Comic-Con 2019: 'The Terror - Infamy' 1st look released, AMC horror on internment camps focuses on 'what human beings do to each other'
A first look video for ‘The Terror: Infamy’, the second season of the chilling AMC horror series ‘The Terror’, was unveiled at SDCC 2019. The new season, set during World War II, centers around a series of bizarre deaths that haunt a Japanese-American community.
“The thing that makes this show special is that we’re telling a piece of history that has been underrepresented but we’re telling it in a very unusual way,” showrunner Alexander Woo shared in the video. The series takes up concepts from Japanese literature and uses them to tell a story about the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans in internment camps.
Legendary actor George Takei, who plays community elder Yamato San, has helped maintain historical accuracy as he himself was in an internment camp as a child. “I’m excited for audiences to see an Asian-American story being told on mainstream television,” said Derek Mio who plays Chester Nakayama on the show.
“There’s a lot of elements going into this story and I think it's going to make for some very high drama,” he added. The Japanese-American internment has long been seen as one of the stains on American history. The event had far-reaching consequences and remembering it is especially important today, considering the present political climate.
“It’s not just a horror story,” said Shingo Usami, who plays Henry Nakayama. “It’s more a human story. People dealing with [the] unknown. The ghosts, yeah, of course, they are scary, but what human beings do to each other is a lot more scary.”
The show’s supernatural elements are very unlike what one normally sees in Western horror flicks. While there are creepy moments of body-horror and spiritual apparitions, a lot of the show’s scariness comes from a deeper, more psychological current of tension and anxiety. 'The Terror: Infamy' infuses horror and drama into real historical events, creating a complex story with multiple layers.
“Whether it be a horror fan, a drama fan, or you’re interested in the historical aspect, I think there’s something in it for everyone,” Naoko Mori, who plays Asako Nakayama on the show, said about the appeal of the series.
'The Terror: Infamy' is co-created by Max Borenstein and Alexander Woo. Borenstein is best known for writing 'Godzilla' (2014), 'Kong: Skull Island' (2017), and 'Godzilla: King of the Monsters' (2019). Woo, on his part, has made a name for himself writing several episodes of the HBO drama series 'True Blood'.
'The Terror: Infamy' will premiere Monday, August 12 at 9 p.m. ET. on AMC.