A short essay on FROM
~ A Delightfully Disturbing Descent into the Unknowable ~
There are certain TV shows that exist not to provide answers, but to push us into the murky depths of mystery, leaving us to wonder why we even embarked on the journey in the first place. FROM, a modern horror-mystery series, does precisely that; it keeps you suspended between dread and fascination, much like a holiday brochure for a destination you’d absolutely never want to visit but can’t stop reading about. If that sounds familiar, it’s because this sensation mirrors the experience I had reading Cloven Country by Jeremy Harte, a book I stumbled upon during my visit to Scotland last year. It delves into the folklore of rural England, where the devil himself is said to have roamed. Much like the eerie town in FROM, Harte’s landscape is full of picturesque locations that mask deep, ancient horrors. These are places you might visit for their charming countryside vistas - until you learn about the lingering presence of malevolent spirits or the devilish bargains that once took place in those green hills. It’s the sort of holiday destination that looks inviting in brochures, as I said, until you start reading about the local legends and find yourself questioning whether you’d ever really want to go.
FROM taps into this very tension: an environment that, on the surface, appears benign - creepy, but quaint nonetheless - yet loaded with hidden danger. In Harte’s Cloven Country, every serene village or forest might hide a sinister pact, a devil’s footprint, or a place where supernatural forces have brushed against the everyday world, leaving lasting scars. The parallels to FROM are uncanny. Or perhaps it’s just my mind drawing these connections, having recently finished the book and then diving into FROM’s third season just a couple of weeks ago. Nevertheless, the town in the show offers a similar deceptive charm. It’s the kind of place you’d imagine hosting a countryside retreat, but as with the haunted settings Harte writes about, the town harbors a darkness that’s hard to define and even harder to escape from.
Where Harte’s book reveals how folklore shaped the fears of rural communities, FROM builds on these themes by creating its own mythology of terror. It takes something familiar - a town, a home, the night - and fills it with a creeping sense of dread. Both the show and Cloven Country ask a crucial question: how much of our fear is shaped by the stories we tell about places, and what happens when those stories turn out to be true?
Ultimately, FROM is a masterclass in the fine art of keeping its cards close to its chest. It reveals just enough to keep you hooked, but never enough to let you feel settled. It’s frustrating that way, as it has been for the better part of its first two seasons. But at the same time, it’s also rewarding. The real horror isn’t just what comes after dark; it’s the sense that maybe, just maybe, we’re all a bit trapped - in our lives, in our minds, and, most distressingly, in watching TV shows that will never give us the closure we seek. But, as with all great mysteries, it’s the not knowing that makes it so delightfully maddening..
In the end, one must wonder: is there a way out, or are we all doomed to wander through this haunted village forever?
