‘Them’ Is the Must-Watch Horror Event of the Season

Watching Prime Video’s Them is a bit like holding your breath. Your shoulders tense, and your heartbeat quickens as you wait for something, anything, to break the show’s mounting tension. Yet when that catharsis comes in the the form of a jump scare, it’s never relieving. There’s always another breath to hold, there’s always another reason to stay guarded and on edge. This is all to say that Them is truly great bit of horror wrapped around a biting commentary about racism in America.

Created by Little Marvin and executive produced by Lena Waithe, Them is Amazon’s newest anthology series. Structured a bit like American Horror Story, each season is set to follow a different story and collection of characters as it explores, in Waithe’s words, “the cultural divides among all of us and explore us vs Them in a way we’ve never seen before.” From minute one it holds nothing back. Season 1, also known as Them: Covenant, follows a black family in 1950s America who moves from North Carolina to California during the Second Great Migration. As they battle the threats from their neighbors and beyond their world, the Emorys will have to fight for their survival.

The brilliance of Them lies in its blending of frankness and subtly. The show immediately makes it clear that Emory’s neighbors want nothing to do with this new family. Pristinely dressed housewives and dashing white collar husbands taken straight from I Love Lucy routinely schedule dinner parties solely to scheme how they can get rid of the Emorys. Hearing some of the most vile and racist language spit out over gorgeous pies and perfect red lipstick is sickening. Alison Pill’s Betty Wendell has special talent for portraying this hypocrisy, a garbage person hidden beneath a spotless dress and heels. But even when Them isn’t directly talking about the intense hatred the Emory family has to endure, that racism is still there. It’s felt when the family patriarch Henry (Ashley Thomas) walks into a room and every white head turns to stare. It’s there when one of Livia’s (Deborah Ayorinde) neighbors smiles a bit too widely and waves a bit too robotically. That unease extends to the “good” white people in the show. Even if a hardware store owner or a classmate doesn’t initially appear racist, there’s always a lurking terror. In Them even the most innocuous gestures feel like a veiled threat.

So often those threats are real. At one point the Emorys’ grinning neighbors grab their lawn chairs and radios to circle their home. As they drink iced tea and smile, they also turn up their radios, creating a maddening cacophony every bit as evil as they appear composed. In another episode the eldest daughter Ruby (Shahadi Wright Joseph) is mocked ruthlessly while in class. She’s the one given a detention slip, not her bullies. There’s so much too-real racism in every interaction, there’s barely enough fear left for Them‘s lurking supernatural threats.

It’s difficult to create a show that’s always at its boiling point without feeling like it’s trying too hard. Them has circumvented this obstacle thanks to its markedly talented cast. Thomas plays his veteran-turned-father with a degree of proud fragility that makes you immediately root for him. This is a man who wants what’s best for his family, and you want him to accomplish that simple dream. Shahadi Wright Joseph and Melody Hurd are excellent as Ruby and Gracie Lee, respectively. Joseph fully utilizes her stellar command of gut-wrenching expressions that made her such a force in Us, and Hurd leans into the creepy kid cliche without ever overplaying her hand.

Then there’s Deborah Ayorinde. Ayorinde’s Livia, or “Lucky”, is the soul of this season, both the bleeding heart that makes you love this family and a constant foil to classic leading lady horror tropes. She’s a woman who always acts instead of reacts, asserting herself in a world that wants her to disappear. Alone any one of these actors would keep you watching, but together? They’re a force.

This narrative and acting excellence is consistently complimented by Them‘s beautiful camerawork and inspired soundtrack. You can pause any moment and find a still so deliciously balanced between picturesque Americana and deep-seated evil, each one deserves to be framed. And it would be a mistake to ignore Them‘s musical cues. Carefully remixed versions of older songs such as “Get Happy” and “Ready or Not Here I Come” by The Delfonics appear during Them’s tensest moments. Often these borderline deranged remixes infuse their scenes with a note of dark humor, becoming so important they almost feel like a fifth member of the Emory family.

What’s left is a series that’s sum is greater than its parts. The era of Trump left many Americans — predominantly white Americans — yearning for an older America. Them takes this idyllic fantasy and presents it through a Black lens, transforming it into an endless waking nightmare. Them will leave you gasping for air. But it will also get you to keep pressing play even when you’re at your most terrified.

All episodes of Them: Covenant premiere on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, April 9.

Watch Them on Prime Video starting April 9