The haunted frontier of the award-winning Weird Western horror film, A Town Called Purgatory, is expanding into audio. South Florida-based publisher ZealZaddy has licensed the film to create Madlands & Badlands: The First Circle of Purgatory, an original scripted horror anthology podcast set in the same universe.
Season 1 will run 10 episodes, with an original score and a professional voice cast, and will release in 2027.
The series is written by ZealZaddy executive editor and principal Cliff Dunn, working with the film’s creators, producers, and stars, Ken Arnold and Dan DeLuca. It is not a retelling of the film. Each episode is a new story with new characters, set across the same haunted Old West: gunslingers, prospectors and drifters who find the frontier is hiding far more than they bargained for. “Audio lets us take listeners places the camera couldn’t: further out into the dust, and deeper into the dark,” said Scott Coventry, co-founder and creative director of ZealZaddy.
Fans can meet Arnold and DeLuca in Orlando, Florida at Spooky Empire, one of the country’s leading horror conventions, Oct. 30–Nov. 1, 2026. On Halloween, Saturday, Oct. 31, the team will screen A Town Called Purgatory in the Filmmakers Lounge from 2 to 4 p.m. and take questions afterward. The screening is free with convention admission. Fans can also stop by the ZealZaddy booth and read a scene from Madlands & Badlands: The First Circle of Purgatory with Arnold and DeLuca for an opportunity to be cast in a role in a future episode.
“We imagined Purgatory from the ground up,” said Ken Arnold, who developed the film’s original story with Dan DeLuca and stars in it. “Watching it grow into a full series, with new characters and new dilemmas, has been an amazing ride.”
ZealZaddy will fund the series on Kickstarter. The campaign opens Friday, Nov. 13, with a sample episode so listeners can hear what they are backing, along with stretch goals that could expand Season 1 to 20 or 30 episodes.
“These are the stories a single movie never has room for,” said Dan DeLuca, who developed the original story with Arnold, wrote the screenplay, and stars opposite him.
Fans can follow the campaign on Kickstarter.
