NBCUniversal’s horror channel Chiller is cutting to the chase with its first original series, created and written by DeGrassi: The Next Generation scribe Aaron Martin, to debut later this year. The network, which is available in 40 million homes, also announced a pair of new original movies coming off successes with Animal (Chiller’s most-watched original movie to date) and The Boy, which bowed at SXSW 2015.

The original series, Slasher, centers on a young woman who returns to the small town where she was born, only to find herself the centerpiece in a series of horrifying copycat murders based on the widely known, grisly killings of her parents. The eight-part season will serve as the first installment of an anthology series. Production begins in Canada this summer with Shaftesbury developing and producing in association with Chiller and Super Channel.

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“Given Chiller’s success in the original film space with Animal and The Boy, we’re thrilled to premiere our first-ever original series, Slasher, later this year,” Syfy and Chiller president Dave Howe said.

Here is Chiller’s new original content plan for 2015-2016:

ORIGINAL SERIES

SLASHER

Chiller’s first original series, Slasher, follows the plight of a young woman who returns to the small town where she was born, only to find herself the centerpiece in a series of horrifying copycat murders – based on the widely-known, grisly killings of her parents. The eight-part season serves as the first instalment of an anthology series, where each season exists as a self-contained hybrid of the slasher subgenre of horror films and the traditional murder mystery. Over the course of the Slasher series, a variety of mysteries will unfold, building towards a climactic finale.

Developed and produced by Shaftesbury in association with Chiller and Super Channel and distributed by Content, Slasher is written and created by Aaron Martin (Killjoys, Degrassi: The Next Generation) and directed by Craig David Wallace (Todd and the Book of Pure Evil). Christina Jennings and Scott Garvie are executive producers. Funded with the participation of the COGECO Program Development and Northern Ontario Heritage Funds, Slasher will commence production in Sudbury this summer. Canadian broadcaster is Super Channel.

Slasher will premiere on Chiller in late 2015.

ORIGINAL MOVIES

LIFEFORCE

Lifeforce, a reimagining of the 1985 classic film (based on Colin Wilson’s novel “The Space Vampires”), follows a group of astronauts who encounter a derelict alien spacecraft hiding an ancient secret. At the vessel, the explorers discover three perfect humanoids who are returned to Earth… and unleash a terrible plague upon the planet. The original film, starring Steve Railsback, Patrick Stewart and Mathilda May, was directed by Tobe Hooper. Lifeforce will premiere on Chiller in late 2015. Steve B. Harris (Friday the 13th, Amityville: The Awakening) will produce for Diversion3 (www.diversion3.com) along with Mark Altman (Castle, Necessary Roughness) Mark Gottwald (DOA: Dead or Alive) and David E. Williams (Femme Fatales) from a story by Harris, Altman and Steve Kriozere (NCIS, Castle).

SIREN

In Siren, a bachelor party becomes a savage fight for survival when the groomsmen unwittingly unleash a fabled predator upon the festivities. Slated to premiere on Chiller in 2016, Siren is adapted from David Bruckner’s short film Amateur Night, one of the segments featured in the 2012 Sundance premiere of the anthology thriller V/H/S. Siren is written by Ben Collins & Luke Piotrowski, executive produced by David Bruckner and Brad Miska and produced by Gary Binkow for Collective Digital Studios.