Truth Seekers Spotlight

Amazon Prime Video  hosted the Global Launch Event of upcoming UK Amazon Original series, Truth Seekers at Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square in London/, and Ginger Nuts of Horror was honoured to be asked to attend the launch.  

The event was attended by co-creator/co-writer and series star Nick Frost, along with co-stars Samson Kayo, Emma D’Arcy and Julian Barratt. The cast also participated in a Q&A about the series hosted by EMPIRE’s Chris Hewitt which was live streamed to guests tuning in from home.


• When asked if the series would focus on a comedy or thriller element, Nick Frost said "we didn’t want it to not be creepy or unsettling. You don’t need to do one or the other, we wanted to do both. Being a lover of horror it was important to do justice to the things I was frightened of as a kid."

• On working with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost said “there is an ease to us when it comes to how we work. It’s comfortable, like an old pair of jeans you shouldn’t put on again until you’ve washed them.”

• Emma D’Arcy said “I went on a journey with a cat medium to track down my cat and things got stranger when we started knocking on peoples doors. We never found the cat…she might have just been bad at her job.”

• When asked what it was like working with Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, Samson Kayo said “they’re actually quite cool and we gelled together quickly.”

• Julian Barratt describes the series as “the ultimate mash-up of genres.”

As we are near the end of the Halloween season, Amazon will be gifting us with the new series, Truth Seekers, created by Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, the stars of Edgar Wright’s Three Flavours of Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End).

The story follows Gus (Frost), a broadband installer with a passion for the paranormal. On his off time, he researches and investigates haunted houses with little success. It is not until Gus is forced by his boss, Dave (Pegg), to partner with a new employee, Elton (Samson Kayo), that he starts experiencing real supernatural occurrences. The team is rounded out when the pair are joined by Astrid (Emma D’Arcy), a young woman being haunted by malevolent entities. The series also contains the acting talents of Malcolm McDowell as Gus’ father, Susie Wokoma as Elton’s reclusive sister Helen, and Julian Barratt as Dr. Peter Toynbee.

While Ginger Nuts of Horror creator, Jim Mcleod has already done a brilliant review I will only echo his words that this is a masterful example of horror comedy. It is this perfect blend of hilarious moments, great dread, and dealing with trauma in a very authentic way. This series has led me to consider breaking my own rules and add to my “favorites movies of 2020” list. The justification is that the 8 episodes play like a four-hour film, and the beautiful part is -- the story they tell is complete for those like me, who find it more difficult to binge multiple seasons worth of filler. Do not let that fool you, the series leaves enough seeds and lore to easily continue if given the chance. Which I hope they do.

Truth Seekers may be Frost’s vehicle, as Pegg is only a minor role, but their stamp is all over the show, with a maturity only gained from life experience. It’s clear that it’s filled with passion from every aspect of its creation, and provides a meditation on theories after death by Frost, who always considered himself an atheist but finds himself open to more possibilities as he’s gotten older and begun to face his own mortality. The series treats us with a script and actors that aren’t playing for laughs or scares but instead are authentically reacting to the situations like we do in life. It even allows for many to play against their usual casting type such as McDowell taking over a lot of the comedy, while cult comedian, Barratt tries his hand at a seriously sinister character and succeeds.
​
With all episodes dropping October 30th, Truth Seekers is the perfect way to wrap up your Halloween season, and offers a necessary evolution to the Cornetto trilogy, who Frost himself stated, he has no desire to return to those previous roles.

Craig Draheim 

Truth Seekers launches exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on 30th October 2020.