This Hidden Gem On Prime Video Is The Best TV Show You've Never Heard Of

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If you love supernatural dramas that inspire deep lore dives, you need to hop over to Amazon Prime Video and check out the MGM+ series "From." One of the best horror TV shows out there, this surreal-laced program has already developed an obsessive following and generated hundreds of fan theories.

The series begins with the vacationing Matthews family, who are struggling after the loss of a child. Their RV encounters a tree blocking the road, forcing them to detour into a tiny, Lynchian town where the vibes seem off. From there, every attempt to get back to the highway fails and after their RV collides with another vehicle, Sheriff Boyd Stevens (Harold Perrineau) reveals that here, every nightfall brings monsters that look human but eat human flesh.

With a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, the large ensemble cast and paranormal mystery box format of "From" will appeal to fans of shows like "Lost," "Evil," and "Manifest," with each new episode bringing more questions and mind-bending narrative threads. The acting is solid, the cinematography is peak, and the pacing consistently good, especially for a series juggling so many plot threads and such a large cast, with many deeming it one of the best shows on television in or out of the horror genre. 

Every inhabitant of Fromville, the name fans coined for the community at the center of "From," mysteriously arrives there the same way after encountering the same tree on the same road. But what's truly baffling about that encounter is where they're located when they find it. As revealed by Boyd's map plotting different entry points, new arrivals were traveling all over the mainland United States before reaching the tree in the road. 

Jade (David Alpay) and his partner were taking a trip down the East Coast when they arrived, although we never actually see them reach the tree due to their vehicle's collision with the Matthews' RV. As revealed in an online news piece, the Matthews family RV was apparently traveling through Arizona when they disappeared. Donna (Elizabeth Saunders), the woman in charge of the community living in the Fromville Colony House, shared that she had been on a hunting trip near her home in Montana when she and her sister were Fromvilled. And the bus that arrives at the end of "Oh the Places We'll Go" originates from Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

As to where Fromville is physically located, if it is at all, the community's inhabitants are given very little to go on. With no designation markers and the town appearing to be thrown together from retro buildings, Fromville keeps its denizens in a constant state of confusion.

Plenty of TV shows lend themselves to casual viewing, but "From" is not one of these. It's the kind of show where seemingly small details hint at deeper hidden meanings — details like the tabletop jukeboxes with a tendency to come alive on their own, playing music that seems to taunt Fromville's inhabitants. And as they settle into the backrooms-esque purgatory with their fellow inmates, the Matthews learn to adjust their understanding of normalcy, reality, and even basic physics. 

They soon come to understand that the buildings and houses only make sense if you don't look too closely. The monsters that come at night appear almost as facsimiles of humans in old-timey clothing — a milkman, a cowboy, a bride — and they're nothing compared to the unknown terrors lurking in the woods. It's a world where trees moving and sometimes teleporting locals, visions coming to life, and monsters being warded off with talismans are the norm. Fans of the strange and surreal, or even TV shows like "IT: Welcome to Derry," are bound to be hooked.

As the Matthews family learn on their first night in Fromville, the darkness brings with it a roving mob of malicious, man-eating creatures. But the "From" nightmare monsters don't always look like monsters when they're predating their victims. Outwardly, at least at first, they look like caricatures of friendly, innocuous community members you might see on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." They'll even try to confuse Fromvillians, attempting to pass themselves off as someone the residents know. 

For a while, the townspeople were helpless to stop the creatures. Anytime a new group of unaware travelers arrive, a bloodbath inevitably ensues. With no need to hide their appearances, the creatures would spend the nights shrieking monstrously, instilling terror in their victims while freely letting their freak faces fly. 

But all that would change with Boyd's discovery of the rune-carved stone talismans after stumbling into a tiny, hidden cave-like structure deep in the woods. Realizing the creatures could not cross any barrier protected by a talisman, the townspeople placed one on every residence in Fromville. As the monsters could still enter a door that was opened for them, these creatures respond by getting crafty, using manipulation to gain entrance and eat their prey. 

As stressful Fromville might sound, it's best to resist any urge to head out on a Lewis & Clark-style expedition to escape. What lies in the dense forests beyond Fromville are every bit as terrifying as the creatures haunting the town, and somehow more incomprehensible.

When Boyd sets out for answers, bringing a handcuffed Sara (Avery Konrad) along with a talisman to protect their tent, they pass the talisman cave, the furthest point he has explored to date. After discovering the Bottle Tree, a tree covered in hanging bottles filled with four-digit numbers that appear to be dates, Sara has a distressing episode and passes out. That night, they hear sounds outside their tent but can't look outside as it would break the talisman's protective shield. Suddenly, their tent is dragged as if by an unseen force, causing the talisman to fall.

When the tent stops moving, a lighthouse horn sounds. The following morning, they emerge inside a massive network of spiderwebs where Boyd is severely bitten and sees a vision of his dead wife. The pair narrowly escape a storm by teleporting through a Faraway Tree. And later, Jim Matthews (Eion Bailey) and Kenny (Ricky He) later find sacrificial stones and creepy totems near an abandoned settlement of log cabins, and hear mysterious banging against the cabin walls all night long.

One of the more stressful aspects to life in Fromville is the constant onboarding of new arrivals in time for nightfall before the monsters show up. And new people always arrive — usually at the worst possible times. Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and Jade both came on the same day, with Victor (Scott McCord) observing that a two-car arrival is rare in Fromville. Their vehicles' collision outside of town leaves a group of folks running to Colony House as night falls, while Boyd and Kristi (Chloe Van Landschoot) end up trapped overnight in the Matthews family's RV trying to save their son.

The arrival of the Grand Rapids bus creates an even more intense situation. Although the bus doesn't arrive at night, it shows up at a wildly inconvenient time when the townspeople are all gathered at Colony House working on the radio when a violent storm rolls in. Before they can all be persuaded to stay inside, Julie announces that her mom is trapped in the basement of their home. This is followed by the collapse of that home, sending the situation into complete and utter disarray, resulting in the deaths of several bus riders that night.

To date, only one person seems to have made it out of Fromville, and how and why she got out is as clear as mud. While some Faraway Trees will transport travelers anywhere — something Dale (Cliff Saunders) learns when he unfortunately transports to the hotel pool — Victor reveals to Tabitha that one tree always goes to the same place. Accepting Victor's lunch pail, she steps into the tree and is instantly transported to the foot of the Lighthouse.

After climbing the steps of the Lighthouse, she finds herself overlooking the woods around Fromville, where she finds the Boy in White (Vox Smith). He shoves her out of the Lighthouse window, telling her it's the only way. Somehow, this transports her to the world outside of Fromville, where she is found and rescued by hikers, waking up three days later at St. Anthony's Hospital in Camden, Maine — a long way from the Arizona road she and her family were lost on. 

After a visit to a priest reveals an address inside Victor's lunchbox, Tabitha meets Victor's father, Henry (Robert Joy). After telling him about Fromville, Tabitha and Henry end up in a car accident together, and their ambulance takes them back to the cursed town.

Other than the obvious lack of OB/GYNs, prenatal vitamins, and Babies "R" Us stores, Fromville is a nightmarish place to be with child. Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori) learns this the hard way when she begins experiencing pregnancy symptoms despite being previously told babies are off the table. She's been shacked up with Ellis (Corteon Moore) in the adorable attic suite of the hippie commune-style Colony House, so it seems like there's no good reason not to celebrate, and the pair even make things official with homemade rings.

But almost immediately, things aren't going well for Fatima. The usually perky individual finds herself struggling to keep anything down and begins to appear sick, pale, and sullen, even pulling out a tooth in her sickness. But eventually, Fatima finds two things she can keep down and, in fact, severely craves: rotten food and blood. 

When the time comes for Fatima to give birth, Elgin (Nathan D. Simmons), under the direction of an apparently haunted Polaroid camera and a spirit in a kimono, kidnaps Fatima into a bunker. There, she gives birth to a pod that is taken away by the monsters in a moment up there with the most disturbing movie birth scenes. If that wasn't bad enough, the monsters then watch as the pod gives birth to the resurrected Smiley monster (Jamie McGuire).

Along with the waking nightmares the inhabitants of "From" are subjected to, many residents are also plagued by horrific visions and voices, oftentimes frequently accompanied by seizures or even comas. Sara sees worms crawling under her skin and hears voices, voices that sometimes tell her to kill, leading to some serious trust issues with the other Fromville locals. Like his mother, Ethan (Simon Webster) sees the Boy in White, who seems friendly but we all know what he's capable of.

Jade has all kinds of terrifying visions, such as a dead man in the root cellar, being crushed by a boulder, or of Civil War soldiers. Likewise, Tabitha experiences frightening illusions of ghostly children, which she originally perceives as a threat before realizing they are trying to tell her something. 

Julie (Hannah Cheramy), Randall (A.J. Simmons), Marielle (Kaelen Ohm), and Boyd also share visions of a dungeon. Elgin sees the Kimono Woman (Shuoxin Fu), while Kenny hallucinates cicadas. By the end of Season 3, Boyd takes the prize with constant apparitions of his late wife, Father Khatri (Shaun Majumder), a dancing ballerina, and a music box.

The power of stories is a constant thread running through "From" — stories told through music, art, and language that seem to either reflect or somehow ripple through the reality of "From." On the day of the Matthews family's arrival in Fromville, Julie tells her brother Ethan a story about monsters and a Lake of Tears the boy finds so upsetting that she later revises it. After recovering from his impalement surgery, Ethan declares that he saw the Lake of Tears in a drawing. And when the family first arrives in the Colony House, the Matthews parents read Ethan a story about a creature called the Cromenockle.

As Ethan begins exploring Fromville, he and Victor perceive their inquiry as a quest. As Ethan's "quest" reveals more knowledge, he tells his sister Julie she is a "story walker," meaning she can travel through the history of the "From" world without the ability to change anything.

Both Victor and his mother, Miranda (Sarah Booth), used art to draw the world of "From," Victor through crayons and Miranda through paintings. And in the diner, the jukeboxes spit out songs that either reflect or taunt the locals.

Toward the end of Season 3, Tabitha's visions of ghostly children calling to her with "Anghkooey" escalate. Pale, ghoulish, and dressed in all white, these seven children amble toward her with outstretched arms. After meeting Henry, she learns his wife Miranda also had visions of the Anghkooey children, leading her to believe she was meant to help them.

Tabitha eventually realizes she is meant to follow the children, and soon, Jade begins seeing them, too. After wandering through the Nightmare Monsters' cave, Jade experiences an intense vision of the children in a chamber. Together, they eventually learn that the kids were sacrificed by individuals seeking immortality, leading to a curse that transformed those committing the sacrifice into the Nightmare Monsters. Jade and Tabitha realize they are the reincarnated version of a couple who were unable to save their daughter from this sacrifice, and they continue returning with each new incarnation in the hopes of finally freeing her.

The world of "From" doesn't follow the rules of regular physics, instead working more like a dream. As Victor discovers when he measures them, the trees in the forest move around on their own. And the town seems to be powered by electricity, but where are the power lines? 

When Jim and Tabitha start to investigate, they realize the power seems real, with things like lamps and hair dryers only working when plugged in. But upon closer inspection, the cords powering them don't appear real. Tabitha attempts to find a power source and discovers cords that go nowhere, simply cutting off as they hang downward into the lair of the Nightmare Monsters. Almost as if in response to her snooping, the basement (and eventually the entire home) collapse in on her.

This same reactive property arises again when Boyd and Sara get close to the Lighthouse, with a sudden storm forcing them to abandon their quest. And when Jim and the townspeople get the radio tower working, another violent storm pops up suddenly as if to let them know they've crossed a line. Whether the world of "From" is one big shared hallucination, a pocket universe, or some other fan theory, it's certainly not bound to the laws of our reality.