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Every small town has its troubles, but the residents of the seaside town of Haven, Maine, have a lot more than their share. When ambitious young Boston FBI agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) is sent to Haven to capture an escaped convict, the town’s troubles quickly turn into her own.
As Audrey’s driving into town, the road cracks wide open right in front of her, forcing her to swerve straight onto a cliff and dangle precariously over the rocks. Just before the car falls, a handsome man pulls her to safety. He’s Nathan Wuornos (Lucas Bryant), a Haven town deputy, and he’s investigating the suspicious death of the convict she’s looking for. Audrey joins the investigation—and soon finds herself riding along with Nathan on other very odd calls as well.
Audrey discovers that, going back generations, many of Haven’s families are “troubled,” possessing supernatural powers that can be activated by trauma. The troubled person, often unaware, unleashes the emotional impact of their fear or pain onto others in some dangerous or bizarre way (à la Carrie). Audrey, the only person in Haven who’s immune to the troubles, has a mysterious gift for talking the person in trouble back down, restoring order. But just as Audrey’s had enough of the chaos and is ready to head home, a mysterious photograph surfaces of a woman at a 27-year-old crime scene—and she looks just like Audrey.
If Stephen King is your idea of fun, then Haven will be just your cup of poison! This Canadian-American-UK series is based on King’s novella The Colorado Kid. Although it’s set in a fictitious town on the Maine coast, it’s actually filmed in several seacoast towns in Nova Scotia, so the scenery and architecture are gorgeous, authentic, and fun. The huge cast is mostly Canadian, and the characters are full of delightful quirky-spookiness. There’s a bad-boy pirate type with a heart of gold, two wind-beaten old brothers who run the town paper and keep all its secrets, and a fiery preacher who wants to cast out all the “sinful” Troubled in Haven—including the police.
Fans of Hitchcock, King, and other horror and thriller classics will want to tune in to catch the many allusions tossed in, from street names to plot twists. Horror junkies may be disappointed, though; it’s a bit exciting, and there’s often a body count, but Haven isn’t primarily a slasher flick. It’s more about small town relationships, solving mysteries, and—like so many stories of the genre—how what’s inside us sometimes gets outside in the wrong way, and what it takes to make it right.
Haven will appeal to fans of Stephen King, of sci-fi, and even of stories about people helping others heal their inner pain. Throw in a little romance, and it’s a nice package of addictive, jumbo-popcorn-size entertainment.
