IN THE WORLD OF YOUTUBE creators, Vivienne Medrano is a gold standard example of a self-made success story. An illustrator and animator who worked under the moniker "VivziePop", Medrano joined the platform in 2012 to share her self-made comic ZooPhobia, along with a progression of colourful, highly stylised animated shorts centred on an array of Hell-based characters.
By 2016, Medrano's following was so large that it enabled her to start a Patreon to fund her own animation studio, Spindle Horse Toons, in order to create a pilot episode for her passion project Hazbin Hotel. Four years and 92 million YouTube views later, that pilot has evolved into a brand-new, A24-produced series of the same name for Prime Video.
Hazbin Hotel's premise and genre-defying tone has remained the same, with Medrano serving as the showrunner, director and a writer, working with animation studio Bento Box Entertainment to bring the ambitious show to life. Hazbin mingles familiar Biblical characters from Heaven and Hell with new characters like series protagonist Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen), and unfolds like a goth Broadway musical with a foul-mouthed sensibility.
"There aren't that many horror musicals that are a raunchy R-rated comedy centring around queer and female characters," Medrano says with a laugh to Red Alert. "But it's definitely a combination of so many things I love: mythology, musicals and villains.
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ANCER MAHAGEMENT
WITH A NEW TRILOGY IN SIGHT, WE SPEAK TO THE DIRECTOR OF 28 WEEKS LATER THE ORIGINAL CHILLING SEQUEL TO DANNY BOYLE'S SEMINAL SURVIVAL HORROR
WHO YA CONNA CALL?
BEHIND THE SCENES AT HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS FOR GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE
SPEAK OF THE DEVIL
THE DEVIL'S HOUR STRIKES TWICE AS THE GENREDEFYING DRAMA RETURNS
SCARRY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK
FROM THE RETURN OF EC COMICS TO SCREAM!, THIS YEAR'S HALLOWEEN OFFERS UP HORROR COMICS FOR ALL THE AGES
UNDEADS REFLECTIONS
NEIL JORDAN ON BRINGING ANNE RICE'S MODERN VAMPIRE CLASSIC TO SCREEN, 30 YEARS ON
MUNSTER MASH!
PRODUCTION HELL, SHOCK RECASTING AND HOTLY CONTESTED AUTHORSHIP. AS THE MUNSTERS CELEBRATE THEIR 60TH ANNIVERSARY, WE UNCOVER HOW THE SPOOKY SITCOM WAS ALMOST DEAD ON ARRIVAL
COMING TO AMERICA
THE MOGWAI LIVE THE AMERICAN DREAM IN THEIR SECOND CHAPTER, GREMLINS: THE WILD BATCH
BEING HUMAN EVOLUTION
IT MAY HAVE BEEN AN INSTANT HIT, BUT BBC THREE'S DARKLY COMIC DRAMA ABOUT A HOUSE-SHARING VAMPIRE/WEREWOLF/GHOST TRIO HAD A STRANGE JOURNEY TO THE SCREEN, SERIES CREATOR TOBY WHITHOUSE TELLS SFX
THE MAINE EVENT
THE DARK IS RISING IN SALEM'S LOT AS STEPHEN KING'S DEATHLESS TALE RETURNS TO THE SCREEN
WHY DON'T YOU STAY FOR A BITE?
THE VAMPIRE COMES HOME AS DIRECTOR EUROS LYN WELCOMES SFX TO HIS NEW DARK COMEDY THE RADLEYS
