Them Series Review: Shocking, relentlessly horrific, but brilliant

Amazon’s excellent horror series Them is so hard-hitting and shocking that it ought to come with multiple trigger warnings

Them is relentlessly brutal to both its characters and the audience. From its theme to the mise en scene, everything about Them necessitates a trigger warning. It has racial commentary, racial abuse, sexual assault, mental health crisis, PTSD, self-harm, violence, infantice, and maltreatment of psychiatric patients.
 
Them follows a black couple, Henry Emory (Ashley Thomas) and Lucky Emory (Deborah Ayorinde), who relocate from Chatham County, North Carolina to East Compton, California along with their two daughters, Ruby Emory (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Gracie Emory (Melody Hurd). The story is set in 1953 and they are amongst the black people who migrated to California during the Great Migration in search of better livelihood. They become the first African-American residents of the neighbourhood called Palmer Drive.

Palmer Drive’s residents feel like characters from a David Fincher movie written by Lars Von Trier. The Emorys are forced to battle racial abuse from their bullying, psychotic neighbours, headed by Betty Wendell (Alison Pill), who have a dream of ‘Keeping Compton White’. However, Emorys have another surprise waiting for them.

READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE:

https://www.cinemaexpress.com/reviews/english/2021/apr/16/them-series-review-shocking-relentlessly-horrific-but-brilliant-23975.html