‘Revival’: Inside the Undead Murder Mystery Series That Thrived Despite a Low Budget and Tight Filming Schedule

Although the new series “Revival,” which debuts June 12 on Syfy, is a spooky story about the undead coming back to life, one of the scariest moments actually happened while shooting the final episode of the season. Aaron B. Koontz, the show’s co-creator, showrunner and executive producer, remembers the last night of the shoot, in which a tight schedule nearly toppled production.

“Samir Rehem, the amazing director for our second block, there was a moment where he was literally catatonic,” Koontz says. “He just stood there. I’m like, ‘Samir, what are we going to do?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ I’m like, ‘Well, we got to get the crane. We gotta move over there,’ and he’s like, ‘Aaron, Aaron, not now.’ I’m about to go direct the end of the scene because I think we just broke our director because he couldn’t figure out how to make this day work. This is the literal last day of the shoot, which also unfortunately is the climax of Episode 10. He’s feeling all this pressure, and we’re like, ‘How did we let this happen? How did we schedule this way?’”

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Like any scrappy creatives, the team took a collective breath, regrouped and found its rhythm to end the day. The result is a flashy, inventive show based on the popular comics from Tim Seeley and Mike Norton that is stuffed with ambition — despite a total budget that Koontz jokes is less than an episode of a high-profile show like “Shōgun.”

“Revival” is set in a Wisconsin town where a group of dead people are suddenly brought back to life one night. Melanie Scrofano stars as the small-town cop who, with the help of local oddballs, tries to figure out what happened. Tied up in this supernatural drama is a murder she must also solve, using clues from that person’s revival.

Koontz says the comic book’s sense of place — which he describes as a mix between “Fargo” and “Mare of Easttown” — drew him into the project.

“The weird characters, the weird setting, the rural noir, the murder mystery where the person is still alive,” he says. “I’m like, ‘What the hell is that?’ Then you combine that with this supernatural genre through line that is really rad. I fell in love immediately.”

Koontz is no stranger to low-budget horror projects, having written, directed and produced cult hit films like “Scare Package” and “The Pale Door,” as well as executive produced the Reddit-based anthology series “Tales From the Void.” Making small productions feel big is one of the skills he was able to tap into to get “Revival” made.

“There’s only so many places in a low-budget show where you can try to punch above your weight class,” he says. “You have to really be careful about framing and your look, feel and color palette. That can make it feel a little bigger than it is. Our costume designer thrifted for months. I want weird jackets, weird coats, weird everything. All this stuff needs to infuse character. If people care enough to pay attention, it will be there and all of that starts to inform.”

This planning, combined with the cast and crew’s eagerness to make the best show possible, made for a production that stretched every dollar to make sure it had an impact on screen.

“I think what allowed me to be OK as a showrunner was my producing background,” Koontz says. “Whenever things are thrown at you, the Murphy’s Law of it all, I’m able to stay calm, figure it out and problem solve. Having all that experience over 25 or so features, we’re like, ‘OK, we’ve only got this location to do this thing. How can we make this work?’”

Despite the obstacles thrown at him, Koontz is thrilled with the possibilities of a second season of “Revival,” even teasing off-the-record some ideas he’s been kicking around.

“We’re doing the literal craziest stuff in this in this series,” he says. “Even when it was negative whatever degrees inside this freezing warehouse in December in the middle of a night shoot, I love it. That’s this world and life I’ve chosen.”

Watch the trailer for “Revival” below.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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