved story beats into new territory, combining scope with the intimate character work that makes audiences care. Peter Friedlander of Amazon MGM echoed that sentiment, calling Stillwater an eerie, emotionally resonant universe that refuses to let viewers look away.

The involvement of Skybound Entertainment, the studio behind the graphic novel, signals a faithful yet cinematic take on the source. Production teams say they want to preserve the comic's eerie visuals and moral dilemmas while expanding the story for a serial format. That means room for slow reveals, lingering shots, and characters whose motives shift when the light changes.

If Westworld drew viewers into puzzles and theories, Stillwater aims to pull them into a different kind of compulsion: the need to sit with unease and imagine the cost of never-ending life. Daniel West's journey is a doorway; the town itself is the real protagonist, with rules that reveal themselves like a slow leak.

Prime Video hasn't announced a release date yet, but the combination of Wray's knack for tension, Berlanti's serialized instincts and Zdarsky and Perez's eerie original will make Stillwater a must-watch for fans of psychological horror and comic-book adaptations. Curious? Keep an eye on Prime Video listings — and ask yourself what you would trade for forever.

Lena Carter
"I’m Lena. Binge-watcher, story-lover, critic at heart. If it’s worth your screen time, I’ll let you know!"

Leave a Comment

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first.