AMC’s Dark Anthology Horror Series Discovers New Audience on Netflix

The first season of AMC’s acclaimed horror anthology series, The Terror, is making waves on Netflix. According to ReelGood, The Terror landed in the tenth spot among the top shows across all streaming platforms for the week of August 22 through 28. Netflix (which holds the most subscribers of any streaming service) is introducing the series to wider audiences, which is being discovered, or rediscovered in some cases, six years after its original premiere. It’s all in good timing, too, as The Terror was greenlit for a third season in February.

The Terror arrived on Netflix in August after a deal between the streamer and AMC. That deal also saw several other popular AMC shows, including the critically lauded Interview with the Vampire and Dark Winds, make their debut on the streaming platform.

Based on Dan Simmons’s 2007 novel of the same name, Season 1, which premiered in 2018, offered a fictionalized account of John Franklin’s lost expedition to the Arctic from 1845 to 1848 aboard the HMS Terror and her sister ship HMS Erebus. In real life, the men aboard the ships mysteriously disappeared. The series relies on a supernatural element to offer its version of events leading up to that disappearance. The show’s first season holds an impressive 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising its incredible cast (comprised of stars Jared Harris, Ciarán Hinds, Tobias Menzies, and Paul Ready), and its ability to excel in both its drama and horror elements. As JoBlo‘s review states, “‘The Terror’ is a top-notch drama that also works as one of the scariest series in recent television history.”

The Terror‘s second season, subtitled Infamy, centered on World War II’s West Coast, and followed a Japanese American community as they faced rising suspicion. The Terror: Infamy is not streaming on Netflix, but all episodes are available on AMC+.

Dan Stevens Joins The Terror for Season 3

While The Terror is described as a “supernatural, semi-historical, horror anthology series, where each season is inspired by a different infamous or mysterious real life historical tragedy,” the third season will rely on a fiction novel as its source material. Titled The Terror: Devil in Silver, the upcoming season is inspired by Victor LaValle’s novel, The Devil in Silver. The novel follows a man named Pepper who is wrongfully committed into a psychiatric hospital. Terror awaits, and Pepper finds himself joining forces with other patients to battle a terrifying creature that resides within the hospital. Legion and Abigail actor Dan Stevens will lead the season as Pepper and serve as an executive producer. Judith Light, CCH Pounder, and Chinaza Uche will appear alongside Stevens. LaValle and Chris Cantwell are adapting the novel for the screen.

Stevens will executive produce The Terror: Devil in Silver alongside Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker for Scott Free Productions, Cantwell, Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert for Emjag Productions, Guymon Casady for Entertainment 360, Brooke Kennedy, and Karyn Kusama. Kusama, known for helming Jennifer’s Body and The Invitation will direct the first two episodes of The Terror: Devil in Silver.