Blumhouse is adapting The Horror of Dolores Roach for television

Blumhouse is bringing The Horror of Dolores Roach, the play and podcast series that took us underground to shine a grotesque light on gentrification, to TV.

Per a report from Deadline, Blumhouse, along with Spotify’s Gimlet Pictures, is adapting The Horror of Dolores Roach for television. Gimlet Pictures parent company, Gimlet Media, produced the most recent incarnation of Dolores Roach as a hit podcast series which was released last fall.

The character of Dolores Roach was originally in the 2015 play Empanada Loca. The play was written and directed by Aaron Mark, who also wrote the podcast. Mark will write and co-executive produce the Blumhouse and Gimlet television production.

Dolores Roach was played in the play and podcast by Daphne Rubin-Vega, who originated the role of Mimi in the stage production of Rent. In Empanada Loca, Rubin-Vega played all of the parts herself. The Horror of Dolores was not a one-woman show. The other main character, Luis, is voiced by Bobby Cannavale (Ant-Man and the Wasp).

In both the play and podcast, Dolores does a sixteen-year bid for marijuana possession. When she gets out of prison, Dolores goes back to her old neighborhood to find it has been gentrified. It’s like she’s been dropped in some strange version of the place she knew and loved. All of her family is gone.

The Horror of Dolores Roach-Daphne Rubin-Vega-Courtesy of Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Luckily, one business survives the hurricane force wave of gentrification: Empanada Loca. It’s struggling, but its owner, Luis remembers Dolores. He lets her live in the apartment underneath Empanada Loca. From there, Dolores opens her own business as a masseuse.

“Magic Hand Delores” makes quite the name for herself, but she is eventually backed into a corner and begins to kill her clients. In a move that would possibly make Gordon Ramsay proud, Luis decides to dispose of the bodies by carving them up and serving them in his empanadas. Thanks to gentrification and hipsters, they are a huge hit.

This kind of wickedly funny horror is in Blumhouse’s wheelhouse, so it’s perfectly natural for them to sign on to bring this inventive story to television. It’s also a socially conscious exploration of how gentrification literally drives communities to live life underground like something out of C.H.U.D.

There’s no word on what network The Horror of Dolores Roach would land on or who would star in it. It would be awesome to see Rubin-Vega reprise her role again. For now, she is only mentioned as a consulting producer. We will watch this pre-production process with a lot of interest.

Are you drawn to the plot of The Horror of Dolores Roach? Did you listen to the podcast last Fall? Let’s discuss in the comments!