Tag Archives: Shaun Benson

Hollywood Suite invites you to check in to Hell Motel, from Slasher creators Aaron Martin and Ian Carpenter

May 2, 2025 Greg David 1 Comment

From a media release:

Hollywood Suite invites you to stay awhile this June with the exclusive broadcast premiere of Hell Motel, the highly anticipated new eight-episode limited horror series from Slasher creators Aaron Martin and Ian Carpenter. Featuring Emmy® Award-winner Eric McCormack (Will & Grace, Departure), Paula Brancati (Slasher), Shaun Benson (The Boys), Atticus Mitchell (The Hardy Boys), Emmanuel Kabongo (Murdoch Mysteries), Jim Watson (Slasher) and Genevieve DeGraves (Slasher), the first episode of the Shudder original series, Hell Motel, will premiere in Canada on June 13 at 9pm ET. Additional episodes will then premiere weekly on Tuesdays beginning June 17, and will be available on Hollywood Suite On Demand.

Watch the trailer!

Horror fans are also invited to attend a FREE advance screening of the first episode of Hell Motel on June 13 at Revue Cinema in Toronto, featuring scary surprises and a special Q&A with select cast and crew. Tickets are first come, first served, so follow @hollywoodsuite and @revuecinema for updates in the coming days.

The new series follows a group of 10 true crime obsessives, who are invited to the opening weekend of the newly renovated Cold River Motel. The site of a 30-year-old unsolved satanic mass murder, history soon repeats itself at the motel when the guests are stranded and start getting knocked off one by one, in increasingly gruesome ways.

“We are thrilled to be the exclusive Canadian broadcaster of Hell Motel,” said Suzanne Marshall, Hollywood Suite Senior Manager, Programming. “With a chilling new setting and story, Aaron and Ian have delivered all of the terrifying scares and gore that genre fans have come to expect. We can’t wait for viewers to discover it this June!”

“Our ongoing partnership with Hollywood Suite means that we get to keep bringing Canadian-made horror to fans who love something fresh and fearless,” said Christina Jennings, Chairman and President of Shaftesbury. “Hell Motel is another great example of what we can do together – creating bold, genre-pushing horror that builds on our past successes and takes things in exciting new directions.”

Eric McCormack leads the cast in the role of Hemmingway, a chef with a wickedly sinister flair. He’s joined by fellow motel guests Paige (Paula Brancati), a former actress and scream queen looking to revive her career; Crow (Shaun Benson), a new-age medium with an apparent connection to the massacre’s victims; Blake (Atticus Mitchell), a true crime writer; Kawayan (Emmanuel Kabongo), a talented artist with a dark focus on murder; Andy (Jim Watson), an academic at the forefront of contemporary true crime studies; and Adriana (Genevieve DeGraves), a flight attendant with several notorious serial killer notches on her bedpost.

Canadian drag superstar and winner of Canada’s Drag Race Season 2, Icesis Couture, makes a guest appearance as Magenta, a stylish real estate agent who sells the Coldwater Motel to new owners Ruby (Brynn Godenir) and Portia (Michelle Nolden).

Hell Motel is a Shudder Original Series, developed and produced by Shaftesbury, in association with Hollywood Suite, with the financial participation of the Bell Fund. The series is created and executive produced by Aaron Martin and showrunner Ian Carpenter. Additional executive producers include Christina Jennings, Scott Garvie and director Adam MacDonald. AMC Networks holds distribution rights.

Featured, Frankie Drake Mysteries

Preview: Frankie Drake Mysteries, “No Friends Like Old Friends”

September 12, 2019 Greg David 5 Comments

Frankie Drake Mysteries returns to CBC for Season 3, and a new showrunner. Peter Mitchell, a name Murdoch Mysteries fans know well, took over those duties from James Hurst, something the CBC revealed earlier this year.

Also, as previously announced by CBC, the third season of Frankie Drake Mysteries sees Frankie face a family secret while episodes bring her and the Drake Private Detectives team into the world of British aristocrats, illegal boxing, the supernatural and political fundraisers.

Of particular note in the press release sent by CBC was Honeysuckle Weeksâ€”of Foyle’s Warâ€”would guest star. They didn’t reveal when, but I can: Episode 1. Here’s the official storyline for “No Friends Like Old Friends,” written by series co-creator Carol Hay and directed by Ruba Nadda.

After her wartime friend goes missing in London, Frankie must work with Agatha Christie to uncover the reason behind the disappearance.

And here are more details I gathered while watching the episode.

A brand-new intro
Unlike Murdoch Mysteries, which has featured the same, iconic, opening credits, Frankie Drake shakes things up with a fun, animated refresh set to the series’ punchy soundtrack. I love it.

Frankie Drake goes overseas
If you follow Frankie Drake Mysteries or its cast on social media, you know the show spent time in England filming. The footage shows up in Monday’s return, as Frankie and her friend, Louise, tear around London on their motorcycles. Shaun Benson, most recently seen on Killjoys and The Boys, plays Louise’s husband. Louise isn’t the only old friend she reconnects with, which gives us a peek into Frankie’s wartime past.

Agatha Christie appears
Honeysuckle Weeks portrays the legendary mystery author, who hires Frankie to find Louise.

Chaos back home
While Frankie is on her adventure, Flo, Trudy and Mary are struggling with office issues. Trudy is good at many things, but plumbing is not one of them. Plumbing aside, she, Mary and Trudy provide key information into the case surrounding Louise’s disappearance.

Frankie Drake Mysteries airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Featured, Killjoys

Killjoys: Shaun Benson guest-stars in a memorable, murderous role

August 22, 2018 Greg David

Shaun Benson may play a memorable, villainous character in this week’s episode of Killjoys, but he’s anything but in person.

On Killjoys he plays, well, I don’t want to give it away. But suffice it to say that Benson’s gigâ€”which finds him decked out in black and sporting a blonde hair reminiscent of a certain movie villainâ€”is truly memorable. And this from a series that dropped a rapidly agingÂ baby in our laps last Friday.

We spoke to Benson during a break in filming “Baby, Face Killer,” earlier this year and learned a bit about his character and a lot about acting.

What can you reveal about this character?
Shaun Benson: He’s a protector. So that gives him a real coldness, almost like a snake because he’s sort of like from an evolutionary line of protectors.

The last character you played that I saw was Lane on Saving Hope. Not a great guy.
SB: The transition from good guy to guy who does something wrong, for me, is a very small leap. And I think for some people, and I don’t know if they haven’t danced with the dark side as much as I have, truly, or if they’re not willing to go there, even if they have, for me it’s a paper-thin distance between me being a good person and me being a bad person. So if you put a camera on me, and again, I haven’t been a gangster or murdered people, but I spent years like delving into the darkness, and it makes it tougher to book the lead in a Hallmark movie. Because you put a camera on me and a girl says to me, ‘Hey, you look good, and I look back and I go, you look good too, it’s very loaded.’

Greg Bryk told me that those types of roles means he explores that dark side in a safe way.
SB:Â What’s very interesting is that when I was in my 20s I played a lot of really good guys, the lead, handsome, whatever. My face was very soft and unwrinkled, I still had some baby fat. And honestly, the roles were pretty uninteresting, not bad, and a great privilege to be able to play them, but it was always like he’s the good guy and he’s trying to solve the case or whatever. But at the time I was really busting at the seams as a young man, out partying and not being too forthright or standup. Then, in my early 30s, I just said ‘I don’t want to be that guy.’ So I can’t remember the last time I consciously told a lie. Like, people know who I am, but now I play the mean guy all the time when I’m the least, you know, that I’ve ever been in my life.

So I get what Greg’s saying because there’s a safety to it so that you can go all the way with itÂ because it’s actually not what’s happening. You know, I can go home … and by the way, it takes its toll. I did a movie of the week for Lifetime and it was keeping women locked in a basement, and it’s all fun and I’m playing it and the director and I talked about it along the way. We talked about this like it’s a bit of a dance.

That’s been my background as an actor. When I was younger I started dancing. So how do we put the joy in the body? And Jack Nicholson even talked about it, for The Shining. Like, he treated that like a ballet and I really understand what he’s talking about. Because, if it’s about the movements in my body, then it elevates the sense of, not only art but spirit and joy, even if it’s a tragedy.

Killjoys airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on Space.

Image courtesy of Bell Media.