At first, given the haunting images and its supernatural feel, it seemed like Amazon’s Them could be a companion piece to Jordan Peele’s Us. It’s not. Although it is a good name of a Pink Floyd song, Us and Them.
But I digress. Amazon has released the first full trailer for the stunning-looking series that looks at a littany of America’s ills through the lens of horror and the supernatural.
This show has been teased with the shortest of teasers these last few months and now it is about time to get a full-on trailer look at what is sure to be your next Amazon obsession.
The horror anthology comes from executive producers Little Marvin and Lena Waithe. The series will look at uniquely American issues through the most horrifying of eyes.
The first season takes place in the 50s when there was the great American expansion into the suburbs. The post-war country was booming, but those suburbs were mostly—if not all—white. The African-American Emory family anchors the story. They have happily moved from Los Angeles to the up-and-coming suburb known as Compton.
The patriarch and matriarch are Lucky and Henry Hemory (Deborah Avorinde and Ashley Thomas). They have two daughters, Ruby (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and then there’s Gracie (Melody Hurd). The teaser shows them settling into their new home which epitomizes the American dream.
From the looks of things, their move to the burbs may be more on the nightmare side of things.
They try to know their neighbors, and on the outside, they seem warm enough. But, housewife Betty Wendell (the always awesome Alison Pill), is not as happy. From there, it just gets terrifying… and horribly haunting.
Horror is a fantastic way to show the ills of society through the lens of a milieu. One doesn’t know they are being led down this path, to the viewer, this is simply entertainment. But you are being enlightened and that is what makes shows like this, and films like Get Out so powerful.
Clearly, the first season and its 50s setting will focus on racism and segregation and its premiere date cannot get here soon enough.
Look for it on Amazon’s Prime Video April 9.
Official synopsis:
Them is a limited anthology series that explores terror in America. The 1950s-set first season centers on a Black family who moves from North Carolina to an all-white Los Angeles neighborhood during the period known as The Great Migration. The family’s idyllic home becomes ground zero where malevolent forces, next-door and otherworldly, threaten to taunt, ravage and destroy them.