'NOS4A2' Teaser Promises A Creepy Adaptation Of Joe Hill's Novel, New Images Introduce The Cast

Joe Hill's horror novel NOS4A2 (pronounced Nosferatu) is coming to TV in the form of a new AMC series. The story focuses on a young woman dealing with an immortal vampire-like child killer who takes his victims to Christmasland, a creepy imaginary world where it's Christmas every day. A new NOS4A2 teaser is here, and while it's short on footage, it's big on atmosphere. In addition to that, a slew of images from the show have arrived as well.

As far as teasers go, there's not a whole lot here. In fact, to me, this footage looks like it will be the opening credits of the show – it has that same sort of abstract vibe that most horror show opening credits have. The closer we get to the show's premiere date, the more actual footage we'll see. For now, though, it's clear the series is striving to be as creepy as possible, and that's promising. Joe Hill's book had a lot of great ideas in it, and I look forward to seeing how the show goes about adapting them.

Here's the official NOS4A2 synopsis.

NOS4A2, based on Joe Hill's bestselling novel of the same name, tells the story of Charlie Manx, a seductive immortal who feeds off the souls of children, then deposits what remains of them into Christmasland – an icy, twisted Christmas village of Manx's imagination where every day is Christmas Day and unhappiness is against the law. Manx finds his whole world threatened when a young woman in New England discovers she has a dangerous gift.

Ashleigh Cummings will play Vic McQueen, a young, working-class artist whose creativity awakens a supernatural ability to track Manx (Zachary Quinto). What Vic lacks in social confidence, she makes up for in courage, humor, and tough-as-nails grit. She strives to defeat Manx and rescue his victims without losing her mind or falling victim to him herself.

This is pretty close to the book, with one major change: in Hill's novel, Vic is a little bit older, and she has a son being targeted by Manx. That doesn't seem to be the case here, and honestly, I'm fine with that. I'm much more interested in Vic as a character than her son, and I actually think this change might end up making the show even better than the book.

In addition to that teaser, here are some new images, revealing the characters on the show.

Here's Charlie Manx, as played by Zachary Quinto. I don't remember the character being so young and handsome in the book – he's basically a hideous ghoul there. So that might be one distinct change. Manx feeds on the souls of children, so obviously he's bad news. He's also leaning up against his car, the Wraith, which he uses to travel between time and dimensions.

And here's Manx again, in his decrepit form. This is more closer to his book look. Once again, the Wraith waits in the background. Fun fact: Manx is the type of soul-sucking vampire that also appears in Doctor Sleep. Doctor Sleep is the sequel to The Shining, written by Joe Hill's father, Stephen King. King even mentions Manx in the book. There's a Doctor Sleep movie hitting theaters later this year – will the two tie into each other? I doubt it, but now you have some useless trivia to store in your brain!

Vic McQueen, as played by Ashleigh Cummings, has a psychic connection to Manx, which makes her a target for him. Cummings appeared in the horrifying film Hounds of Love, and she was fantastic there, so I'm excited to see more of her.

And here are two pics of Vic on her bike. The bottom pic also features the Shorter Way Bridge, which is no normal bridge. Instead, whenever Vic rides through it, it takes to the location of whatever she's searching for – no matter where in the world it might be. Think of it less like a bridge, and more like a time and place tunnel. Side-note: in Hill's book, Vic rides a Triumph motorcycle. The show appears to have changed that to a dirt bike for some reason.

Jahkara Smith plays Maggie Leigh in the series. In Hill's novel, Maggie is a librarian who uses Scrabble tiles to determine the location of missing items (much like Vic uses the Shorter Way Bridge). You can even see Maggie wearing a Scrabble tile as an earring, as she does in the book. Maggie eventually helps Vic in her battle against Manx.

Bing Partridge (played here by Olafur Darri Olafsson) is the book's creepiest character – even creepier than Manx. Think of him like Renfield to Manx's Dracula. Bing works for Manx, and longs for Manx to take him to Christmasland. He does the bidding of his master by using a  gingerbread-flavored anesthetic to drug potential victims.

The image above shows Vic with her mother, Linda, played by Virginia Kull. As an aside, Kull is 37, and Cummings is 26, which means Kull's character is only 11 years older than her daughter...which clearly isn't right. This either means that Cummings is playing a character younger than she actually is, or Kull is playing someone older. In any case, Linda is a "blue-collar mom determined to hold her family together and protect her daughter."

Here, Vic is seen with her father Chris (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). Vic is estranged from her father in the book, and this image is likely from some sort of flashback.

NOS4A2 premieres on AMC sometime this year.