The Terror: Infamy

I have to be in a certain mood to watch and enjoy horror. That mood tends to fade after the stretch between summer and Halloween, so early December wasn’t exactly the right time to start The Terror: Infamy. Still, I was intrigued enough to dive in. The story is partly set in a Japanese internment camp in California in the 1940s and features a yūrei delivering the “terror.” Its ten episodes span World War II as well as pre- and postwar events. It moves between the U.S., fishing boats, war-ravaged Pacific island jungles, and even Mexico, creating an unusual blend of locations, myths, cultures, and genres grounded in real historical circumstances. I had also seen The Terror earlier this year, and it was excellent.

But Infamy didn’t quite deliver what I’d hoped for. There are some strong moments, occasionally better than that, but overall it feels unnecessarily drawn out, especially toward the end. The final stretch slips into silliness and, at times, heavy-handed sentimentality. There are still genuinely eerie and spine-chilling scenes, along with bursts of gore. Kiki Sukezane stands out in particular as the hopeful then mournful mother who becomes an unstoppable, vengeful spirit.

The standout episode is #6, “Taizō.” In it, the ghost Yūko finds herself in the serene afterlife realm of her ancestors. She must avoid stepping onto the gravel of a Zen garden, or she will be pulled down into it and into the earthy hell waiting beneath. It’s a vivid episode that captures something essential, the eeriness and quiet terror of traditional Japanese ghost stories, as it uncomfortably blends this world with the next.