The second season of Prime Video’s horror anthology series,Them, drops on April 25,2024, and while the first season was dubbedCovenant, this time around it’s beingbilled asThem: The Scare, and takes viewers from the 1953 setting of the first season, all the way to 1991 Los Angeles after the release of the Rodney King video when racial tensions are at their peak. It sees the return of Deborah Ayorinde in the lead role, only this time, instead of playing a homemaker, she finds herself acting as an LAPD Detective investigating a string of bizarre murders.
Joining Ayorinde in the new season are Luke James, Joshua J. Williams, and legendary iconPam Grier, who portrays Ayorinde’s mother, Athena. MovieWeb recently had the opportunity to sit down with Grier to talk about her role inThem: The Scare, and what it was like to collaborate with series creator Little Marvin. Always charming, Grier also spoke about her character, and how she’s had trouble watching the series thanks to how scary it is.
Pam Grier Wasn’t Looking for This Level of Work
Pam Grier’s first Hollywood role came in 1970 by way of 20th Century Fox’sBeyond the Valley of the Dolls, where she played a partygoer. From there she’d go on to star ina number of Blaxploitation filmsby Roger Corman, includingThe Big Doll House(1971),Women in Cages(1971), andThe Big Bird Cage(1972). Since then, she’s been a staple in genre cinema, with such films asJackie Brown(1997),Escape from L.A.(1996), and more recently,Pet Sematary: Bloodlines(2023) under her belt.
ForThem: The Scare, it took creator Little Marvin a little bit of convincing to land Grier for the role of Athena. “He spied on me, he did his due diligence on me and my work,” she says. “I wasn’t looking for this level of work at this time. I wanted to cruise a bit, and the next thing you know, ‘Little Marvin wants to talk to you about a project, and he feels you’re the only one that can bring that to the edge.’ I was like, ‘Oh, no, it’s gonna exhaust me.”
“But I couldn’t pass on his voice and his passion and what he was telling me he’s capable of doing and providing for me.”
The 20 Most Rewatchable Horror TV Shows of All Time
Looking for something to scare you? Then these 20 horror TV shows are perfect for your viewing needs.
Pam Grier Reflects on the Horror Genre
No stranger to thehorror genre, Pam Grier has appeared in a number of spooky projects over the years. There’s the aforementionedPet Sematary: Bloodlines, but before that, viewers saw her talents in John Carpenter’sGhosts of Mars,Bones(along with Snoop Dogg), andThe Invited. As someone with a five-decade career,Grier has seemingly done it alland was able to speak in part about the evolution of the genre, and how Little Marvin was able to utilize it to everyone’s advantage forThem: The Scare.
“Back in the day when you had horror,it wasn’t as knowledgeable and sophisticated and explored as it is with technology today. So that adds to his imagination and his genius and how he’s gonna provide for us… and he brought it. Lock the door and turn on the lights because it’s going to haunt you two or three times. If he’s doing this now, and is this intense, what’s he gonna do later?
The 10 Most Underrated Horror TV Shows of All Time
Horror show aficionados might find a perfectly spooky story outside of their regular haunts.
Drawing from the Civil Rights Fight to Play a Mother
She may have started out portraying sassy vixens for Roger Corman and evolved over the years for the likes of Quentin Tarantino, but now, at age 74, Grier finds herself in the position of portraying both a mother and a grandmother. It was her real-world experienceduring the civil rights movementof the 1950s and ’60s that allowed her to tap into the character of Athena. Of course, it wouldn’t be Little Marvin if there weren’t a few twists and turns along the way.
“My character is a mom from the civil rights, and how I survived it, and learned how to stand tall and fight for women’s rights and take care of my daughter and nurture her to be this incredible detective, and don’t give up. I’m taking care of her and my grandson, and I’m now losing my health and aging, and I have medical issues andI don’t want her to take care of me. I want to continue taking care of her.”
“And now there’s these paranormal activities in my own home,” Grier continues. “Where did that come from? And how do I deal with it? Is it my mind? Are they [everyone else] seeing these issues, or is it something that I can’t explain? That’s going to endanger us and me?”
Grier concludes by jokingly commenting on how scary she believesThem: The Scarereally is. “I have had trouble watching it,” she says, “andI’m going to send a bill for my therapyto [Little Marvin].”
You can find out for yourself just how scaryThem: The Scareis when it hits Prime Video on August 12, 2025.
