The Terror Season 3’s First Devil Appearance Explained By Director & Creators

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Be warned, this article contains spoilers for episode 2 of The Terror: The Devil in Silver, titled “Disturbed”! In the latest episode, Dan Stevens’ character, Pepper, encountered the most frightening inhabitant of New Hyde, and our team is discussing what happened.

The third season of the horror series, executive produced by Ridley Scott, is based on Victor LaValle’s novel. It follows the story of a man, played by Stevens, who is wrongly sent to a rundown psychiatric hospital and labeled as dangerous. The season’s first episode, “November in My Soul,” featured Pepper experiencing terrifying visions of a sinister presence within the hospital. It also ended with Louie, played by Phillip Ettinger, seeing a vision of the hospital’s founder, Dr. Walter (John Benjamin Hickey), and tragically taking his own life.

Most of the second episode, titled “Disturbed,” focused on Pepper’s investigation into the strange entity. The episode ended with Pepper face-to-face with a bizarre creature – a devilish figure with the body of an old man and the head and hooves of a bison. The creature attacked Pepper, but the scene quickly cut to Miss Chris and Scotch Tape entering the room and turning on the lights. They led a strange, elderly patient away, leaving the entity unseen.

Before the release of The Terror: The Devil in Silver, Grant Hermanns from ScreenRant spoke with Victor LaValle, Chris Cantwell, and Karyn Kusama about the show. When discussing the origin of the bison-headed devil – a creature also featured in the original novel – Kusama explained that the character emerged from shared imagination. She and her team considered how everyday images can grow into larger-than-life figures, like how a buffalo depicted on a coin inspired the design of the monster.

Developing the monster in the film involved figuring out what those quick glimpses of it could mean and then actually designing its form. It took a lot of experimentation, but we eventually landed on something we were happy with. It was challenging, especially because, like in ‘Jaws,’ we found that less is more when it comes to showing the monster itself. The most important thing was focusing on the characters and their fear of the unseen threat.

Kusama explained that a key theme of The Terror season 3 is questioning the reality of the monsters the characters face – are they actually there, or are they products of the characters’ minds? Because of this, when designing the bison-headed devil in episode 2, the team aimed for a balance. They wanted something that felt physically present – something the actors and crew could realistically interact with – but also something that could feel like a psychological illusion, a fleeting and intangible apparition.

As a huge fan of The Terror: The Devil in Silver, I learned something really interesting about the writing process. They quickly decided they had to include the original monster from the book, but they didn’t want to stop there. They started asking, ‘What’s the real big bad behind everything?’ They were committed to keeping the show realistic and grounded, but also wanted to inject genuine supernatural horror. That’s when they had the brilliant idea of actually casting an actor to become that evil – to really bring it to life. It felt like a way to make the terror even more impactful and, honestly, terrifying.

No matter how good special effects are, they can’t compare to what a talented actor brings to a role. John Benjamin Hickey, for example, is such a great actor that he was able to make the villain feel even more menacing simply by playing the part, and he did it brilliantly.

Cantwell agreed that using an actor to portray the devil more often, instead of the bison-headed creature from The Devil in Silver, would allow them to explore truly frightening themes – things that feel realistically possible and relatable. He remembered a discussion the team had about a particular scene where this entity appears as a third actor, playing on the idea that people in the hospital experience it differently.

When creating the characters, we really explored their internal struggles and pain, which manifested in their appearances. We discussed with the director how to visually represent this – things like blacking out their eyes or making them completely white. Ultimately, we decided to have the actor use their normal eyes and maintain direct eye contact with the camera – and therefore, with you, the viewer, as you’re playing Pepper in that scene. Eye contact is a really powerful tool in filmmaking for connecting with the audience.

As a movie fan, I found what the director said really interesting. He explained they wanted to portray the devil as a person – a real person – and deliberately avoided any typical ‘evil’ tropes like changing the eyes. He believes that direct, unadorned look is what truly gets under your skin and connects with you on a gut level. Now, they did play with the devil’s appearance sometimes – like that creepy bison head or the stretched-out arms that hurt Pepper – but he called those moments ‘intense punctuation.’ They weren’t meant to be the standard look, but quick reminders that this evil isn’t human at all. It’s about jolting the audience and keeping them on edge.

The show stays relatively true to the book’s depiction of the bison-headed creature and its attack on Pepper. However, The Terror: The Devil in Silver has introduced some new elements, particularly with the character of Dr. Walter. Actor John Benjamin Hickey, who plays Dr. Walter, is a completely original addition to the series, and his character seems to highlight the damaging effects of flawed mental healthcare systems on patients.

It’s still unknown how the show’s changing portrayal of the devil – now appearing as different people or even wearing their skin – will affect the rest of the story from The Devil in Silver. In the book, the devil’s physical form as a bison-headed creature gave the characters a clear enemy to fight and try to kill in order to escape. But with the series presenting the devil in a more deceptive way, defeating it might not be as simple as it was in the novel.

A surprising reveal is coming in The Terror: The Devil in Silver: the devil won’t just be a supernatural force, but will actually take the form of an actor we haven’t seen it as yet. Given that the story focuses on psychological torment, the devil could manifest as someone who already haunts Pepper – like his girlfriend Marisol, her violent ex-husband Ivan, or one of the officers involved in his capture. However, since only two of the six episodes have aired, it’s also possible this terrifying form will be a completely new character.

Be sure to dive into some of our other Terror: Devil in Silver-related coverage with:

  • Victor LaValle, Chris Cantwell & Karyn Kusama break down their approach to adapting The Devil in Silver
  • CCH Pounder & Judith Light discussing the timely core to The Devil in Silver
  • Dan Stevens on how The Terror: The Devil in Silver includes subtle nods to both Legion and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
  • Stevens offering a brief tease of his Dexter: Resurrection season 2 villain
  • Light addressing the chances of a Law and Order return
  • Pounder seemingly confirming she won’t be back for 3 Body Problem seasons 2 and 3
  • Kusama reflecting on her scrapped “new take” on Dracula and potential revival at Blumhouse

New episodes of The Terror: The Devil in Silver air Thursdays on AMC+ and Shudder.

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2026-05-15 01:50