Gremlins meets Hot Fuzz as a new series about a killer gnome has hit Stan.
British actor Asa Butterfield stars as Senior Sergeant Arnold Kipps, a small-town cop whose already terrible day gets worse when an ancient European gnome queen awakens and turns the local garden ornaments into a murderous army… in a Victorian town… yes, it’s as unhinged as it sounds!
“Starring Asa Butterfield and Megan Smart, Gnomes follows Senior Sergeant Arnold Kipps (Butterfield) and his ex-partner and ex-flame Ellie McKay (Smart) as she returns to Nompton to shut down his police station, right when an ancient, evil force is awakened by the bloodthirsty Gnome Queen. Unleashing a nightmare horde of killer ceramic gnomes upon the unsuspecting town, Nompton is instantly plunged into pure, unadulterated chaos. The Stan Original premieres October 8, only on Stan.”
The show is set in the fictional Victorian town of Nompton, which is banking on its inaugural Gnome-a-palooza festival to stay afloat. Kipps is already overloaded running an understaffed police station when his ex-partner Ellie (played by Megan Smart) arrives to tell him the station is being shut down. Then an accident involving the prized gnome queen statue unleashes chaos. The ceramic figures start stalking, smashing, and killing residents.
The backstory ties the gnome queen to Nazi occult interests during the final stages of World War II.
Officers stole the petrified figure but never managed to activate her. The series plays up the silliness of that history as Co-writer and star Tegan Higginbotham (who plays one half of a ditzy police duo alongside comedian Matt Okine) has been open about the intent:
“Can we still laugh at Nazis? We grew up on Mel Brooks comedies where Nazis are funny.” She has also said the writers wanted to “evoke that straight from the get-go” and still believe in a world where Nazis can be the butt of the joke.
Butterfield was drawn to the writing and the ridiculous premise.
“What attracted me to the project was the writing and comedy, and the sort of absurdity of it. There were great characters, some great gags, and some really funny references to some classic horror movies,” he said. He has also spoken about the practical fun of working with the physical puppets built by the special effects team: vampire gnomes on dressers, wizard gnomes shooting fire from their wands, and foam gnomes that could smash. “It’s the sort of thing which, honestly, brings out the big kid inside me.”
Early reviews describe it as pulpy, energetic, and fully committed to the bit. It was filmed in Melbourne over seven weeks. Butterfield praised the Australian crew for moving fast without losing the positive energy on set. Higginbotham, who co-wrote the series with her husband, Paul F Verhoeven, and creator Joel Kohn, has noted that the long development period felt right for the current moment.
“We had a great SFX team building hundreds of gnomes, some made of foam, some that could smash, some that can run,” Butterfield says. “Having natural puppets to react to really helps because you don’t only have to imagine it. Like there’s a vampire gnome there, it’s stalking you on the top of a dresser. Or a wizard gnome shooting actual fire out its wand.| “It’s the sort of a thing which, honestly, brings out the big kid inside me.”
Gnomes is streaming now on Stan
