Adam Green and Joe Lynch bring horror and heart to 'Holliston'

Directors Adam Green and Joe Lynch would typically be found behind the camera on films like the “Hatchet” series and “Wrong Turn 2: Dead End.”

Yet the pair have recently brewed up something wicked for the small screen in the form of FEARnet’s first original scripted comedy series, “Holliston.”

Set in Green’s hometown of Holliston, Mass., “Holliston” takes the standard sitcom and pours a big bucket of blood and guts on top of it. In a “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” fashion, Green and Lynch play fictional versions of themselves — roles that are quite personal.

“The whole thing is completely based on my real life,” Green said to The Oracle. “I did want to be a horror film director at one point, and the happy news is that actually worked out. Even down to the ex-girlfriend I was pining away for years and didn’t get over, that’s a true story, and even a lot of stuff that happens in the episodes.”

The show follows Adam and Joe during their post-collegiate careers as hosts on a lousy public access channel where they play their favorite old horror movies, all while shooting shoddy local television commercials for the station — a far cry from their aspirations of becoming Hollywood filmmakers.

Lynch said “Holliston” chronicles a time in one’s life that many college students will be able to relate to, when they must determine how to pursue their dreams.

“What was so exciting and terrifying at the same time was to go back to that time when you’re graduating from film school or whatever, and you have the world at your feet, and then the doors start slowly — or quickly — slamming in your face,” Lynch said. “When you’re at school, you’re in this bubble, this collective vacuum of hopes and dreams that they don’t want to ruin. They just pump you full of alcohol and have you do a keg stand.”

Having drawn comparisons to the likes of “Wayne’s World,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and, in his opinion, the hit late-’70s sitcom “Taxi,” Green said “Holliston” is a project that has long been in the works.

“I love sitcoms, but I was always hoping that someday I would be able to make a sitcom that was for people like me,” he said. “I wanted to see one about the struggles with guys like me where it doesn’t always work out right, where when you have that big scene at the end of the show where you can confess your love, you get shot down and broken-hearted. That’s real life, and if you can laugh at that stuff, it’s only going to make you stronger.”

Though “Holliston” leans more toward the zany side, a recent airing of the pilot in the title city was met with a warm reception from a packed crowd of locals. Lynch said the showing, which was also hosted by co-stars Corri English and Laura Ortiz, was “one of the best nights of my life.” And though Green, whose parents have since moved from his birth town, said he was initially wary of locals’ response to the show, all trepidation was eventually quelled.

“For a show that’s so funny and wacky, with the exploding heads, melting faces and situations that happen, the fact that people can see through that and hear the core message is amazing,” Green said. “I don’t think a lot of networks would have believed that’s possible because they look at everything on a surface level. It’s, ‘What main star are you going to put in there?’ ‘What pop culture references is every single person going to get?’ We have references to everything from ‘Cannonball Run’ to ‘Cannibal Holocaust.’”

Green and Lynch’s film careers have had more success than their characters on the show, with an impressive slate of films on the way. Lynch said the fantasy film “Knight of Badassdom” will be released “sometime before the apocalypse, or it may be the coming of the apocalypse,” and hopes that “Everly,” an action film starring Kate Hudson, will go into production in June.

“I never believe that (‘Everly’) is going to happen until I have a cup of coffee, and I am on set looking at everything and going, ‘Holy crap, this is actually happening,’” Lynch said. “It’s funny because you would not expect Kate Hudson, who’s always done all these romantic comedies and lighter fare, to do something as dark and hardcore as ‘Everly.’ We had shot a publicity photo with Kate for (Berlin’s European Film Market), and anyone who had an issue with Kate Hudson holding a gun went by the wayside because everybody got really excited about that.”

Green is working on writing both “Hatchet III” for first-time director B.J. McDonnell and the young adult novel adaptation of “Killer Pizza,” which is being produced by “Home Alone” and “Harry Potter” director Chris Columbus.

He will next be directing a documentary titled “Digging Up The Marrow,” which explores genre-based monster art.

Yet the duo’s aspirations for “Holliston” are as big as the show’s Sunset Strip billboard, which is plastered with an image of their barely clothed bodies.

“What did we say, Adam? ‘Eight seasons and a movie?’” Lynch said.

“Yeah,” Green replied. “We’re working on that.”

“Holliston” debuts tonight on FEARnet at 10:30.