TV horror Outcast not for the faint hearted

Patrick Fugit in Outcast.

According to one reviewer, Outcast is not for the faint of heart.

The new show from the creator of The Walking Dead opens, warned a Telegraph critic, with a young boy killing a cockroach by slamming his head into a wall, then eating its entrails "with gusto".

If you like the sound of that, you're probably already a fan of Robert Kirkman's previous shows, TWD and follow-up Fear the Walking Dead. They're grisly tales of survival set in post-apocalyptic zombie-run wastelands, but Outcast, which is based on another Kirkman comic, deals with possession of a different kind.

It follows Kyle Barnes (Patrick Fugit), a loner living in the fictitious town of Rome, who has first-hand experience dealing with internal demons. There's also a reverend, an ex-wife, some dodgy neighbours, and the boy mentioned above who appears to be suffering from possession.

Kirkman has warned Walking Dead fans that Outcast is less action-orientated and more of a character-driven show, set in a world that's a subtle distortion on real life.

The town of Rome becomes its own character, says Kirkman, because it makes its residents act in weird ways. But there will be similarities to The Walking Dead.

"They're both stories about very real people against these horrific backdrops. That's something that I really enjoy doing," he told The Hollywood Reporter.

And he warns it would be truly scary, branding it, "epic horror". Early signs are good: Outcast has been renewed for a second season before the first has started airing, and the Telegraph ended its review by declaring Kirkman had "another compulsively creepy hit on [his] hands".

You may never look at cockroaches in the same way again.

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Where and when: SoHo, Mondays at 9.30pm; encores Fridays at 7.30pm
What: Creepy horror shenanigans from a master of the art