(Spoiler alert: Please do not read on if you haven’t watched Friday’s premiere episode of “Outcast”)
“Outcast” boasts a great logline, a strong pedigree and an atmospheric setting — and squanders all three by playing keep-away with the audience.
That game of withholding integral information and backstory works well in the first episode, “A Darkness Surrounds Him”: What’s the deal with the frightening flashbacks to child abuse? Why is Patrick Fugit’s Kyle Barnes, a prodigal son returned to his childhood home of bad memories and no running water, content to wallow in his own filth until someone drags him out? And why is only Kyle able to dispel the demon that has taken possession of a little boy?
Fans of the source material, Robert Kirkman‘s graphic novels, already know the premise of this possession thriller, but casual viewers of the first episode will be left in the dark — and genuinely frightened.