Deborah Ayorinde and Ashley Thomas say Them is a demanding but rewarding experience

Amazon’s new horror anthology, Them, pulls off a remarkable feat: Walking a tightrope of terror and suspense over the course of 10 episodes. Any actor will tell you that filming a horror movie is exhausting work, so one can imagine the toll it would take to sustain that feeling for a series the length of five horror movies. With that in mind, actors Deborah Ayorinde, Ashley Thomas, Shahadi Wright Joseph, and Melody Hurd deserve immense credit for what they accomplish in Them’s first season, Covenant. The four play the Emorys, a Black family who moves from North Carolina to California during the Great Migration of the early 1950s. Though their new home in the post-WWII suburbia of Compton looks idyllic, their bigoted neighbors—as well as some malevolent spirits—make their lives a living hell.

In the video above, Ayorinde and Thomas discuss the physically draining but emotionally rewarding experience of filming Them, as well as the deeper symbolic meanings of their character names. Below, young co-stars Wright Joseph and Hurd—who’ve had some previous horror experience in Us and Trick, respectively—share why they think the genre is so much fun, and reveal that their siblings expect them to be the braves ones in real life.

Covenant—the first season of horror anthology series Them—premieres on Amazon Prime Video on April 9.