From on EPIX interview with stars Harold Perrineau, Eion Bailey and Catalina Sandino Moreno

This Sunday, you can watch the official premiere of From on EPIX, a terrifying new series about a nightmarish town in middle America that traps everyone who enters. Viewers will get to unravel the show’s many mysteries alongside the characters. Ahead of the show’s premiere, 1428 Elm had the chance to chat with three of the series stars, Harold Perrineau, Eion Bailey and Catalina Sandino Moreno.

Created and written by John Griffin, From on EPIX reunites Perrineau with Lost executive producers and promises to be a tantalizing new mystery-horror show that should keep fans guessing. Not only are people trapped in this terrifying small town, but they’ll have to fight for survival against horrifying nocturnal creatures plaguing the area.

Keep reading to see our full interview and find out what to expect from this haunting new series.

Interview with From on EPIX stars Harold Perrineau, Eion Bailey and Catalina Sandino Moreno

1428 ELM: Harold, I know you’re reuniting with the Lost executives for this show. It’s interesting because on Lost, you guys were playing characters trying to get off an island, and now you’re in a different but similar situation, trying to get out of a small town. What made you say yes to this project?

HAROLD PERRIEANU: I do that a lot. I’m stuck in a town, on an island, a prison, clearly, I like trying to escape places! [Laughs] Just reading the script and the work John Griffin did writing it, I was compelled. Not only by my character and his story and his pain, and how he has to figure out what to do in this town and how to save himself, the town, his kid, all of it, I was also moved by the other characters in the script.

This family coming into this place, as a father, all I could do was imagine me driving in an RV—and actually, we drove, not this summer, last summer, at the height of the pandemic, we drove an RV from Los Angeles to South Carolina. All I could see when I read it was, oh my God, if we had crashed and gone into a place with crows, what would I have done? [Laughs]. Watching Eion and  Catalina play that out was fascinating for me.

But all those aspects are the things that drew me to this one. At the end of the day, it’s always about the people, and these people, who are fascinating in the story and how they get out was really interesting. It was never about the horror of it, even though that’s the genre that we’re playing in.

1428 ELM: That’s a good point. This show has a lot of complicated family dynamics, which only add to the horror. Specifically, Eion and Catalina, can you talk a little about how your characters’ relationship is tested throughout this first season?

EION BAILEY: Our relationship going into the story that you see has already been tested immensely by a loss within our family. They have been struggling to find solace and have not been able to find it in each other or anywhere else. With the tragedy they have gone through, there is really nothing that can heal it.

Then we find ourselves in this new place where the nightmare intensifies but in a completely different way. In this supernatural, science fiction way, and that, interestingly, provides the opportunity to heal our wounds, because if we don’t find a way to come together and to find that love and care within our family again, then this place will be our destruction and demise. Only through supporting each other and figuring out how to support each others’ strengths will we ever have a chance of surviving.

CATALINA SANDINO MORENO: Amen to that. I think he said it beautifully. It’s a family that’s been hurt in ways that no family should, and when you’re stuck with those feelings and those wounds, you just have to deal with them.

1428 ELM: From is sort of a “mystery box” show, a trend in horror where we’ve got shows like Lost, which kind of set the precedent for it, and Yellowjackets recently. How carefully do you think viewers need to be while watching to find clues, questions, and easter eggs? 

HAROLD: I think, like any of the really good ones, the audience would be advised to pay attention because we have great writers and a great writing staff, so there are always little clues that even as I watch now, I go like, oh! I right, I see! I think it would be advisable [to watch] with that sort of eye because it makes more fun. But if you choose not to watch with that eye, you’re still going to have a great time.

1428 ELM: From lends itself well to second viewings. We’re starting to see that shift back to weekly airings, and I think that works for shows like this because sometimes, when you binge, you’re watching so many episodes in a row you miss details. Is that something you guys are excited to see on social media, people theorizing in real-time along with the show airing? I don’t think social media was quite as big when Lost was on.

HAROLD: They did in Lost because, at the time, there were chatrooms. You’d go to work, and then you’d go back and talk in these chatrooms. It wasn’t social media, so it wasn’t as immediate, but it did have a sort of immediacy within the week.

EION: If this becomes a watercooler show or whatever that is now, a Zoom breakout room show, that would be great. It is in a good position [to become one], with all the hallmarks. Its got multiple layers, and as Harold was saying, if you’re not focused on easter eggs and the mystery and the puzzle—which is there—you can invest like you’re watching Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, or any intricate character study.

All the things Harold is going through, just that character alone, and that journey that he’s on, is enough to sustain a story, and we’re fortunate enough to have multiple stories that all have equal attention paid to them with real detail. Like you said, maybe it is a show you watch multiple times and all the better for it.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

From on EPIX premieres Feb. 20 on EPIX.