Hot on the heels of its highly successful Castle Rock, Hulu is bringing on more original programming with Into the Dark, this time partnering with Blumhouse to create something all together unique.

The new series, which premieres October 5, 2018, will present a new feature length “episode” each month themed for the month in which it premieres. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas…nothing is off-limits for Into the Dark.

First up is The Body, a dark horror/comedy that will have you in stitches…literally.

The episode opens on a rather dashing hitman named Wilkes (Tom Bateman) who has just completed a job on Halloween night. The man who hired him demands delivery to a specified location, however, so he expertly wraps and ties the body in plastic and heads down to the street, only to discover that his ride is out of commission.

Enter a group of wealthy, know-it-all party kids who think that Wilkes has the best costume and prop that they’ve ever seen. They beg him to come with them to a friend’s party which he agrees to do so long as they will give him a ride so he makes his delivery deadline.

The night takes a turn, however, when they discover the body is all too real and that Wilkes is far more dangerous than they ever imagined.

It takes a skilled hand to use cognitive dissonance as the driving force for a film, but director Paul Davis, who co-wrote the script with Paul Fischer based on their short film by the same name, plays an expert-level game of cat-and-mouse with his audience, supplying just the right mixture of hilarity and horror to keep them on the edge of their seat rooting for both predator and prey.

Bateman somehow manages to embody both a classic Bond villain and the classy Bond, himself, as Wilkes. This agent of death is a trained killing machine with the soul of a cynical poet and he is easily the center of attention in every scene.

This is not to say that the rest of Davis’ cast isn’t equally brilliant, however.

Ash vs. Evil Dead alum Ray Santiago’s comedic timing is flawless as Jack, the bumbling, start-up millionaire turned leader of the group who discovers the truth about Wilkes. Jack is exactly the self-serving, trash-talking douchebag no one in their right mind should follow, so naturally they all do.

Rebecca Rittenhouse, meanwhile, gives her all as Maggie, Jack’s assistant who is tired of her boss, her job, and her life. In her eyes, Wilkes is the sexy, golden ticket she’s been waiting for, and she’s eager to help him at every turn.

The chemistry between Bateman and Rittenhouse is palpable, and their scenes together are as sexually charged as they are funny.

It’s the perfect tone for The Body. At its best, the film shines a light on modern popularity politics, then stomps those ideas into the ground until they’re so much bloody pulp beneath its feet, all the while cracking irreverent, intelligent jokes.

In fact, The Body is never darker or funnier than when it is skewering the often bewildering cult of personality that seems to grow by the day, and Wilkes, with his unique perspective on life and death, acts as the perfect agent to deliver that blow.

And then there’s the excellent score!

Composed by The Newton Brothers, who previously scored Oculus, Extinction, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and so many more, the music in The Body is as unique and often contradictory as the rest of the film. Pulse-pounding one moment and subtly pervasive the next, the composers work in tandem with Davis to keep the film moving at an excellent pace.

Mark your calendars, now, and be sure to check out Into the Dark: The Body October 5, 2018 on Hulu and take a look at the teaser for the series below!