The monster in AMC’s new season of The Terror takes human form
The Terror: Infamy really has nothing to do with last year’s The Terror, which was based on a novel and was about a monster stalking 19th century explores in the Arctic. Instead it takes the title to tell another kind of supernatural story set in a completely different time period. It takes place in WWII, and tells a ghost story with an almost entirely Japanese (and Japanese-American) cast, centering around the internment camps, one of the most shameful chapters in U.S. history.
As admirable as that premise is, and as refreshing as it is to see a show centering Japanese actors, the series ends being about 50/50 on the internment camps versus the ghost story. Or maybe even 60-40 (in the spirit’s favor). The good news is that both stories work, the show is wonderfully produced and acted, but you can’t help but find the internment camp storyline more compelling, especially given the comparisons to the current political climate and the detention centers along the border. One of the horrors of this is realizing that even the internment camps were more humane than what’s going on right now. But the stain of how wrong it was to do what we did cannot be glanced over, and the early scenes of wholly innocent families rounded up and displaced to various prison centers for 3-4 years is haunting.
A curse follows him everywhere
But since it’s called The Terror, there has to be some kind of supernatural occurrence, and this comes in the form of a yurei (an ancient Japanese spirit) who stalks Chester (Derek Mio), the twenty something American born son of a family that harbors secrets in its immigrant past. Chester is in love with Luz (Cristina Rodlo) a Mexican woman who’s pregnant with his child, and the secrets of bloodlines are crucial to the spirit’s grudge. There is a lot of sudden death in this, as the yurei takes possession of multiple inhabitants, and the horror is effective, which is lucky, because Chester’s curse takes over the series more and more towards the end. But you can’t help but wish that a more grounded story regarding Japanese internment during WWII could have been told here, without the ghosts and magic and murder. Not that the ghost story doesn’t work, but it feels occasionally like two different shows running alongside each other and if you asked me which one I’d rather watch, I’d choose the former.
Even so, they bring the series to a satisfying conclusion and the only real problem I had with the story of the yurei is the way Chester truly is the impending doom of every character he comes in contact with because of the way he attempts to deal with his demon (and he doesn’t quite seem to realize just how much death he’s caused to people around him even by the end of this). But I want there to be more shows made that highlight the history of marginalized groups in this country and learning about the ancient beliefs and rituals of Japanese horror stories is one of the perks of this series. Plus, the yurei (played very well by Kiki Sukezane) is cool. But I think focusing on one of its main plots over the other would have sharpened and strengthened the overall impact.
Grade: B
Wartime images conjure up uncomfortable reminders of America’s sins against our own people
