Enlarge / Attorney Henry Deaver (André Holland) returns to his childhood home and must confront terrors both past and present in Hulu’s Castle Rock. (credit: Hulu)

Castle Rock, the new horror anthology series from Hulu, surprised us by becoming one of our top breakout shows this summer. Inspired by the works of Stephen King, the series has already been renewed for a second season. As we head into the last two episodes this season, Ars caught up with co-creator Sam Shaw to talk about the nature of horror, common themes, and what we can expect from the series going forward.

(Mild spoilers below for the first eight episodes.)

Shaw and co-creator Dusty Thomason previously worked together on Manh(a)ttan, a series set in the New Mexico military encampment of Los Alamos, detailing the birth of the atomic bomb in the 1940s. Despite critical raves, the show never quite found its audience and was sadly cancelled after just two seasons.