set off a season of protest, its message — that
there are two kinds of monsters, and sometimes
they overlap — feels pure 2020, an extension of
work like Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” and “Us.”
“I thought the world was one way, and I found
out it isn’t. And that terrifies me,” one main
character says, leaving us to wonder: Which
horror does she mean? As showrunner Misha
Green tweeted recently: “Nothing is scarier than
real American history.”
“Lovecraft Country” got, instinctually, what
Americans are absorbing as 2020 lurches along:
What we’ve been trained by Hollywood and
Halloween to consider frightening might pale
compared to what’s around daily life’s next corner.
Are your finances uncertain? Unemployment
might be your horror. Pre-existing health
condition? As daunting as a murderer in a
hockey mask. And if you are a young Black man
who gets pulled over by police, the fear could