First of all spoiler warning to everyone who is yet to watch Lovecraft Country’s premiere on HBO.
The horror genre may be HBO’s most under-represented branch, and that can be easily spotted if anyone takes a look at it. Though that trend is slowly and steadily changing, HBO’s original Lovecraft Country is a step in the right direction for both the audience and fans of the horror genre.
Lovecraft Country is adapted from Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel. Showrunner Misha Green along with her team has combined the weird fiction of horror icon H.P. Lovecraft and Ruff’s novel to create a show that not only drives the viewer back in time but also makes it feel like it could very much take place today.
The Hollywood Tribune lists down at all the WTF moments of Lovecraft Country’s premiere episodes as the show has kicked off in fine form.
The Opening Nightmare Sequence
The show opens to a battle scene during the Korean War, and it transitions from a black-and-white colour tone to a battleground ignited by UFO’s, like the pods in War of the Worlds, as an eager Atticus “Tic” Freeman (Jonathan Major
) looks at the impossible.
MLB legend Jackie Robinson then splits up Cthulhu in half with a baseball bat, and it is revealed that it was only a nightmare Tic was having, but this was a sign of what was about to come.
The Simmonsville Car Chase
After that opening, Lovecraft Country started to develop its plot, and as they introduced the characters, it was only a matter of time when the next WTF moment would land. Which happened during a diner visit and it quickly led to Leti, Tic and George being chased by racists.
The gunfight led them from the suburbs to the highway, which is where a silver Bentley enters the scene causing the racists’ car to flip over. From the silver Bentley steps out Christina, but what is most weird is that it’s not clear what caused the accident as the other car flipped over without actually hitting anything.
That Sundown Car Chase
As Tic, Leti and George stop on the side of the road, they are approached by a policeman who warns them that they are in “sundown town”, a place where non-whites face violence if they are caught in the city limits after dusk.
The cop lets them go, but follows them to the country line and even rams into their vehicle resulting in one of the most terrifying car chases ever shown on TV. The trio successfully managed to get out of the town, but before they could get excited, they realised that more cops were blocking their road ahead.
Arrival Of The Monsters
Just as it looked like Tic, George and Leti were going to be killed and buried, the woods suddenly come to life with hungry shoggoths and immediately severs an arm of a cop with more mayhem following. These monsters were massive and vicious, but at the same time, were also agile.
The Cop’s Transformation
It’s still perplexing on how the cop could walk after his shoulder was turned into blended lasagna. Soon after being hit, he started transforming into one of the beasts. The other cop got so traumatised that he was bitten as well.
Leti arrived at the scene and sent the cop-monster on the run, but the most WTF element was her motivation as firstly, she was honking a lot which drew a lot of attention towards her. Secondly, she obviously could not possibly know that George and Tic were ready, and thankfully they moved out of harm’s way as Leti crashed through the wall.
The Whistle
When it looked like Leti and Tic would have to to stay up all night to make sure that there were enough flares to keep the monsters at bay, a loud whistle was heard, causing the Shoggoths to retreat. This moment in raises a lot of questions for the future of Lovecraft Country.
“We’ve Been Expecting You, Mr Freeman. Welcome Home.”
As the trio survived the night, they arrived at their destination in Ardham which turned out to be a massive mansion. Tic saw the same silver Bentley again, as the trio was greeted at the door by actor Jordan Patrick Smith’s character, who utters the line above.
Stay tuned to The Hollywood Tribune for updates on Lovecraft Country and more news from Hollywood and Beyond!
