Premium network EPIX® has announced that docuseries FALL RIVER (previously announced in development) from Blumhouse Television (The Jinx, A Wilderness of Error) and Pyramid Productions will debut on May 16 at 10pm. In 1979 - almost 90 years after infamous, accused murderer Lizzie Borden’s notorious acquittal – FALL RIVER, Massachusetts would become home to another terrifying series of crimes. When three young women were killed in a streak of brutal murders, police alleged a satanic cult was practicing human sacrifice. The cult leader, a man named Carl Drew, was captured and sent to prison for life without parole.
Twenty years after the trial, the lead investigator Paul Carey became so haunted by inconsistencies in the stories that he re-investigated his own case after he retired. Evidence surfaced that brought the entire story into question. Now through exclusive interviews, including intimate conversations with Drew, new witnesses and illuminating evidence, this documentary series will tell the true story of a town caught in the grips of the paranoia and fear around the 1980s Satanic Panic, and will shed light on murders that were thought to have been solved.
“James Buddy Day and Blumhouse have brilliantly told this story of a town rattled by crime and caught in the throes of the satanic panic,” said Michael Wright, president, EPIX. “This series uncompromisingly seeks justice for the vulnerable, who fell victim to their dangerous surroundings, and closure to those that have gone for so many years without it.”
“ FALL RIVER does more than chronicle the sensational murders that beset this town, but gives a face and voice to the marginalized victims, women who, because they were sex workers, did not receive the care and attention warranted during the investigation into their deaths,” said Mary Lisio, EVP Alternative and Non-Scripted Programming, Blumhouse Television. “Over the course of filming, we uncovered aspects of the investigation that were previously unknown, new evidence, that 41 years later bring us closer to the truth of what really happened to these women.”
FALL RIVER is executive produced by Jason Blum and directed/executive produced by James Buddy Day (The Lover’s Lane Murders, Manson: The Women, The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell). Jeremy Gold, Mary Lisio, Michael Wright, Jill Burkhart also serve as executive producers. The series will be internationally distributed by MGM.
