welcome to Lovecraft Country… or um, you know … welcome to America for Black people.
Based on the Matt Ruff novel of the same name, Lovecraft Country follows Atticus “Tic” Freeman (Jonathan Majors) who takes a road trip from Chicago through the 1950s to Jim Crow America to find his missing father Montrose (Michael Kenneth Williams). His childhood friend Letitia, aka Leti (Jurnee Smollett) and Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) join him in the mysterious and difficult journey that reveals dark secrets, inspired by the book by HP Lovecraft.
In this gripping and exciting adaptation, historical themes and horror elements meet as a strong reminder and reflection of America. The great image of Tic is realized in the grotesque and gore-filled monsters that haunt the mysterious city. As a Black viewer, however, you have to ask: Are these creatures the scariest monsters of them all? Or are they really the white people sprinkled throughout Jim Crow South, or the well-meaning white people … or just … white supremacy, period?
Along with getting a sneak peek of the first half of Lovecraft Country, I sat (almost) with Majors, Smollett and show maker showrunner Misha Green to discuss the themes of the show and how extremely relevant they are. This may be a period piece, but there’s nothing about this show’s dissertation that is outdated …period.
“It feels like black people, by definition black, have more ability to survive in a horror movie,” Green said. The root.
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Although producer Jordan Peele receives top billing in much of the press / promotion for the film because of its notability within the genre, i (and others) can not stress enough how important it is to mark Green here as the showmaker, writer and showrunner for this upcoming series. It’s been three-and-a-half years since Green first wrote the script, and wearing this multiple hat in a lead role comes with its own kinds of challenges. A striking challenge is, of course, the daily challenge of living as a Black woman – who also happens to be a Black creator of a much-anticipated series that addresses very important and relevant themes about race.
“I walk through this world not only as a Black person, but also as a woman,” Green added. ‘It’s literally, you’re in a horror movie [with] monsters at every turn. I think the awareness of that has become more [clear] for more people than just the people who were previously aware of it. Everyone seemed like, ‘is this really that hard for you?’ And I’m like, ‘absolutely!’ It’s a feat, this show … where it is today … It’s a feat! I do not know how I did it. I probably had to quit to do it [and] to make it this way. It’s everywhere. […] It’s the experience of ‘the other’ in America … and I think probably [even extending to the] world that it is a horror story. ”
“I think there are ghosts,” Majors concluded The root. ‘Then you have your guardian angel, right? There’s a ghostly ghost. It kind of sits with you. As you move more in the world, [that is something that] really shot into your insecurity. You know, the fact that you do not fit the model – I’m talking here as an actor – you do not have blond hair and blue eyes … you carry weight. Your emotion comes in a way that is unrecognizable in some forms and not accepted in mediums. My anger and rage can be detrimental to my safety, you know? And that ghost is just a society I grew up in … that we all grew up in and that’s an invisible ghost, you know. “
“Even the physical is literally walking the path,” Majors continued. ‘I have two dogs and do not ride. That I’m always vulnerable when I walk down the street. You know, you can see it’s a six foot Black man. And he sees the way he looks and sounds like I do. It’s not all … it’s not every single person. But every now and then you get one man looking at you … and you can always tell the guy … that you know, in trouble. And they have a certain power to them that they have not earned. “
One of the titillating aspects of horror as a member of the audience is that push-and-pull dance, where you keep your breathing constant, then the big scare happens, and then you are able to release that breath . You can exhale. But, wait … there’s more! The tension is a constant force, never let go. Sounds like living in the horror story, known as America, to me. As black people, we can never really breathe. We can not breathe.
As Smollett noted, the legacy of the systemic racism on which this nation was built is a “blood memory”, and it is in the “dust” of this country. Black Americans are tired – tired of this real horror story and the constant follow-up. It’s like a sinister syndication.
“What encourages me is that there is such a spirit of disruption,” Smollett said The root. ‘And my prayer is that we have not wandered in the wilderness for forty years. We do not need another Trayvon Martin to remind us of Emmett Till. We do not need that. We do not need another Breonna Taylor to see that this system does not work and that ‘one-size-fits-all’ does not actually fit all. When we ask for decoupling from these systems, when we say we need to support initiatives by the community, it is because the community is dying and being murdered. ”
Lovecraft Country premieres on Sunday, August 16 at 9pm ET / 6pm PT on HBO.
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