What instantly comes to mind when one thinks of 2021’s Amazon original horror series Them is its shockingly relentless display of horror, a sense of watching an assuredly written series, and the dread of watching human beings seeming more creepy than even the supernatural. The series showed the struggles of a young African American family in 1953 as they move into an all-white neighbourhood in Los Angeles, only to be hunted by unkind neighbours as well as a demonic spectre hiding in their basement.
Three years later, writer-creator Little Marvin and lead actor Deborah Ayorinde are back with a sequel titled Them: The Scare that keeps the dials up on the Jordan Peele brand of social horror in a fascinating, even if not fully effective, fashion. The gore and the supernatural aspects are kept to a bare minimum for most of the eight-episode season, focusing more on the horrors that the central Black characters are forced to deal with — or become — due to the racist social climate of the U.S. in the 70s and 80s.
In fact, until more than halfway into the series, the supernatural makes a hint of an appearance only when we come across the gruesome series of murders that LAPD detective Dawn Reeve (Ayorinde; in yet another terrific turn) investigates. Just the awfully twisted conditions of the bodies of these victims — most of whom she encounters a day before their deaths being paranoid of mirrors and talking of a “big red-haired man” stalking them — should have become a cause of concern among the police.
But that would have been the case if not for Detective Ronald McKinney (Jeremy Bobb) being partnered with Reeve in the case; a bigot who most definitely hosts secret KKK meetings, McKinney’s racial hatred ensures that the word of a lonely Black policewoman investigating deaths of Blacks and other minorities doesn’t go far. Reeve’s life turns creepy when all the evil she deals with in her duty haunts her mother, Athena (Pam Grier), and her son, Kelvin (Joshua J. Williams).
Them: The Scare (English)
Simultaneously, we follow the story of the strange Edmund Gaines (Luke James delivering a laudable performance), a struggling actor whose distraught heart only sinks further into darkness in a horrifyingly creepy way. Them: The Scare takes an invested effort to map just how Edmund becomes a sociopathic killer, but what impresses one more is the layer that points towards the psychological ramifications that coloured actors would have had to face due to the limited opportunities. Edmund’s descent into lunacy gets marked when he gets called to audition for the role of a serial killer — the only “normal” role available other than the typecast gangster and rapper roles that were available for African Americans.
For much of the series, the juxtaposition of these two arcs and the cross-cutting between scenes to create tension make you believe that this sociopathic loner is the reason behind the murder…which isn’t false but, in typical Them style, isn’t all true either.
Luke James as Edmund | Photo Credit: Quantrell Colbert
With a really thoughtful design of scenes and visuals, Them: The Scare sets up a bone-chilling mood in the air, right from the very opening scene in which Reeve enters a hair-raising crime scene with a recorder that instantly reminds you of all that impressed in the first season. The effortless thematic and textual connections to the first season are all so well done as well. But while all that and the performances make it a good series, it falls short of becoming a stellar horror series like, say, The Haunting of Hill House.
The first season had struck a balance between drama and the genre thrills, but for a season titled ‘The Scare,’ this one could have used more of the gore, blood, and jump scares. One wonders if perhaps the criticism of the first season being excessively graphic had anything to do with the toned-down approach, and with another season seemingly on the cards, let’s hope Marvin and team strike a better balance.
Them: The Scare is currently streaming on Prime Video
