--- title: "Lovecraft Country" year: 2020 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/lovecraft-country" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 80 critics_reviews: 13 published: "2026-09-17T03:37:06.213622+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T03:37:06.813054+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Lovecraft Country (2020) Created by Misha Green · 1h 00m · MPA TV-MA · Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 80 from 13 reviews *In a sentence:* A road trip through Jim Crow America where the monsters in the woods are, for once, the light relief > Misha Green’s adaptation of Matt Ruff’s novel starts as the most frightening hour of horror television in years and ends as ten of the busiest. We recommend it, with a warning: the first episode sets a standard the rest cannot keep. ## Synopsis Atticus “Tic” Freeman (Jonathan Majors), back from the Korean War, returns to Chicago’s South Side in the 1950s after a letter from his estranged father Montrose (Michael Kenneth Williams), who has gone missing chasing a family secret in Ardham, Massachusetts. Tic sets off to find him with his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance), who publishes a travel guide for black motorists, and his childhood friend Letitia “Leti” Lewis (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), a photographer with nowhere else to be. On the road a sheriff (Jamie Harris) wants them gone by sundown, and the woods hold something worse. At Ardham, Christina Braithwhite (Abbey Lee) is expecting them. ## Review Misha Green’s series takes its title from H. P. Lovecraft, the New England horror writer whose racism was not incidental to his work, and sets out to give his monsters to the people he feared. Adapted from Matt Ruff’s novel, it follows Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors), home from Korea, on a drive north with his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) and his friend Leti (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) to find his missing father Montrose (Michael Kenneth Williams). The first season runs to ten hour-long episodes. It is a series that would rather try twelve things and drop four than try six and land them all. Our verdict is that the trying is worth your time, and that it is uneven in ways that matter. The opening episode is as good as anything of its kind we have seen. By the tenth the show has spent most of what it had and is running on plot. The scene that frightened us properly comes early. The three travellers are stopped by Sheriff Eunice Hunt (Jamie Harris), who tells them, almost kindly, that they have a few minutes to be out of his county before the sun goes down, and then follows them to make sure. Yann Demange directs it as a slow drive, the car crawling because it cannot be seen to speed, the light going orange behind the trees. Nothing supernatural has happened yet and we could hardly breathe. When the creatures do arrive, many-eyed and fast, they are a release. That is the show’s whole argument in one sequence, and it never puts it better. Tat Radcliffe and Robert McLachlan shoot the human world in warm daylight and the other one in purple and green, and the Ardham lodge, built by production designers Howard Cummings and Kalina Ivanov as a place of carved wood and long tables, looks like a country house that has been waiting for guests it intends to eat. Laura Karpman and Raphael Saadiq supply the score, and Green lays songs recorded decades after the setting over 1950s streets. We expected to hate this and did not. It makes the point that the past is not over without anyone having to say so. The cast carries the rest. Majors plays Tic as a large man who has learned to stand still, and Smollett-Bell gives Leti a temper that keeps the scenes moving when the writing stalls. Wunmi Mosaku, as Ruby Baptiste, is the best thing in it, and gets an episode of her own that we will not describe except to say it is the one hour where the horror and the argument about race are the same thing at the same moment. Williams makes Montrose a father you understand without forgiving, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s Hippolyta, George’s wife, has a stretch late on that moved us more than the plot around it deserved. What does not work is the shape. Green and her writers send each episode off in a different direction, a haunted house here, a Korean war story there, a treasure hunt, a time slip, and the four credited editors, Joel T. Pashby, Marta Evry, Chris Wyatt and Bjorn T. Myrholt, are asked to cut across places and decades at a pace that flattens the differences. The mythology of the Braithwhite family, with its spells and books and bloodlines, is explained at length and matters less each time. Abbey Lee’s Christina is more interesting when she is a threat in a doorway than when she is delivering the rules. Lovecraft wrote about the dread of the unknown from the point of view of a man who found most of humanity unknown. Green’s answer is to put a black family in his New England and let the actual horrors of the period, the sundown towns and the sheriff’s deputies, sit beside the invented ones. When the show trusts that idea it is fierce. When it reaches for a bigger plot it becomes ordinary fantasy television, well dressed. Watch the first three episodes. If they hold you, keep going, and accept that the later hours will be louder and less sure of themselves. If they do not, nothing after will change your mind. *Fi1m score 74, published 17 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (13) - **The Guardian** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it great television that prioritizes thrilling action-adventure while embedding a prescient message about racism; praises its heart and emotional family drama akin to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/aug/17/lovecraft-country-review-are-people-scarier-than-monsters) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (85/100, inferred): The review hails the audacious mash-up of pulp fiction, topicality, and gore, praising the cast (especially Jurnee Smollett) and calling it impossible to be ambivalent about. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/lovecraft-country-review-1306320/) - **Vulture**, Matt Zoller Seitz (85/100, inferred): The review highlights how the series blurs monsters from Lovecraftian fiction with real-world racism and human threats in segregated 1950s America. It singles out the strong grasp of pacing, tone, and thematic depth for praise. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/lovecraft-country-hbo-series-review.html) - **The i Paper**, Sarah Hughes (80/100, inferred): The critic calls the series an absolute delight and a fun, wide-eyed homage to pulp fiction that expertly weaves Jim Crow-era racism with horror and fantasy elements. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/lovecraft-country-sky-atlantic-review-an-absolute-delight-from-beginning-to-very-gory-end-581779) - **The Telegraph** (4/5): The critic finds the series finale a fitting end to an exuberant, messy and ambitious show that defied expectations with its bold, bonkers blend of fantasy-horror and racial themes. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2020/10/19/lovecraft-country-finale-review-fitting-end-ambitious-show-year/) - **The Times**, Hugo Rifkind (80/100, inferred): The critic describes the series as unlike anything else, brutal and righteously furious in confronting racism by equating white people with the monsters in its 1950s setting. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/lovecraft-country-review-this-is-like-nothing-else-brutal-and-righteously-furious-d9p3fmhhl) - **Variety**, Daniel D'Addario (65/100, inferred): The critic notes the stylish and clever use of horror traditions to explore American racism but finds the characters underdeveloped and the series more focused on Lovecraftian shocks than deeper advancement. [Read](https://variety.com/2020/tv/reviews/lovecraft-country-review-1234727528/) - **Empire**, Kambole Campbell (60/100, inferred): The review finds promise in the premise and strong leads but faults the uneven execution, flat main plot, and some anachronistic choices that undermine the impact. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/lovecraft-country/) - **Den of Geek**, Nicole Hill (5/5): The critic praises it as an enthralling tale about legacy, fear, and power that doesn't tiptoe around the horrors of anti-Blackness. They single out the layered performances by the stellar cast for praise. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/lovecraft-country-review-spoiler-free/) - **Collider**, Kay B (A-): The critic describes the series as a chilling, heartfelt, dark, intriguing, and overwhelming piece of art that delivers intense, action-packed episodes with strong themes. They single out the multi-layered performances and exploration of generational curses and racism for praise. [Read](https://collider.com/lovecraft-country-hbo-review-misha-green/) - **/Film**, Chris Evangelista (85/100, inferred): The review calls the series spellbinding for blending human and otherworldly horrors in a bold, rule-breaking way that reclaims Lovecraftian themes from a Black perspective. It singles out the vivid, anachronistic soundscape and creepy creature effects for praise. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/575821/lovecraft-country-review/) - **Paste**, Jacob Oller (8.4/10): The critic finds the pulpy adaptation savvy, sensational, and gripping scene-by-scene, with an incredible ensemble and bold visuals that make genre tropes fresh. They single out the perspective on racism and the needledrops for praise, while noting some uneven overarching storytelling. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/lovecraft-country/lovecraft-country-review) - **NME**, Dan Seddon (3/5): The critic finds the series visually stunning and energetic after a mind-blowing debut but criticizes its multi-stranded narrative for growing sillier and less focused. They single out the rich purple visual design for particular praise. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/lovecraft-country-review-hbo-2727096) ## Details - **Created by:** Misha Green - **Creator:** Misha Green - **Director:** Daniel Sackheim, Victoria Mahoney, Yann Demange, Cheryl Dunye - **Story:** Wes Taylor, Misha Green, Ihuoma Ofordire - **Teleplay:** Misha Green, Jonathan Kidd, Sonya Winton-Odamtten, Shannon Houston, Ihuoma Ofordire, Kevin Lau - **Novel:** Matt Ruff - **Cinematography:** Robert McLachlan, Tat Radcliffe - **Editor:** Marta Evry, Joel T. Pashby, Bjorn T. Myrholt, Chris Wyatt - **Music:** Raphael Saadiq, Laura Karpman - **Production design:** Kalina Ivanov, Howard Cummings - **Producer:** Christina Varotsis, Dana Robin - **Cast:** Jonathan Majors as Atticus "Tic" Freeman; Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Letitia ‘Leti’ Lewis; Wunmi Mosaku as Ruby Baptiste; Abbey Lee as Christina Braithwhite; Michael Kenneth Williams as Montrose Freeman; Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Hippolyta Freeman; Jamie Chung as Ji-Ah; Courtney B. Vance as George Freeman - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 16 August 2020 - **Genres:** Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy ## Where to watch in the US - HBO Max: streaming, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Hulu: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd - Apple TV: buy, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IS, IT, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Watchmen* (2019): Another American genre series that puts Tulsa and race at its centre, and holds together better - *Candyman* (1992), Fi1m 81: Chicago housing, a legend that punishes disbelief, and a hook you will not forget — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/candyman.md) - *His House* (2020): Wunmi Mosaku again, in a haunted council flat where the ghost is what you fled - *Ganja & Hess* (1973): Black American horror before anyone called it that; strange, slow and unrepeatable - *The Underground Railroad* (2021), Fi1m 86: Barry Jenkins’s history rewritten as fable, patient where Lovecraft Country is hurried — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-underground-railroad.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/lovecraft-country