Horror has always been one of the more enticing genres to sit down and watch. It draws people in and keeps them on the edge of their seats, giving the occasional jump-scare and spine-tingle. With the right music, environment, and aesthetic, a horror experience can affect an audience so deeply that they think about it for days, weeks, or even years after the initial viewing. Nothing could be closer to the truth when it comes to Epix’s new horror series From.
The series, which premiered on February 20, 2022, catapulted viewers into a terrifying array of mystery and monsters. In the first episode, viewers were introduced to a mystifying middle-American town that captures its inhabitants and never lets them leave. However, that is not where the horror aspect stops. Surrounding the town, an eerie forest houses nocturnal monsters that have the ability to disguise themselves as ordinary people, able to lure victims into their clutches.
*From has been officially renewed for a second season to premiere sometime in 2023. Here’s what to know about the series!
Updated July 2022 by Ted Bajer: If you’re looking for more information on the Epix series From, you’ll be happy to know that we’ve added an update to this article.
From’s Cast, Crew, & Characters
Created and written by John Griffin, the show was initially meant to be a series on YouTube Red. It soon moved to Epix after YouTube Premium went with solely unscripted programming. The show has a laundry list of incredible executive producers at the front, including Jeff Pinkner (Lost, Fringe) and the Russo Brothers (Avengers Endgame, Extraction). Also involved is executive producer Jack Bender (Lost, Mr. Mercedes), who directed the first four episodes of the premiere season. Instantly, audiences expected the show to favor the eerie ambiance of Bender and Pinkner’s previous Emmy Award Winning series Lost. This, in turn, created some buzz for the series premiere.
In May of 2021, Harold Perrineau was cast in the horror series, alongside Eion Bailey and Catalina Sandino Moreno as the leads. Perrineau, who is no stranger to the strange, is best known for his work in Lost as well as films like The Matrix (1999) and Romeo & Juliet (1996) and takes the spotlight as Boyd Stevens, the sheriff. Bailey and Moreno, who portray the patriarch and matriarch of a family unwittingly lured into the town, are also familiar names featured in Once Upon a Time (2012) and American Gothic (2016), respectively.
The rest of the cast includes David Alpay as Jade, Elizabeth Saunders as Donna, Shaun Majumder as Father Khatri, Scott McCord as Victor, Ricky He as Kenny Liu, Chloe Van Landschoot as Kristi, Pegah Ghafoori as Fatima, Corteon Moore as Ellis Stevens, Hannah Cheramy as Julie Matthews, Simon Webster as Ethan Matthews, Avery Konrad as Sara, Paul Zinno as Nathan, and Elizabeth Moy as Tian-Chen Liu.
That Eerie Feeling
The show gives viewers a heaping dose of the Lost aesthetic that they were expecting. With an eerie forest, a desolate town, and a grittiness to it, the show takes the audience to a place where everything and anything could happen. Production designer Matt Likely even considers the town to be that of another character itself, requiring burnt-out cars, abandoned buildings, and nothing in the way of the modern world. This is done to give a timelessness to the set and lends to the overall decay.
But it is not only the environment that lends to the mysterious nature of the horror series but also the writing and ominous questions the plot gives. As one watches the series, one is left wondering many things about the story. Where did the town come from? Where did the monsters come from? Why can the residents never leave? All these questions seem to be very similar to those asked when Lost first premiered.
This is drawn from a technique that Lost co-creator J. J. Abrams used called “mystery box storytelling,” which he discussed in a 2007 TEDTalk. It was here he admitted that he never had any idea where the story was actually going at the moment. It was all about the tease and creating suspense, hence why audiences never grasped the plot. There are still many theories and threads on the “meaning” of the show to this day. This is what From creators are trying to duplicate.
From’s Rave Reviews
Since the premiere of the Epix series, From has garnered many top reviews. From the expanses of Twitter to Rotten Tomatoes, where the horror show has an audience score of 94%, From is raking in the praises. One Twitter user said after watching Euphoria, “my mom and I just finished the first 3 episodes of a new Epix show called From, and it BANGS!” Others raved that “if you want a peaceful sleepless night, then we recommend you watch #From Epix right now” and “if you haven’t checked out From on Epix, you’re missing out on a really creepy series…”
*With so many commendations, the show certainly has the makings of another intricate and award-worthy series, much like its predecessor Lost. The show is already drawing new and old fans of horror alike, and the numbers just keep rising.
From Season 2
*The series has been renewed for a second 10-episode season. As reviews only grew as the show went on, it must have been an easy call for executives to make. Production is ongoing in Halifax, Nova Scotia this summer and a premiere date is expected to be set sometime in 2023.
Season 2 is meant to focus more on the origins of this strange town. Deadline quoted the president of Epix, Michael Wright saying:
“We have been delighted by the social conversation generated by the From community and can’t wait to unravel more of this mysterious story with our passionate fans in season two.”
How to Watch
From is between seasons at the moment, but it is available to watch in the U.S. on Philo Epix as an add-on to FuboTV and on Amazon Prime. The first season will play on ScyFy’s rebranded network Sky SciFi soon. International viewers can catch it on Netflix.