Terrifying truth

HBO’s newest drama mixes fictional horror with the reality of American racism

By Rachel Jones TV Media

If the novel “Lovecraft Country” drove you to the edge of your imagination, you’ll be thrilled to experience it visually, too, as a new series based on the Matt Ruff novel debuts Sunday, Aug. 16, on HBO. This chilling show is set in 1950s America and stars Jonathan Majors (“Da 5 Bloods,” 2020) as Atticus Black, who journeys with a friend and his uncle to search for his missing father. All the while, he must struggle to survive the terrifyingly racist individuals he meets along the way, not to mention a hell beast from another dimension.

The horror drama features Court ney B. Vance (“American Crime Sto ry”) as Uncle George Black and Mi chael Kenneth Williams (“Critical Thinking,” 2020) as Atticus’ longlost father. Jurnee Smollett (“Birds of Prey,” 2020) co-stars as Letitia Lewis, and Wunmi Mosaku (“Tem ple”), Jamie Harris (“Lost Transmis sions,” 2019), Abbey Lee (“The Neon Demon,” 2016), Jamie Chung (“Dangerous Lies,” 2020), Jordan Patrick Smith (“Vikings”) and Aunjanue Ellis (“The Subject,” 2020) also appear.

Atticus is a man who longs to see his absent father once more, but he’s also a Korean war veteran who al ways carries a pulp novel in his pock et and makes a point of filling his heart with love, despite the many injustices facing people of color in the 1950s. His father, however, is the exact opposite: secretive, muleheaded and brutally pragmatic. The balance of their relationship is fraught and fascinating.

Uncle George is a warm and funny bookworm, and he has been an important father figure in Atticus’ life. As the publisher of the “Safe Negro Travel Guide,” George is instrumental in helping Atticus understand the importance of home and is also the one who introduces him to pulp novels.

Letitia Lewis, meanwhile, is a hustler and an artist who uses her work to promote civil rights. She’s return tween episodes. Hippolyta Freeman (Ellis) is a housewife who has led a boring life thus far but has some serious adventure planned out for herself. Her efforts to go down these unexplored paths will take her to great heights — literally. Elsewhere, Eustice Hunt (Harris) is a county sheriff with tons of NAACP complaints against him. He, of course, finds an enemy in Atticus.

“Lovecraft Country,” the novel, was first published in 2016 by Harper Collins. Publishers were impressed with Ruff, the author of the book, who they said had an uncanny grip on traditional horror themes and an fright, combining horror with hope and ambition, all with a touch of an alternate, transdimensional reality.

HBO picked up the rights to “Lovecraft Country” in 2017, a year after the novel was published. Just a year later, principal photography for the series started in Chicago, which was also where most of the filming took place, specifically at the Chicago Cinespace Film Studios and in White Pines State Park.

The premiere episode, “Sundown,” was helmed by French-Algerian director Yann Demange (“Top Boy”), the genius behind the successful TV series “Dead Set.” Demange’s directorial film debut was also a smash hit among critics, an independent movie entitled “’71,” which premiered in 2014 and earned him the British Independent Film Award for Best Director.

The second and third episodes of “Lovecraft Country,” “Whitey’s on the Moon” and “Holy Ghost,” were directed by Daniel Sackheim. The Emmy-winning director’s list of impressive directorial and production credits include episodes of iconic series such as “Law & Order,” “House,” “NYPD Blue,” “Game of Thrones,” “The Walking Dead” and “The Americans.” Most recently, his work on Netflix’s “Ozark” garnered him an Emmy nomination.

Jordan Peele (“Get Out,” 2017) and J.J. Abrams (“Lost”) are co-executive producers for the new “Lovecraft County” series, with Misha Green (“Underground”) acting as showrunner.

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