★★★★★ out of ★★★★★

🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸

Created by Donald Glover and Janine Nabers

A TV series is world premiering at South by Southwest in the biggest venue on opening night…this show had better be something special, right? Well, that show is Swarm and it blew my mind!

It’s the story of Dre (Dominique Fishback) a junk food loving young woman who lives in Houston, Texas. She doesn’t have a job or a boyfriend but she has her aspiring make-up artist sister Marissa (Chloe Bailey), and she has music- specifically the music of Ni’jah, a pop star based, not loosely at all, on the queen of Houston herself- Beyoncé.

Taking place over the course of two years, Swarm dives into Dre’s psyche and follows her on an impromptu cross-country journey exposing the darkest sides of fandom and obsession.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Janine Nabers, the show’s co-creator said that she and Glover were intent on “creating an antihero story through the lens of a Black, modern-day woman” and boy do they deliver. Dominique Fishback’s portrayal of Dre is absolutely award worthy. She is so good that “when we shot the last scene of the pilot, every single person stopped what they were doing and gave Dom a standing ovation for three minutes”, said Nabors.

The series promises “Murder. Sex. Music.” and delivers on all three while bringing psychological horror with a capital “H”. Get ready…this is the future of horror, y’all.

Swarm had its world premier at SXSW on Friday. If you didn’t make it to Austin, all 7 episodes of Swarm will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Friday, March 17 so stock up on green beer because you will want to binge this series!