The Terror: Infamy (2019) Review
The Terror: Infamy (2019) Review
Lauded series THE TERROR garnered international acclaim from critics and viewers alike and now with a brand-new premise and setting but with the same stunning production values and gripping story lines, the second series THE TERROR: INFAMY is set to hit our screens. Following its run on BBC2, the series is set for its Blu-ray, DVD, and digital release from Acorn Media International on 23 May 2022. The Terror One and Two Box set will also be available on Blu-ray and DVD.
Chester (Derek Mio) lives with his family on Terminal Island, a few miles south of Los Angeles, just off the coast of California. He and his father, Henry (Shingo Usami), are fishermen but Chester seeks more. He’s in love with a Spanish-American student named Luz Ojeda (Cristina Rodlo) and doesn’t understand why his immigrant mother, Asako (Naoko Mori) and father choose to remain confined to a small swath of the big world – especially after travelling so far in the pursuit of freedom.
In the aftermath of Pearl Harbour, the family’s comfortable life is about to change forever as they’re forcibly uprooted and shipped off to an internment camp, where fear lurks in both supernatural and human form. A string of relentless, brutal and bizarre deaths haunts the community, and Chester and his family are menaced by a mysterious and murderous shapeshifting entity. What spirit lies behind The Terror, and can the family overcome it and save those dearest to them?
The first season of THE TERROR was well-produced and acted, with a premise that bode well for living up to the series’ title of offering ‘terror’, as it span out the ill-fated voyage of Sir John Franklin and the HMS Terror. However, as the viewing experience rolled out, it became all too apparent that the ‘terror’ was to be a watered-down affair, aimed less at hard-core horror fans and catering more for a general audience.
The second season tells a different tale, again set in the past rather than the present, and much like the first season it has promise in its storyline but fails to deliver much in the way of real scares or terror. Weaving a semi-historical narrative with modern parallels, co-creators Max Borenstein (Godzilla) and Alexander Woo (True Blood) have delivered a predictable, safe, by the numbers exploration of monstrosity – both mythical and man-made.
The supernatural elements play second-fiddle to the real-life horror of Second World War internment camps, and neither are depicted in a way that brings home the goods, instead it plays as a mediocre drama. Given that is the first major TV depiction of the injustice and internment of 120,000 US citizens with Japanese ancestry, its presentation should not play out like a Sunday evening TV drama, but unfortunately it does.
Star Trek’s George Takei co-stars and served as a consultant for the series, having been imprisoned in not one, but two such camps as a youngster. Perhaps telling his own story would invoke more real ‘terror’ than this anaemic, safe and bland take on the horrors of internment camps given a supernatural tinge.
