AMC Horror Series The Terror Returning For Season 3, Jennifer's Body Filmmaker Karyn Kusama Directing
'Historical horror' is not a term that's been especially popularized, but it's most effective when describing the delicious combination of historical events and fictional horror. This subgenre has been quietly enjoying a great run during the last decade or so: not only have there been several movies that brilliantly mix detail-heavy period settings with creepy goings-on ("The Witch," "Crimson Peak," "The Pale Blue Eye," et al.) but there have been a number of TV shows delving into historical horror with much success, such as Showtime's "Penny Dreadful."
Latest on the scene is AMC's "The Terror," a series that so far has been able to vary its period setting, themes, and even tone thanks to being anthologized season to season. After the first season, which was based on author Dan Simmons' novel "The Terror" (hence the series' name), the second season went on to tell an original tale set in and around the Japanese internment camps in America during WWII.
Now, AMC (via Variety) has just announced that a third season of "The Terror" is underway, and is somewhat returning to the show's roots as an adaptation. This time around, the season will be adapting the novel "The Devil in Silver" by Victor LaValle. To sweeten the pot, not only will LaValle be a writer and executive producer on the season, but he'll be working alongside Chris Cantwell (a veteran of AMC's "Halt & Catch Fire" and "Lodge 49") and none other than Karyn Kusama, director of the brilliant "The Invitation" and "Jennifer's Body," who will executive produce the series as well as direct the first two episodes. Based on what Cantwell and Kusama are saying about the show, "The Terror: Devil in Silver" might prove to be the best season yet.
'Devil in Silver' takes 'The Terror' into hospital horror
According to the official press release, "Devil in Silver" concerns the story of a man named Pepper, an unlucky hothead who ends up being erroneously committed to a mental institution known as the New Hyde Psychiatric Hospital. While there, Pepper becomes convinced that actual demons may reside within the walls of the hospital, feeding off the suffering of the patients, and that even the Devil himself may be involved.
Right away, the series seems to be placing itself within the traditions of H.P. Lovecraft while also riffing on hospital horror — there are shades of films like Steven Soderbergh's "Unsane" and series like Lars Von Trier's "The Kingdom" within that premise. Most intriguing, the press release fails to specify exactly what time period the show will be set during; from what this writer could dig up, LaValle's novel was set in the then-present of 2012, so whether this will be the first contemporary season of "The Terror" or whether the creators will set the tale in a different era remains to be seen.
What's abundantly clear is how excited Cantwell, LaValle, and Kusama are to be making it and working with each other. Cantwell describes the lead character of Pepper as a man "arriving at a life-or-death crossroads where he must face the Devil without and within." LaValle promises the series will hold "some pretty twisted thrills," and Kusama calls the season "mind-bending" and "heart-wrenching," and coming from a filmmaker who's made features and episodes of the hit-show "Yellowjackets" that actually deliver on those terms, her words are likely not just empty promises.
We'll find out for sure when "The Terror: Devil in Silver" debuts on AMC in 2025.