THEM

THEM CREATOR LITTLE MARVIN INVITES SFX TO JOIN HIM ON A LEAFY ’50S STREET TO EXPERIENCE HIS NEW HORROR ANTHOLOGY SERIES

WORDS: DARREN SCOTT

JANUARY, 2020. YOUR FRIENDLY neighbourhood sci-fi magazine is in Burbank, California to visit the set of a new horror anthology series.

Set in the fall of 1953, Them (previously announced as Them: Covenant), is the story of the Emory family who move from North Carolina to the then all-white suburb of Compton in Los Angeles. The unrelenting horrors they’re subjected to by their new neighbours aren’t the only ones they endure – as supernatural forces within their home threaten to destroy them.

In the studios, the Them offices sprawl across the top floor – rooms full of folders, walls covered in photos of houses, sets and props. Office dog Finn is oblivious, chewing on a bone in the middle of the corridor.

 “It has to have drool!” someone exclaims in the distance, and they’re not talking about Finn. The costume department whisk past, hands full of beautiful vintage women’s clothing – all covered in white paint…

While the commitment to the show is evident, it truly makes sense the moment we step into the office of writer and creator Little Marvin – also an executive producer, alongside others including Lena Waithe. There are framed Hitchcock posters, a Hitchcock action figure – still sealed, natch – plus retro-style lunchboxes for every horror film imaginable.

“It all comes from my lunchboxes!” Marvin laughs loudly. “Yes, I am a fan.” In fact, it all comes from the Master Of Horror himself.

“I grew up reading only Stephen King. It was all I read. I was a big nerd. So I was the kid in the library by myself, reading,” he laughs again. “I just loved disappearing into scary things. Once I was able to see scary movies, The Shining was the first thing I remember vividly going, ‘What is that?’ It just touched me in a place that I was like, ‘This is beyond’. And so I was hooked forever, a lifelong fan of horror.”

REAL HORRORS 

So how has that 12-year-old in the library eventually led us to Them?

“If you’re even paying peripheral attention to the political landscape and where we’re at, as a country,” he explains. “Certainly ideas of division and community and how we exclude  and how there’s a history of exclusion for some, and inclusion for others. All of those things were in my head. At the same time, just as a straight-up horror buff, I’ve always wanted to centre a family, a black family in particular, in the kinds of stories I’ve always loved. I love domestic horror, I love things that are family driven and oriented and psychological and that the horrors maybe bubble up from that place.