Honourable mention: Lovecraft Country – season 1

Lovecraft Country Season 1 aired in 2020 and was notable for creating a supernatural show based (very loosely) on Lovecraftian lore but with a primarily black cast – certainly with regards the protagonists in the series. It also included a science fiction/time travel element, along with a multiverse aspect, and drew in world folklore.

As I started to watch I noted a few moments that touched on vampires and I really do mean touch. However later in the series there is an episode (and a character who later recurs) who is most definitely an energy vampire. On balance, however, I decided that the appearances are light in the season and therefore I’d keep to an honourable mention.

War of the Worlds moment

The first vampire reference might be missed – indeed it is a matter of obscure classification. We see a soldier, Tic (Jonathan Majors), in the trenches. The scene is black and white as we begin and moves to colour as a voice-over narrates. But what was a very earthly conflict takes on a new form when we see flying saucers and the tripods of War of the Worlds. And this is our first vampiric moment as, in the novel of War of the Worlds, one can interpret the Martians as alien vampires, feeding on the blood of humanity. All this is a dream as Tic (short for Atticus) rides a segregated bus back to Chicago.

Jonathan Majors as Tic

Tic is a Korean War veteran, who joined the army to get away from his father, Montrose (Michael Kenneth Williams). Back in Chicago his father is missing but a letter talks about his heritage and a place called Ardham. His Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) writes a travel guide for African Americans and agrees to take him (as he researches for the guide) and a childhood friend Leti (Jurnee Smollett) goes with. After escaping a racist attack they end up being walked into woods by a racist sheriff (Jamie Harris, Blood Ransom) and his men. They are saved when creatures attack the cops.

a shoggoth

Earlier Tic has described Shoggoth to Leti and with the multiple eyes these were, I am guessing, a take on Shoggoth. They are also our next vampiric moment. They discover that they are afraid of light – like vampires, George concludes. When one of the cops is bitten he quickly turns into one – again the dialogue states like vampires, and in both cases certainly a knowing use of genre tropes. Having escaped the cops (and the shoggoth) they discover that Tic is being manipulated by an occult society the Sons of Adam. The founder, Titus (Michael Rose), impregnated one of his slaves (the implication being through rape) and Tic is a direct descendent making him, and his blood, special. The next casual vampire reference was discovering that Uncle George’s favourite book is Dracula - interestingly Montrose’s favourite book is the Count of Monte Cristo, which mentions vampires also. I should also mention the racist (and occultist) police captain (Mac Brandt) who had literally stolen black bodies to fix his own injuries, his torso a Frankenstinean patchwork built with the body of a victim.

using the tails to feed

However, Tic was in Korea and the episode "Meet Me in Daegu" is a flashback to his time there and also the story of Ji-Ah (Jamie Chung). Ji-Ah’s mother married her step-father and discovered he was sexually abusing her. To stop him she went to a shaman and she invoked a kumiho – the Korean version of a nine-tail fox – which possessed the daughter. She has been told that if the kumiho takes 100 victims then it will leave the body and Ji-Ah (the human soul) will be restored. Ji-Ah seduces and sleeps with men (the step-father being the first) and during this her nine tails emerge (from various areas of her body, including her eyes) and she devours the man’s soul, taking their memories (she remembers none of Ji-Ah’s past pre-possession). She works as a nurse and Tic originally is to be her 100th victim, as he was part of a squad who killed two nurses whilst looking for a communist spy and then took her best friend (the spy). However, she falls in love with him and tries to fight her nature and this, to me, was one of the strongest episodes of the season.

Jurnee Smollett as Leti

I really rather enjoyed this series. If it had a fault it was that they threw everything in and some of the ideas are under-explored as a result. I have seen criticism of its portrayals of the white characters, most of whom are drawn as racist. However, if you think this went too far then please, stow your privilege. Firstly, this is from a black point of view during the Jim Crow era - from segregation and racially motivated hostility, through to the fearful reactions when the police arrived it screamed authenticity, and the description of the white characters might be uncomfortable for some but will certainly capture the zeitgeist of that era of American history. The Freeman family, specifically, were impacted (in Montrose and George’s childhood) by the Tulsa Massacre and Chicago is shown during Emmett Till's funeral. Again I have read criticism of using those real-life events but to my mind it is important that they are talked about and they add a context to a show where the way humans treat each other make them more monstrous than any eldritch terror.

The imdb page is here.