Teacup review: James Wan-produced sci-fi horror series

Last Updated on October 14, 2024

PLOT: Follows a disparate group of people in rural Georgia who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat in order to survive. Inspired by the New York Times bestselling novel “Stinger” by Robert McCammon.

REVIEW: The name James Wan attached to a production likely makes you think you are in for something similar to The Conjuring or Insidious. The filmmaker has become synonymous with scary movies as much as he has directed big-budget tentpoles like Aquaman and Furious 7. Still, his prowess as a producer has fostered several cool projects under his Atomic Monster banner in recent years. The new series Teacup carries Wan’s name recognition but is the brainchild of Ian McCulloch. Inspired by the Robert McCammon novel Stinger, Teacup is a unique and original foray into genre storytelling that combines horror, science fiction, and family drama for a creepy drama series that is much more than the teasers will have you believe.

Set on the isolated farmstead of the Chenoweth family, Teacup opens with Maggie (Yvonne Strahovski) and her husband, James (Scott Speedman), dealing with a personal rift. Their relationship is tenuously held together for the sake of their daughter, Meryl (Emilie Bierre), and young son, Arlo (Caleb Dolden), along with James’ mother, Ellen (Kathy Baker). When neighbors Ruben Shanley (Chaske Spencer), his wife Valeria (Diany Rodriguez), and son Nicholas (Luciano Leroux) bring their injured horse to be checked out by Maggie, they must also search for Arlo, who goes missing in the woods. Donald Kelly (Boris McGiver) arrives looking for his lost dog, and soon, they all find themselves trapped by a mysterious force that will brutally kill them if they cross it. Gas-masked sporting stranger McNab (Rob Morgan) warns them not to cross the line, and soon, they all learn that a more sinister situation is unfolding that echoes the popular video game Among Us: an entity has arrived that leaves everyone wondering who the wolf is lurking amongst the sheep.

Thrust together the families include complexities that I will not spoil here that add to the challenge of staying alive with people you do not fully trust. The arrival of outsiders who know what the entity is adds to the complex narrative at play in the series. What I anticipated to be a supernatural or horror series is much more layered as Teacup hews closer to science fiction. The core narrative remains similar to the novel that inspired it, but Teacup changes the setting from an urban setting to the rural environs of Georgia. The diverse cast centers on family units and how parents and children react when their seemingly idyllic lives are disrupted in an apocalyptic fashion. There is a War of the Worlds sensibility to Teacup that echoes the isolationist feel of Stephen King’s Under the Dome. Still, keeping the ensemble small gives us more time with each character as they develop over the first eight-season episode.

What helps sell Teacup is the talented cast. Led by Yvonne Strahovski, best known for the spy series Chuck and her awards-worthy turn in The Handmaid’s Tale, the cast fully inhabit their characters. Scott Speedman plays a more mature variation on his character from The Strangers, while Boris McGiver is great in a less creepy role compared to his recent turn in M. Night Shyamalan’s Servant. Chaske Spencer (Echo) and Rob Morgan (Daredevil) are both fantastic as always, especially Morgan, who is a chameleon in supporting roles but has much more to do in this prominent performance. The younger cast members are good, with Caleb Dolden evoking an eerie character well beyond his years. Kathy Baker is a welcome return to the small screen, but this series never feels small despite the limited distance the characters can venture. That isolation helps add to the anxiety and tension in the story while setting up what will come next if the series gets a sophomore run.

Series creator Ian McCulloch has experience writing on procedural series like Chicago Fire and Deputy but uses his time scripting for Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone to mine the familial drama and tension that is central to Teacup. Yes, this is a genre project, but it focuses more on the characters than the supernatural. Four directors split duties helming the eight-episode first season, including E.L. Katz (The Haunting of Bly Manor, V/H/S/94), John Hyams (Chucky), Chloe Okuno (Let The Right One In), and Kevin Tancharoen (Titans, Warriors). All of the directors have experience with genre projects and use the look and feel of horror and sci-fi to subvert expectations with this story. Yes, there is a reliance on special effects in places to augment the eerie and otherworldly parts of the narrative. Still, most of Teacup is told in a grounded, realistic way that focuses on this story’s psychological and human side, which is anything but grounded in reality.

By parsing out Teacup in half-hour chapters, Ian McCulloch has crafted a series that shifts from what you expect in the trailers within the first thirty minutes and then continues to upend your expectations with every subsequent episode. Teacup is not horror, but it is scary. It is not science fiction, nor is it solely a realistic drama. Regardless of genre conventions, this series is a thriller with a unique twist that keeps you engaged and trying to figure out the truth from the opening scene to the credits of the season finale. This is not a limited series, so there is a plan to expand this story beyond this first thread of the narrative, setting Teacup to potentially be the next big serial drama hit. I had a blast watching this story and figuring out what would come next. I would have liked some more concrete answers by the end of the season, but I am bought into sticking with this story wherever it goes next.

Teacup premieres with two episodes on Peacock on October 10th.