Drew Barrymore Bringing All-Female Horror Anthology to The CW

Drew Barrymore has often been a name in Hollywood associated with light romantic comedies, but all that is about to change as she helps bring the Black Rose Anthology to life at The CW. The pilot script for the series will be written by Jill Blotevogel, former co-showrunner of MTV’s Scream: The TV Series.

According to Deadline, the series will “explore some of humanity’s deepest fears from a woman’s unique perspective. Classic themes of terror will be tackled via vignettes about guilt, jealousy, repression, paranoia, insanity, sexual obsession and survival through a modern and distinctly feminine lens.”

In the world of horror, females don’t often get to take center stage, more often serving as fodder for crazed killers, a perception the Black Rose Anthology aims to change. The CW has already found big successes with the female-fronted genres series iZombie and The Vampire Diaries.

While Barrymore’s career in the ’90s and ’00s mostly relied on her “girl next door” image, earlier efforts in her career were deeply tied with the genre world. One of her breakout roles was her lead performance in the Stephen King adaptation Firestarter in which she played a girl who could control fire with her mind.

More recently, Barrymore found a huge hit with the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet, in which she plays a real estate agent with a deadly desire for human flesh. A second season of the series will debut in 2018.

Earlier this year, the horror anthology XX featured female filmmakers, also using their unique perspectives to tell tales of terror. XX is currently streaming on Netflix.