The Amazon Prime terror anthology series THEM premiered at the SXSW Film Festival on March 18. Executive produced by Little Marvin (The Time is Now) and Lena Waithe (Queen & Slim, The Chi), the show is being compared to HBO’s Lovecraft Country and is just as intense and terrifying with similar supernatural themes. SXSW 2021: ‘THEM’ Review
The first season is set in the 1950’s and follows the Emory’s, a black family that has left the Jim Crow South and is moving on up to Los Angeles, to a beautiful new home in a new all-white subdivision. We watch as their American dream slowly turns into an American nightmare. Each member of the seemingly perfect Emory family, is terrorized in different ways. They face evil forces from outside their home from their hateful and racist neighbors, and inside their home by malevolent forces at work at destroying them. On top of that, the Emory’s endure mental terror that play tricks with their minds.
Father and engineer Henry Emory (Ashley Thomas – The Night Of, Top Boy), lands his dream job at a large LA firm and picks up his family and moves to then all-white Compton, CA. Henry is hated by his neighbors and is treated like an outsider at work while also being threatened by otherworldly forces lurking in the halls of his firm.
Already mentally unstable housewife and homemaker, Lucky Emory (Deborah Ayorinde – Harriet, Girls Trip) is terrorized by the evil forces she feels in her home as well as the white housewives in her community. She attempts the impossible task of facing the housewives head on in a society that is not on her side.
The Emory daughters, Ruby (Shahadi Wright – Us, The Lion King) and Gracie (Melody Hurd – Battle at Big Rock), of course face major difficulties at their all white schools, but both are plagued by “friends” that I have yet to determine are real, imaginary, or of the spirit world. They fear for their mother’s delicate state and the evil presence stalking their beautiful new home.
Ashley Thomas Shahadi Wright Melody Hurd Deborah Ayorinde
The series, while dark, uses some really great music and is beautifully shot. It’s reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s film Us, also about a black family who were terrorized by a group of menacing doppelgängers. And Them is just as hair-raising, creepy and twisted but you won’t be able to look away. Click here to watch the trailer.
Cast: Deborah Ayorinde, Ashley Thomas, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Melody Hurd, Alison Pill
Executive Producers: Little Marvin, Lena Waithe, Don Kurt, Miri Yoon, David Matthews, and Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment. THEM is a co-production from Sony Pictures Television and Amazon. SXSW 2021: ‘THEM’ Review
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