Simon Pegg, Nick Frost return to horror-comedy roots with Truth Seekers teaser

A group of part-time paranormal investigators teams up to uncover a deadly conspiracy in the first teaser for Truth Seekers, a forthcoming sci-fi/horror comedy series from Amazon starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The first teaser was unveiled today at San Diego Comic-Con @Home, which has had to switch to an online-only virtual format this year due to the continuing pandemic.

Created by Pegg, Frost, James Serafinowicz, and Nat Saunders, the eight-episode series is envisioned as a cross between The X-Files and the British TV series Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World. Each episode will focus on a specific paranormal incident, a throwback to a classic monster-of-the-week format. Rather than going with pure spoof, Truth Seekers will apparently take its horror aspects seriously.

“You have to not make fun of the horror,” Pegg said during the Comic-Con panel. “It’s tempting with genre fare to parody that... but I think the key for horror-comedy is to take the horror seriously.”

Per the official synopsis:

Truth Seekers is a supernatural comedy series about a team of part-time paranormal investigators who team up to uncover and film ghost sightings across the UK, sharing their adventures on an online channel for all to see. However, as they stake out haunted churches, underground bunkers and abandoned hospitals with their array of homemade ghost-detecting gizmos, their supernatural experiences grow more frequent, more terrifying and even deadly, as they begin to uncover a conspiracy that could bring about Armageddon for the entire human race.

Frost plays Gus, described as a lonely guy with a boring job installing broadband, who moonlights as an amateur paranormal investigator. During the panel, Frost described his character as being “lost and looking for some truth in many aspects of his life”—specifically, he lost someone close to him, and part of the appeal of being a ghost hunter is the hope that he might make contact with that person. Pegg plays Gus' boss, Dave, who may or may not be up to something suspicious. “I only crop up in a couple of scenes,” Pegg said during the panel. So we shouldn't expect another Shaun of the Dead or Paul buddy romp.

The rest of the cast includes Gus' fellow ghost hunters: Richard (THE Malcolm McDowell, A Clockwork Orange, Bombshell), Astrid (Emma D'Arcy, Hannah), Elton (Samson Kayo, Dolittle), and Helen (Susie Wokoma, Year of the Rabbit, the forthcoming Enola Holmes). Julian Barratt (In Fabric) plays Dr. Peter Toynbee.

"Can you feel it?" a voiceover intones in the teaser. "Ancient magic resides all around us. Ours is not the only universe. There are realms beyond it. Beneath it. Myriad of parallel dimensions." We are introduced to Gus and Richard and the rest of the Truth Seekers as they go on various ghost-haunting jaunts, convinced they are on the verge of a major breakthrough. And they just might be right. All in all, it looks like loads of fun.

Truth Seekers is slated to premiere this fall on Amazon Prime.

Listing image by YouTube/Amazon Prime