'Outcast' Trailer: Patrick Fugit Battles Demons Of The Literal And Metaphorical Variety
The new Outcast trailer has answers for all of your burning questions. What show will Cinemax add to its line-up to actually make you tune in when The Knick isn't airing? When will The Walking Dead mastermind Robert Kirkman take advantage of his TV clout and bring another series based on his work to the small screen? Where did that kid from Almost Famous go? The short answers: "Outcast," "just about right now," and "right here and ready to battle demons on weekly basis for your amusement."
And with those pressing queries out of the way, you can watch the new Outcast trailer for yourself after the jump.
Like The Walking Dead, Outcast is a horror TV series based on a comic written by Kirkman (and lest we forget, drawn by Paul Azaceta, who knocks every issue out of the park). Like its cousin over on AMC, it takes a horror concept that is usually a one-and-done two-hour movie concept and extends it into an ongoing narrative. The elevator pitch goes something like this: "Outcast does for demonic possession what The Walking Dead did for zombies." You should know right away whether or not that sounds like your thing before you hit play on that trailer, which premiered at this year's New York Comic-Con, below.
That trailer is heavy on atmosphere and light on plot, but we'll fill you in. Patrick Fugit stars as Kyle Barnes, a seriously troubled guy who has spent his entire life battling his demons. Literally. Because everyone in his life keeps on getting possessed by them and it's kinda ruining his life. He eventually crosses paths with the troubled Reverend Anderson (Philip Glenister) and the two of them form a faith-based buddy cop team, traveling around performing exorcisms, and slowly uncovering a sinister mystery that involves Satan himself. Much like how The Walking Dead uses horror to service a big metaphor (the living people are actually the walking dead, you see), Outcast is all about a guy who battles actual demons so he can confront his metaphorical demons. As you do.
Our immediate reaction to this trailer is hesitation. After all, the quality of The Walking Dead waxes and wanes like some kind of bizarre moon that decides to suck one week and produce killer television on the next. Our reaction after more than two seconds of thought is that Cinemax is a world away from AMC and this series probably won't face the same issues that have plagued Kirkman's first foray into television on a constant basis. After all, this is the network that let Stephen Soderbergh go nuts with a hazy, flat-out brilliant period medical drama all about madness and drug addition. Cinemax seems more than willing to open its doors to creative people doing whatever they want and trying out crazy new things. The results could be disastrous or they could be amazing, but surely they'll be something.
It helps that the source material is rock solid. Like the actual Walking Dead comic (which is currently better than it has ever been), Outcast is compelling, character-based horror with ambitions so grand that the big picture helps smooth out the occasional narrative and character bumps. It helps that Fugit is an interesting actor who's deserved a meaty role like this for quite some time. It helps even more that the pilot is directed by Adam Wingard, the seriously talented genre-bender behind You're Next and The Guest.
In other words, all of the right elements are in the right place for Outcast to be a show worth checking out. Now, we have to wait and see if everything actually comes together when the series premieres in 2016.