Bill Skarsgård is now best known for his performances in the horror genre, with his most famous role to date being Pennywise, but his horror debut arrived four years earlier in a forgotten Netflix TV show. Bill Skarsgård’s acting career began in 2000 in Swedish movies and TV shows, with his first role in an English-language movie being Captain Makhotin in Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina, in 2012. Skarsgård later gained international attention when he starred in Netflix’s TV series Hemlock Grove.
However, Skarsgård’s big break arrived in 2017 when he was cast as the iconic (but terrifying) villain Pennywise the Dancing Clown in Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel It. Pennywise opened many doors for Skarsgård’s career, especially in the horror genre. Skarsgård has now played characters like Henry Deaver in the TV series Castle Rock and Count Orlok in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, but he actually has a lot to thank Hemlock Grove for, despite it not being the critics’ favorite.
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Netflix’s Hemlock Grove Was Bill Skarsgård’s First Horror Role
Hemlock Grove Stuck Around For Three Seasons
Based on Brian McGreevy’s 2012 novel of the same name, Hemlock Grove took the audience to the title town, in Pennsylvania. The town was ruled by the wealthy Godfrey family, led by Olivia (Famke Janssen), with the town’s main sources of employment being the Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies and Hemlock Acres hospital, both under the family’s leadership. The heir to the Godfrey estate was Olivia’s son, Roman (Skarsgård), while her youngest daughter, Shelley, was left aside due to her deformities, even though she was the kindest member of the family.
The Godfreys kept a dark secret: from Olivia’s side, they are “upirs”, a creature from Slavic horror and a prototype of the vampire. Roman was unaware of this until later in the series, but by the time he learned of it, it was too late. The events of Hemlock Grove were kicked off when a series of murders drew attention to the new guy in town, Romani teenager Peter Rumancek (Landon Liboiron), who turned out to be a werewolf.
Roman Godfrey was Bill Skarsgård’s very first horror role, and interestingly enough, he was also his first vampire role. As mentioned above, Skarsgård played Count Orlok in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu remake in 2024, with the character being an unofficial adaptation of Dracula. Skarsgård played Roman in all three seasons of Hemlock Grove, but unfortunately, the show ended up being forgettable.
What Went Wrong With Hemlock Grove
Hemlock Grove Didn’t Succeed With Critics
Unfortunately, Hemlock Grove wasn’t the critics’ favorite, but it did a lot better with general audiences. Hemlock Grove has a 38% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 64% poprcornmeter score, and as entertaining as it is, it does have many flaws. The first season fails to answer the biggest questions about the Godfreys and Peter (though the novel also has this problem), but it can be somewhat justified by it having to set up a second season – the problem is that the subsequent seasons didn’t answer those questions, either.
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Hemlock Grove was inconsistent, and the stories of each character felt improvised, especially in seasons 2 and 3. The lore of the upir and werewolves in Hemlock Grove was also very inconsistent, as was Shelly’s condition and story, to the point where nothing made sense. Still, Hemlock Grove is quite entertaining in its own mess, and it’s an original take on werewolves and vampires.
Why Netflix Removed Hemlock Grove From Its Catalog
Hemlock Grove Was One Of Netflix’s First Original Series
Despite Hemlock Grove being one of Netflix’s first original TV shows, the streaming giant removed it from its catalog in 2022. This came as a big surprise not just to those who watched and enjoyed the show, but to many Netflix users, as it had been believed that the platform’s original series couldn’t be removed. However, despite having the “Netflix original series” label, Hemlock Grove was produced by Gaumont International, which held the streaming rights to it. When the company’s deal with Netflix expired, the latter had to remove the show from its catalog.
Unfortunately, Hemlock Grove hasn’t been made available to stream anywhere else, nor are the seasons available to rent or buy. However, at the time of writing, Hemlock Grove can be found on Hoopla, a service that allows the instant borrowing of movies, TV shows, eBooks, and more. It’s unclear if Hemlock Grove could be added back to Netflix or any other major streaming platform, but that doesn’t change its key role in building Bill Skarsgård’s horror career.
