Emma Stone's The Curse Remodels Reality TV Into Creepy HGTV-Style Horror

The first teaser for "The Curse" just arrived, and if you don't know what the heck is going on here, you're not alone.

Clocking in at just one minute, the teaser shows stars Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder standing in front of a firehouse filming what appears to be an introduction to their home improvement show. "Did you know you can put out fires with the sun?" Stone's character, Whitney Siegel, asks, grinning eerily, as Fielder's Asher Siegel responds, "No way!"

Once they finish that intro, they keep smiling as a cameraman tells them they have to do it again — and unsettling music plays throughout, rising in pitch ever so slightly — but the second take cuts off as the teaser ends. It's the smallest possible look at the series when all is said and done, but for anyone waiting eagerly for "The Curse" to premiere later this fall, it's a tantalizing first look at the show.

All the way back in early 2020 — yes, before the pandemic even started — Nellie Andreeva reported in Deadline that Showtime ordered "The Curse" from Nathan Fielder and writer-director Benny Safdie, saying it "explores how an alleged curse disturbs the relationship of a newly married couple who star in 'Flipanthropy,' their troubled HGTV show." Obviously, quite a lot has happened since that initial report; Fielder found time to create and star in another mind-bending original series, "The Rehearsal," for HBO, and Safdie appeared as an actor in buzzy films like "Oppenheimer" and "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret." 

Including Emma Stone in this scripted project, though, is incredibly exciting. Though she tends to stick to prestige dramas like "La La Land" (which earned her an Oscar), she's shown off her quirky, oddball side in projects like "The Favourite" and even in "Saturday Night Live" sketches like "Wells for Boys," and all reports from the 2023 Venice International Film Festival indicate that her upcoming turn in "Poor Things" is her wildest swing yet. Fans of Fielder and Stone alike can check out "The Curse" on November 10 when it premieres on Showtime.