A Horror Anthology That Just Got a Psychiatric Upgrade
If you told me that a new installment of The Terror — an anthology show built on the bones of doomed Arctic expeditions and Japanese internment camp hauntings — was going to be set inside a psychiatric hospital with Dan Stevens (Legion, Apostle) playing a moving man with a bad temper, I would have asked you what you were drinking. And then asked for some.
And yet here we are. The Terror: Devil in Silver lands on AMC+ and Shudder starting this week, and the credentials behind it alone are enough to make any horror fan sit up straight. Ridley Scott executive producing. Victor LaValle — the man who wrote the celebrated novel this is based on — also serving as showrunner alongside Halt and Catch Fire‘s Chris Cantwell. And Karyn Kusama, the director behind Yellowjackets and The Invitation, helming the first two episodes. That is not a lineup you sleep on.
What Is ‘The Terror: Devil in Silver’ Actually About?
The setup is this: Pepper (Stevens) is a working-class guy who, through a bad night and a worse temper, ends up wrongfully committed to New Hyde Psychiatric Hospital. New Hyde is exactly the kind of institution you’d expect — full of people society has quietly decided to forget, run by doctors with secrets they’d rather keep buried, and apparently haunted by something that might genuinely be the Devil. Or at least something wearing his face.
What Happens in Episode 2 — Disturbed?
Episode two, “Disturbed,” drops Thursday May 14. Pepper meets his roommate Coffee. There are weird sounds in the ceiling. There is a bloody former inhabitant. There is an attack by something mysterious. There is a visit from Marisol. There is a confrontation with someone named Loochie. And Pepper gets hold of staff keys, which — if horror has taught us anything — is the kind of small victory that costs you everything later.
The cast around Stevens is genuinely stacked. Judith Light (Before, Out of My Mind), CCH Pounder (Rustin, NCIS: New Orleans), Stephen Root (Barry, Heads of State), Marin Ireland (Sneaky Pete, Glass Chin) and Aasif Mandvi (Evil, This Way Up). Well-known character actors who will make you feel things you weren’t expecting to feel in a horror show about a psychiatric hospital with demonic architecture.
Do You Need to Watch Previous Seasons First?
The short answer is no.
But if you want to get the full context of “The Terror” universe then it’s worth your time. The previous season of The Terror covered a British naval expedition being slowly destroyed by Arctic ice and something far worse lurking beneath it, and the quiet, devastating horror of a Japanese internment camp in World War II. Both are worth your time. Both are currently on AMC+ and Shudder if you want to catch up before this one swallows you whole.
When Does The Terror: Devil in Silver Air?
The Terror: Devil in Silver clocks in at six episodes. With new episodes dropping weekly. So it’s not that much of a commitment. Or is it? The series will air on AMC proper later in the year.
This one looks like it’s got teeth. We’ll find out by the end of the series.
