Last summer AMC unleashed The Terror, a chilling adaptation of Dan Simmons’ eponymous book. Jared Harris and Ciaran Hinds starred as British naval commanders leading men to their death unwittingly in a race to cross the North Pole and arctic ocean for a lucrative trade route.
The anthology series continues this summer, as AMC released the first official trailer for The Terror: Infamy, a wholly new story based on historical events with overtones of the supernatural as the predecessor did as well.
The creatives are stellar: Ridley Scott produces, the screenplay written by Alexander Woo and Max Borenstein.
The historical stain of America’s Japanese internment camps is the root of the story that stars a top-notch ensemble cast whose characters are not only betrayed by their country, but also sit prey to demon possessions and evil forces amidst their suffering and violation of basic human rights.
Actor and activist George Takei is one of the stars, and he was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! where he spoke of his family’s experience inside a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War.
It underscores the gravitas of this effort by AMC and Scott to bring this story into a creative light that heightens the horror aspects of it all.
Takei described how he was born in Southern California and is an American but after Pearl Harbor, his family, and anyone else who looked like them on the West Coast, were rounded up and sent to 10 barb wire internment camps. He explained this was without a trial or due process, just because they were Japanese-Americans.
“Our family was sent two-thirds of the way across the country, the farthest east, in the swamps of Arkansas,” Takei said. Other internment camps were located in Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona.
Takei said that his father tried to use this as a life lesson, explaining that democracy is only as strong as the people, which also makes it fallible.
The official synopsis reads:
“Set during World War II, the haunting and suspenseful second season of the horror-infused anthology, ‘The Terror: Infamy,’ centers on a series of bizarre deaths that haunt a Japanese-American community, and a young man’s journey to understand and combat the malevolent entity responsible.”
Who stars in The Terror: Infamy?
Derek Mio stars as Chester Nakayama; Kiki Sukezane as Yuko, and Cristina Rodlo as Luz.
Also appearing are Shingo Usami as Henry Nakayama, Naoko Mori as Asako Nakayama, Miki Ishikawa as Amy, a Nakayama family friend, and Takei as Yamato-san, a community elder. C. Thomas Howell also stars as Retired Major Hallowell Bowen, working with the War Relocation Authority.
Past accolades
The first season of the AMC series was on Monsters & Critics Best Programming of 2018 list, writing:
“This one was a genre sidewinder. AMC’s horror series had touches of the supernatural and that period piece feel that British TV excels at, yet was so frightening it made the summertime (when it aired) feel icy cold.”
The Terror: Infamy will premiere on Aug. 12. on AMC