Hit Or Miss: Lovecraft Country Reclaims The Narrative

There is no more powerful collaboration in the world of sci-fi than having both Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams. Lovecraft Country, based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Matt Ruff, is a new American drama horror television series developed by Misha Green for HBO. It follows the journey of Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors), Letitia Lewis (Jurnee Smollett), and his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) across 1950’s Jim Crow America, searching for Atticus’ missing father.

The terror of racism in White America is joined by terrifying monsters roaming out of an H.P. Lovecraft novel. What the series explores delivers a world through time to the present, when many similarities remain. H.P. Lovecraft, a literature legend and notorious racist, feared the others’ invasion of the white race and created the horror stories to sketch down his prejudice. The hero, ironically named Atticus, set out on his journey to find his missing father somewhere in New England referred to as “Lovecraft country.” Rifled with Lovecraftian monsters, the bigger threat in this town comes in the form of racist laws and policing. There is a striking resemblance in today’s America.

There has been craving for Black heroes in sci-fi, since the paramount success of Black Panther (2018) and John Boyega’s unforgettable performance in Star Wars. Jordan Peele, with the sweeping success of Get Out (2017) and Us (2019), also created a narrative in the world of horror stories to center Black experiences. Jonathan Majors, whose breakout performance in The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) shook the audience to their core, recalled a profound effect the script of Lovecraft County had on him during an interview.

"I was, in many ways, amazed that this was written. 'And he's a Black guy? Atticus is Black? That's the guy? That's who we're following?'" Majors continued, "What has happened in the writing and in the making of it with Atticus and everybody, you kind of get to explore not just the archetypal ideas of what we tend to play. He's not just this soldier, that's pretty common. He's also a bibliophile. He also gets to travel; he's an adventurer. He has all of these ideas. He's a strong body, he's a strong mind, he's a strong heart. All that was apparent to me in the reading of the script¦ And the connections. You look for the character and who he's connected to -- like fatherhood, what it is to be a son, what it is to be a Black son, what it is to grow up in a Black community at a time where that was a very unexplored area. We didn't have any stories about that.

Jurnee Smollett expressed that this series, although fantastical, explores issues Black Americans face today. “Unfortunately as we're seeing, sometimes our police departments are, as [activist] Angela Davis calls 'one of the most dramatic examples of structural racism.' And tapping into the systemic racism that our nation is built upon is a dark place to go to but it's necessary," Smollett said. "This story, as one of my teachers refers to, is blood money. It's something that reverberates through our DNA -- this visceral connection to the oppression of our people. That's why these stories, we're still telling them. When you tap into those stories that we are tapping into in Lovecraft, there's a familiar emotion that it brings up for sure. But again... we had each other. I don't know if I would have survived the show... without having my brothers and my sisters in arms.”

Lovecraft County, ridden with horror, is not afraid of the difficult conversation. It is a look inside the African American experience, lifting up the nuances, the humor, and humanity; The new HBO series offers the audience an opportunity to uplift and celebrate exactly that. When an artist creates a horror story, their responsibility is to unveil the horror and observe the human condition. Lovecraft County is reclaiming the narrative and more than a tribute to H.P. Lovecraft; It is one series not to be missed.

Lovecraft Country premieres August 16 on HBO.

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