This 2-Part Southern Gothic Horror Series Is the Perfect Spooky Weekend Binge

Published Sep 11, 2026, 5:24 PM EDT

Rebecca Schriesheim is an Author for Collider. She's a graduate of DePaul University where she studied Cinema and Media, and currently resides in Chicago. Her expertise lies in her fascination with the noir genre, important feminist works, which she has studied extensively, and the boom of the 90s thriller. 

Rebecca has been writing for Collider since 2021, and focuses on the depiction of women in media, and highligts their stories by pushing them to the forefront. She also puts a spotlight on cult-classic tv series and film, including favorites like Twin Peaks, and loves a good western. Prior to Collider, she contributed to mxdwn.com as a television news reporter. 

Also a singer/songwriter, she can be found performing her original songs at shows in Chicago under the name REBA.  In her free time, she listens to way too much Fleetwood Mac, and guzzles down a lot of fine cups of coffee. 

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New Orleans is brewing with magic, death, and witch hunts in Mayfair Witches. The AMC drama is a sinister good time, with a stylish flare for dramatics and spells. Alexandra Daddario stars in the series as a blossoming witch coming into her powers as she embraces her own independence. The series, based on Anne Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches, carries the same haunted southern charm Rice brings to all her works. After Season 2 premiered in 2025, Mayfair Witches is set to return for Season 3 in 2027.

Mayfair Witches is one of many AMC series available on Netflix. For those who love the stylish and mega-popular American Horror Story: Coven, this series is the perfect next watch. Both shows, in addition to embracing a similar Southern Gothic aesthetic, are set in New Orleans and follow a coven of witches keeping an eye out for potential threats to their magic as all-out war brews.

What Is 'Mayfair Witches' About?

Alexandra Daddario stars as Rowan Fielding, a successful pediatric neurosurgeon with gifted abilities that strangely allow her to save just about any patient she operates on. When strange things start to happen after she becomes angry, Rowan accidentally injures one man and kills another, and discovers that she may have powers she never knew she had. Since she'd been adopted as a baby, Rowan ventures to New Orleans to track down her birth mother and seek answers about her true heritage as a Mayfair.

Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky

Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you're not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.

🏕️Jason

🔪Michael

💤Freddy

🎈Pennywise

🪆Chucky

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

01

Something feels wrong. You can't explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.

ALeave immediately. I don't need to understand a threat to respect it. BStay quiet and observe. If I can see it, I can understand it. If I can understand it, I can avoid it. CStay awake. Whatever this is, I am not going to sleep until I feel safe again. DConfront it directly. Fear grows in the dark — I'd rather know what I'm dealing with. ECheck everything, trust nothing. The threat might be closer than I think — and smaller.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.

ASomewhere remote — a cabin, a campsite, off the grid and away from people. BA quiet suburban neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. Except tonight. CIn my own head — the most dangerous place of all, depending on what's already in there. DWherever children are — because something about this place attracts the worst things. ESomewhere ordinary — a house, a toy store, a place where the last thing you'd expect is a threat.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn't account for. What's yours?

APhysical fitness — I can run, I can swim, I can outlast something that relies on brute persistence. BSpatial awareness — I always know the exits, the hiding spots, the fastest route out. CPsychological resilience — I've faced my worst fears before. They don't have the same power over me. DEmotional steadiness — I don't panic. Panic is what gets you caught. EScepticism — I don't underestimate threats because of how they look. Size is irrelevant.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.

AThe unstoppable — something that will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and is always getting closer. BThe invisible — a threat I can feel but can't locate, watching from somewhere I can't see. CThe psychological — something that uses my own mind and memories against me. DThe unknowable — something ancient, shapeless, that feeds on the fear itself. EThe mundane — a threat so ordinary-looking that no one will believe me until it's too late.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

You're with a group when things start going wrong. What's your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn't.

AThe one who says "we need to leave" first — and means it, even when no one listens. BThe one who stays quiet, watches the others, and figures out the pattern before anyone else does. CThe one who holds the group together when panic sets in — because someone has to. DThe one who asks the questions nobody wants to ask — because ignoring them gets people killed. EThe one who takes the threat seriously when everyone else is laughing it off.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

What's the horror movie mistake you're most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.

AGoing back for someone — I know I shouldn't, but I can't leave them behind. BAssuming I'm safe once I've found a hiding spot. That's when it finds me. CFalling asleep when I absolutely cannot afford to. Exhaustion is its own enemy. DLetting my curiosity override my instincts — I always need to understand what I'm dealing with. EDismissing the threat because of how it looks. That's exactly what it wants.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

What's your best weapon against something that can't be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.

AThe environment itself — I use the terrain, the water, the geography against it. BPatience — I wait, I watch, and I strike at the one moment it doesn't expect. CLucidity — if I can stay in control of my own mind, it loses its primary weapon. DCourage — facing it directly, refusing to run, taking away the fear it feeds on. EImprovisation — I use whatever's at hand, however unconventional. Creativity over brute force.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

It's the final scene. You're the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What's yours?

AI kept moving. I never stopped, never hid for too long, never let it corner me. BI figured out the pattern before anyone else did — and I used it against the thing following it. CI stayed awake, stayed lucid, and refused to give it the one thing it needed most. DI stopped being afraid of it. And the moment I did, everything changed. EI took it seriously from the start — and I never once made the mistake of underestimating it.

REVEAL MY VILLAIN →

Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…

Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.

Jason Voorhees

Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.

• He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn't strategise, doesn't adapt, doesn't outsmart. He simply pursues.
• Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
• The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
• You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.

Michael Myers

Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it's too late for anyone who isn't paying close enough attention.

• But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
• Michael's power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
• Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
• You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.

Freddy Krueger

Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.

• You are harder to destabilise than most. You've faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven't looked away.
• The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
• Freddy's greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
• Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.

Pennywise

Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.

• The Losers Club didn't survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
• You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
• That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise's worst nightmare.
• It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.

Chucky

Chucky's greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it's already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.

• You don't have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
• Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
• Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
• Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Harry Hamlin plays Rowan's mischievous uncle, Cortland Mayfair, who lives in an extravagant New Orleans home and would host wild parties when Rowan's mother was young. Jack Huston plays the powerful spirit, Lasher, who has been linked to generations of Mayfair women since the days of the witch trials. Aiding the witches in their powers, Lasher is controlling and jealous, which makes things complicated after he introduces himself to Rowan. When empath and undercover Talamasca agent Ciprien Grieve (Tongayi Chirisa) also enters Rowan's life, Lasher plays dangerous games with the two of them as anti-witch sentiment grows in New Orleans.

Alexandra Daddario Comes Into Her Power in 'Mayfair Witches'

An untrained witch is dangerous, something Daddario's character Rowan comes to realize in terrifying fashion. In American Horror Story: Coven, Taissa Farmiga's character, Zoe, discovers the extent of her power in the worst possible way. While being sexually intimate with her boyfriend for the first time, she kills him with her powers, learning she comes from a long line of witches in the process. The death scene is shocking, starting the iconic season off with a bang. Mayfair Witches also has a jarring inciting incident when Rowan snaps after being belittled by a chief surgeon at work and inadvertently uses her powers to give him an aneurysm.

Thanks to close-up shots traveling through the brain, the rupture of blood vessels elevates the show's horror. Interspersing it with Daddario's striking blue eyes makes it a highly addictive rush to start the series. Rowan is unlike any of the other roles the actress has played before, and her blue eyes are a crucial aspect of her character — especially since her birth mother, played by Annabeth Gish, shares the same striking blue eyes. As Rowan's powers grow, she purposefully kills another sexist man with an aneurysm after he disrespects her. Rowan's anger is fiery, showcasing a darker, harsher side to Daddario's acting that she didn't get to harness in series like The White Lotus and True Detective.

Mayfair Witches offers this clever juxtaposition between Rowan healing as a profession, operating to fix people's bodies every day, and her uncontrollable power causing death. Daddario plays her character's inner conflict and turmoil with ease, as Rowan fights what she is capable of but is unable to deny her true nature. Eventually, the series shifts into a message of female empowerment, as the women and fellow witches she meets in New Orleans teach her not to be afraid of her gifts, but to embrace them.

'Mayfair Witches' Has a Dangerous Love Triangle Between Magical Beings

Image via AMC

Daddario has no shortage of steamy scenes in Mayfair Witches, given that she's playing a sexually liberated woman who knows what she wants. As Rowan begins to learn of her powers, Lasher becomes an important force in her life that blurs lust with love and safety with danger. Huston invigorates the series as an undying spirit who has haunted and helped the Mayfair women for centuries. In the beginning, Lasher is practically Rowan's power, and it all comes through a magical necklace that's been passed down through the Mayfair family since the first witch. Daddario and Huston's chemistry is palpable from the characters' first collision at a festival, with Huston's playfulness the perfect foil to Daddario's seriousness. Their meeting has a mystical quality, and the scene embraces beautiful hues of neon lighting that add to the enchanting, Southern Gothic aesthetic.

Lasher also happens to be dangerous, especially in the love department, after Rowan forges a similarly strong bond with a Talamasca agent who is sent to monitor her. Ciprien and Rowan's connection turns to love, which leads to one of the most exciting episodes of Season 1. Episode 5, "The Thrall," is like a wild fever dream, and the series fully embraces its fantasy-oriented nature with stunning visuals, time travel, and gore all at once. As Rowan's deranged, controlling aunt, Carlotta Mayfair (Beth Grant), attempts to kill Rowan upon her arrival in New Orleans, all hell breaks loose, literally, as she starts a fire in the Mayfair home. Ciprien comes to her rescue, which causes Lasher's jealousy to grow, and the powerful entity turns the home into a funhouse of horror.

The episode becomes a standalone, haunted house horror installment, with shifting rooms, tortured ghosts trapped inside the home, and creepy jump scares. Rowan and an injured Ciprien become stuck in a different timeline inside the home, repeating their day over and over while the wounds he's sustained only worsen. Rowan bargains with Lasher to let Ciprien go, and they then go on an adventure of their own, dressed in 1920s garb. Mayfair Witches' costume department excels here, as Daddario wears a beautiful white flapper dress and Lasher dons an old elegant suit that creates a nostalgic aesthetic within the mansion, which offers a similar backdrop to the equally beautiful mansion in American Horror Story: Coven. The episode renders the love triangle between Rowan, Lasher, and Ciprien all the more agonizing, nailing the bad boy versus good guy plot arc often in romances.

New Orleans Is Its Own Character in 'Mayfair Witches'

Image via AMC+

When Rowan makes the journey from San Francisco to New Orleans, she is welcomed into a blossoming coven and is discovered to be its one true leader. In its third episode, Mayfair Witches offers a particularly whirlwind, electrifying aesthetic that makes its style its own, putting the nightlife of New Orleans on full display. With sparkling lights, masks, and the New Orleans townspeople dressed in skeletal outfits, it’s a daring, visual extravaganza as Rowan meets Lasher for the first time. The cinematography for the series is reminiscent of Coven as it plays with angles, films via bird's-eye-view shots, or even turns the camera upside down to symbolize the hell Rowan finds herself in while on the Mayfair property.

While the first few episodes of Mayfair Witches may feel a bit slow-moving, as it has to do a fair bit of exposition to set up the new world Rowan is entering, the second half of Season 1 kicks it into high gear with a better plotline. As the women in Rowan's coven forge a bond with one another, a group of witch-hating Southerners grows, having backwoods meetings and dirty dealings in abandoned buildings. The sweaty, sweltering heat of the South adds to the growing tension between the two groups as they plot to bring each other down.

Alongside eerie flashbacks to witch trials centuries ago with an important Mayfair ancestor, Suzanne (Hannah Alline), the series creates an intriguing full-circle moment, prefacing that the past is about to repeat itself. Season 2 expanded the story while adding more star power with Thora Birch and Ted Levine. With another installment now on the way, there's still plenty more of the Mayfair family's story to come.

Mayfair Witches is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

Mayfair Witches

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