According to the official press release, “Devil in Silver” concerns the story of a man named Pepper, an unlucky hothead who ends up being erroneously committed to a mental institution known as the New Hyde Psychiatric Hospital. While there, Pepper becomes convinced that actual demons may reside within the walls of the hospital, feeding off the suffering of the patients, and that even the Devil himself may be involved.
Right away, the series seems to be placing itself within the traditions of H.P. Lovecraft while also riffing on hospital horror — there are shades of films like Steven Soderbergh’s “Unsane” and series like Lars Von Trier’s “The Kingdom” within that premise. Most intriguing, the press release fails to specify exactly what time period the show will be set during; from what this writer could dig up, LaValle’s novel was set in the then-present of 2012, so whether this will be the first contemporary season of “The Terror” or whether the creators will set the tale in a different era remains to be seen.
What’s abundantly clear is how excited Cantwell, LaValle, and Kusama are to be making it and working with each other. Cantwell describes the lead character of Pepper as a man “arriving at a life-or-death crossroads where he must face the Devil without and within.” LaValle promises the series will hold “some pretty twisted thrills,” and Kusama calls the season “mind-bending” and “heart-wrenching,” and coming from a filmmaker who’s made features and episodes of the hit-show “Yellowjackets” that actually deliver on those terms, her words are likely not just empty promises.
We’ll find out for sure when “The Terror: Devil in Silver” debuts on AMC in 2025.