True Detective season 4, also known as True Detective: Night Country, will be returning to the horror roots of season 1. The first season of the mystery anthology show followed detectives Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) plumbing the depths of a mystery that potentially involved a group of people attempting to invoke a Lovecraftian entity known as the Yellow King via a mysterious place called Carcosa. While the following two seasons told less supernatural mystery stories with new stars, season 4, which is set in the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska, promises a return to form.
True Detective season 4 showrunner, writer, and director Issa López was the guest on a recent episode of The Kingcast. Before diving into a discussion on Stephen King, she talked about her desire to return the show to its horror-inflected roots. López says “that‘s my favorite thing,” referring to the question as to whether the horror elements in season 1 were real, revealing that she wants viewers to question whether her characters are “affected by the long night” and “losing their minds.” Read her full quote below:
It was a very conscious decision, but it is absolutely how my mind works. I pretty much can’t help myself, at this point. Same as with… dropping some humor in things. But the moment I got the call from HBO asking what I would do with True Detective, the first thing that popped in my mind was “Let’s bring back the horror of it all.” Because I did love that first season and one of my most favorite things… about it was Carcosa… the Yellow King. And I missed it in the subsequent seasons, so that very delicate dance… In the end, that first season, you can look back and go, “So what happened here?” [Is it] just a bunch of really really f—ked up crazy people in Louisiana doing these horrendous things, or is it the ritual to open the door to Carcosa and invite the Yellow King to dance with us? Or… [Does] Cohle for a moment [have] a glimpse of Carcosa by the end, or is his brain completely fried by drugs? And it’s up to you to decide, and that’s my favorite thing… And this was the perfect thing for me… To go into… Is Ennis, Alaska a place where the veil between our world and what’s beyond is thin, or are some of my characters affected by the long night… and they’re losing their minds? What is happening here?
Why Issa López is the Perfect Person to Bring True Detective Back to Horror
As the True Detective season 4 trailer reveals, Night Country is already leaning in on a classic horror trope by taking place in a setting where the winter sun sets and leaves the town shrouded in darkness for far longer than a single typical night. The mysterious disappearance of a group of people who were last seen heading off to view the sunset could very well tie in with the possibility of supernatural interference. This is a perfect setup for López, who cut her teeth on similar entries in the horror genre.
The filmmaker’s best-known project is likely her 2017 feature Tigers Are Not Afraid. That movie followed an orphaned girl attempting to survive along with a ragtag band of kids during the Mexican Drug War, clinging to hope via three pieces of wish-granting chalk and visions of the ghost of her mother. Fantasy-horror elements are threaded throughout the entire movie, but there is a possible reading in which the magical realism of the movie takes place entirely inside the main character’s head as she attempts to cope with a bleak reality.
López has also assembled a group of performers who are veterans of the genre to help her bring her vision for the show to life. The True Detective season 4 cast includes The Silence of the Lambs‘ Jodie Foster, Channel Zero‘s Fiona Shaw, and 28 Days Later and The Others‘ Christopher Eccleston, among others. With such a strong creative team assembled, it seems possible that the show could truly find a way to return to the iconic tone that made it a hit in the first place.
True Detective: Night Country will premiere on HBO on January 14.
True Detective
In this anthology series, each season follows a different detective or set of detectives as they forced to confront some horrific truths about their town and themselves. No matter the setting and characters, each detective must unravel lies and clues to solve the chilling mysteries around them.
- Release Date
- January 12, 2014
- Genres
- Anthology , Mystery
- Seasons
- 3
- Story By
- NIC PIZZOLATTO
- Writers
- Nic Pizzolatto
- Network
- HBO Max
- Streaming Service(s)
- Hulu , HBO Max
- Showrunner
- Nic Pizzolatto
