[Warning: Spoilers ahead for From seasons 1 and 2]
Shot in the cinematically underutilized province of Nova Scotia, From has been one of the most pleasant surprises from the TV horror sphere in recent years.
The show is set in an unnamed, rundown Middle American town, from which unwitting travellers seemingly cannot leave once they enter, hard as they might try. What’s worse, vicious nocturnal monstrosities hunt those trapped in the town, making each night a bid to survive, particularly when they are without special talismans that guards any abode containing one. At the centre of all this is Boyd Stevens (played by veteran actor Harold Perrineau), the appointed sheriff and leader of the town’s survivors, who first came to the town with his son and wife, though he tragically had to take the latter’s life when she suddenly started gunning down innocent people. Meanwhile, one of the most recent unwilling tenants of the town, Tabatha Matthews (played by Oscar nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno), her husband Jim (Eion Bailey) and their daughter Julie Matthews (Hannah Cheramy) are the lens through which the audience learns what it means to come to terms with this waking nightmare.
If any of that sounds even somewhat similar to Lost, even just going by the monosyllabic title, then you are not mistaken. There are several people involved from the hit show, such as producers Jeff Pinkner and Jack Bender (who has also directed episodes for both shows), while lead actor Perrineau played a major role in Lost for multiple seasons. And much like Lost, From builds on one tantalizing mystery after another, where for every answer two more questions arise, though it has yet to become tiresome like Lost did in its later seasons.
As From’s second season came to a close, we discovered that Perrineau’s Boyd had unknowingly unleashed an evil entity upon the town that seems to be even more frightening than the creatures that stalk the survivors at night. Boyd manages to re-enter its domain and destroy a music box that will seemingly end its tyranny, though an apparition of his late wife Abby explains that he is just delaying the inevitable while only enticing this entity to prolong the suffering of the people that Boyd seeks to protect. Meanwhile, we have the shocking closing moment of the season, where we discover that Tabitha was able to leave the town and its surrounding forest under the guidance of the mysterious boy in white, waking up in a hospital after being found by a group of hitchhikers on the side of the road.
As is to be expected, there is little information to go off regarding the overall direction of From as it enters its third season, though it is certainly safe to say that the entity Boyd sought to quell will return with a vengeance, and unfortunately others will likely suffer despite his best efforts. Given Boyd’s unfaltering mission to keep the town’s residents safe, such losses will surely weigh heavily on him. Undoubtedly the most interesting plot thread coming into the latest season, though, is Tabitha’s, as it will be fascinating to see how the writers approach her story now that she has escaped her nightmare, yet she will now likely live a new type of nightmare as she strives to somehow save her family. That is, of course, if she has actually even left to begin with.
All of this is obviously speculation, but that is not to say that we haven’t been offered a sneak-peak at what’s to come, as a brief teaser was released at the end of April and it certainly doesn’t look good for Boyd and his fellow residents. To begin with, we see Boyd and Jade (played by Canadian actor David Alpay) dragging a body through the town in a cart, with only their bloodstained feet, only one of which is wearing a shoe, protruding from the cart. Then, we catch a brief glimpse at what are, assumingly, new residents of the town that have violent intentions of their own, with one of them monologing, “You said this place couldn’t break you. That’s what you said….Let’s see”, before cutting to a helpless and subdued Boyd being forced to watch an offscreen character as she is apparently tortured (or maybe it is Fatima giving birth), hearing only her screams as our hero can only tell her, “You’re so strong. You’re so strong.” Frankly, despite its brevity, the teaser proves effective in, well, teasing what’s to come, but in the fashion of (gleeful) terror to which fans of the show, myself included, have become accustomed.
Though, this all begs the question of when exactly From’s third season will release. In the teaser, it simply states “This Fall”, which is to be expected since they only started shooting in December 2023, though little insight has been offered beyond that. Given that the shift to winter in the latest season of the show – evident by the snow seen on the ground as Boyd and Jade drag the aforementioned cart through town – it will likely be closer to the end of fall than the beginning, making for an October release at the earliest, and November at the latest.
If you, like me, can hardly wait for the latest season From, I recommend checking out another outstanding Paramount+ horror show, Evil, which recently started its fourth and final season.