Lovecraft Country second trailer questions reality and unleashes the monsters

Lovecraft Country, Monkey Paw and Bad Robot's adaptation of Matt Ruff's novel of the same name, is back with another terrifying trailer. After dropping its first trailer back in May, the race-conscious HBO series is now teasing more of its H.P. Lovecraft infused take on Jim Crow South.

But the series isn't calling Cthulhu quite yet. In its new look below, stars Abbey Lee, Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollet-Bell, Courtney B. Vance, and Michael K. Williams confront monsters and racism in equal measure. "This world is haunting us," says Letitia (Smollett-Bell) in a voiceover, while accompanying Atticus Freeman (Majors) and his Uncle George (Vance) on a quest to find Atticus' missing father (Williams) and a mysterious "birthright."

Things get freaky in the new trailer, which comes from both HBO and showrunner Misha Green (Underground, Heroes), who posted the following video on her Twitter:

With reality drifting into collapsing castles, charging monsters, and haunted Paranormal Activity-esque bed draggings, Lovecraft Country mixes elements of imaginary horror with the real thing. According to HBO, it's "a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from an H.P. Lovecraft paperback."

HBO just dropped Damon Lindelof's Watchmen on the world, which set the stage for a genre series to use race relations as a fertile ground for allegorical and emotional impact. So hopes are high for Lovecraft Country, which also boasts quite a pedigree behind the scenes, being a co-production from Jordan Peele’s Monkey Paw and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot in addition to Green's own TV bonafides.

Lovecraft Country hits HBO this August.