Where Monsters Lie

Wilmhurst might seem like a quaint New England neighborhood in passing, but the gated community is actually a sanctuary for vicious killers, where they can come to relax, regroup, and attend a homeowners-association meeting or two between rampages. Creators Starks (I Hate This Place! Vol. 1) and Kowalski (Bloodborne: Lady of the Lanterns) conjure a terrific cast of characters riffing on archetypes and iconography that slasher fans will find familiar, including, among others, a dumpy killer clown, a facially disfigured chainsaw-wielding maniac from a hillbilly cannibal clan, a children’s doll possessed by the spirit of a serial killer, a massive, shambling home invader wearing a dingy mask, and a psychopath obsessed with forcing his victims to solve a series of intricate puzzles. When one of these villains accidentally allows a victim to escape, that lucky soul’s story of being held captive in a town full of demented freaks proves of particular interest to an FBI agent with a personal connection to more than one of Wilmhurst’s inhabitants, setting the stage for a gloriously gruesome showdown between good and evil.