The Lord of the Rings has turned into horror before, but Rings of Power carves its own niche here. When Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) goes to warn the townspeople that a neighboring town has fallen to who-knows-what, it feels more classically pulled from a horror movie, as her neighbors brush off her concerns as fancy. But it also marks the different relationship with the orcs: These people are a few generations removed from the last time anyone would have seen an orc around. And the idea itself seems incredible to them. they fear a returning occupying force more than the whispers of a legend. And so, Rings of Power treats its orcs in these early episodes with distinction. It is no longer the horde featured in The Fellowship of the Ring, falling off a cliff in their haste to attack their enemy, but a unique, terrifying monster that quietly creeps into Bronwyn’s home. The orc’s intro has all the hallmarks of a slasher villain, taken in bits: an eye through the floorboards, a hand slapping the ground, a close-up of a mouth and its grotesque tongue. We can make out his skull mask in blurry profiles, but we only see his full monstrosity when Bronwyn is found hiding in the closet. Photo: Matt Grace/Prime Video The orc here still adheres to the general rule – it is a malevolent creature, resembling a flayed person, and an enemy whose fighting skills are still exploited by a mother and her son. But the threat is real in a way that many of the other Rings of Power can’t deliver. While a swarm of them could feel menacing in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a single orc here still feels potentially deadly. To put it one way, it’s the difference between Alien and Aliens that illuminates the vulnerability that comes with each version of the monster. It’s certainly enough to convince Bronwyn and her compatriots to set out at first light to seek help from the elves. And while there’s still a lot we don’t know about how Rings of Power will (or won’t) change the Tolkien canon, this seems like a step in the right direction. The most interesting thing you can do with a prequel is find ways to deconstruct what makes one thing stand out, and then explore deeper aspects of the story that are already familiar. It lets us see something in a new light to understand it better. With the threat posed by just one orc – the way they move and what they are – it illuminates the terrifying terror of facing an army of them and the stakes of every orc encounter to come.
