by Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon, Audie Cornish, and Ronald Young Jr.

The best horror is the horror that feels true. That’s one of the reasons the new HBO series Lovecraft Country works. The show is created by Misha Green, who also created the series Underground, and adapted from a novel by Matt Ruff. Set in the 1950s, it follows a young Black man (Jonathan Majors) who sets off with his childhood friend (Jurnee Smollett) and his uncle (Courtney B. Vance) to search for his missing father. A series of connected stories follows these characters around and through the very real dangers of being Black in America, and not just in the Jim Crow South. But it also throws in some beasts and ghosts and bloody battles because after all, it’s still horror.