Peacock’s new horror thriller Teacup gets it right. Everything. The mystery. The intrigue. The suspense. The gore. The frights. It’s all there in this series, with a tempting concoction that reminds Stephen King and John Carpenter, the two haymakers of this genre. The show works on so many levels, especially in the capable hands of showrunner/executive producer Ian McCulloch (Yellowstone, Chicago Fire), and executive producers James Wan (The Conjuring, Insidious), and Robert McCammon, to whose bestseller, Stinger, this series was based on. Well, let’s say “inspiration”, because several changes have been made from the original work, which already alarmed the fans of the book. Well, to put it more precisely: fans do freak-out. You know, McCammon’s book had intricate scenes, bomb explosions, and so many things to keep moving along. A few of the primary changes in Teacup are moving the setting of the book from Texas to a ranch in Georgia and omitting all the sub-plots and action of the story that involved dozens of characters. Nonetheless, Ian McCulloch and James Wan have made quite a bold move here as they wanted to focus more on the more personal feelings of the horror with this series.
It has been effective. Exalted by brilliant portrayals of astonishing Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaid’s Tale) and a budding young talent, Caleb Dolden (Follow Me), Teacup is everything you can ask for in a horror thriller. The cast of actors also gives a great performance in a broader perspective. Next, we have actors Scott Speedman (Grey’s Anatomy), Rob Morgan (Lawman: Bass Reeves), Chaske Spencer (The English), Boris McGiver (Servant), Emilie Bierre (A Colony), and Luciano Leroux (Yellowjackets). All in all, these people form a dream cast of Lost-style members.
The logline of Teacup carries: “People of different backgrounds who are in a rural part of Georgia have to fight a common invisible enemy if they wish to live.” In a recent interview with MovieWeb, Ian McCulloch, the showrunner, noted that the main conclusive approach about Teacup was about letting go of the excess and getting to the core of the book. The core, the horror. One would have to wait till half of the second episode for this artistic rope to its creative compositions to fully ensnare you. Anything preceding that while interesting, mostly serves to lay the ground for all the different plot twists and nastiness that is going to come after.
All is fine until the young Arlo Chenoweth is reported missing. The parents of the child James and Maggie and his sister Meryl panic as all of them along with some ranch hands look for the boy all hours of the night. Arlo comes back, beaten with some cuts but otherwise fine. He is coherent and fully functioning. He exhibits strange and irrational behaviours in the days that follow which include whispered talking. This indicates clearly that, Arlo could be recovering mentally from what happened to him. Or, as it appears at this stage, there is something less benign, brewing underneath. So, fun roller-coaster begins, as you wait for the emergence of a very scary looking figure, McNab, clad in gas mask. From about this point on every series starts turning into a puzzle box and the more the scenes pull you in the more they immerse you in the riddle.
The series at best could have just about survived on the premise alone, but there is always something to admire about the effort placed by the showrunner in giving each character a background. These people are not just pale imitations of the people we have interacted before in the story. They are all too real and all too normal. It is like with all marriages, I mean, there are going to be some layers to how Maggie and James are, but in another series, those might get overlooked as the chase for the next action begins. We will have some horror elements in Teacup, but you will also know the horror elements and the people working on the horror skills.
It is to that end that one can see how Ian McCulloch draws from is experience as a producer on the series, Yellowstone which also mastered in building its characters. Ranch worker Ruben (Chaske Spencer) and James’ mother Ellen (Kathy Baker) somehow afford just as much characterization as the show’s crowning highlight, Yvonne Strahovski, who portrays a mother with strong instincts and a devastating wife whose innermost turmoil arises from buried fury revealed in shocking manners.
The creepy McNab was not only the first scary figure that the audience came across but also a crucial character of the mystery plot in question. He lands on location, creates an indelible blue ring around the area, spray paints some words and guns down a placard reading: “Do not pass the line.” James and Ruben observe from a fair distance. And like you, it will not be too long before you see what happens if a person even steps a toe over that crossing. Pure dread at its best.
On this observation, the horror that is provided here will please the fans of the respective genre from the onset remembering the super chills experienced in the movies from the masters of book horrors Stephen King – also, it is said that the author of the king, did give this series’s um thumps up. Best way I can summarize this particular freaky part is good freaky and is good precisely because it is quite fascinating which only raises another head scratch in respect of the beating heart of the show.
As the plot progresses, the characters are eventually divided into various subplots for a while. Some people go into the woodland i.e. represented by the blue line and learn more of the mystery. Others are still barricaded at the ranch and are warding off other forces that are coming in. There is one great performance in this film from Kathy Baker whose role is central to the story. Boris Mcgiver who was so creepy in servant as ally Donald comes here but even his character will not be spared from the menace.
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