[Ed. note: This post contains light spoilers for the end of episode 2 of Rings of Power.]

In the primary two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, our glimpses of orcs are pretty restricted. But even so, they’re like nothing like what we’ve seen of them on display earlier than. Though they’re nonetheless a menace, they’re now not a swarm. Instead, the Amazon present is displaying simply how scary one in all them might be.

Lord of the Rings has taken a flip into horror earlier than, however Rings of Power carves out its personal area of interest right here. When Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) goes to warn the townspeople {that a} neighboring city fell to who is aware of what, it feels extra classically pulled from a horror film, as her neighbors wave away her considerations as flights of fancy. But it additionally marks the differing relationship with the orcs: These individuals are just a few generations faraway from the final time anybody would’ve seen an orc round. And the mere thought of it appears unbelievable to them; they’re extra afraid of a returning occupying drive than the whispers of a delusion.

And so, Rings of Power treats its orcs in these early episodes with distinction. They’re now not the horde launched in The Fellowship of the Ring, tumbling off a cliff of their haste to assault their enemy, however a singular, terrifying monster quietly climbing into Bronwyn’s house. The orc’s introduction has all of the hallmarks of a slasher villain, obtained in bits and items: an eye fixed by way of the floorboards, a hand clacking because it hits the bottom, a close-up of a mouth and its grotesque tongue. We could make out its cranium masks in fuzzy profile, however we solely see its full monstrosity as soon as it’s discovered Bronwyn hiding within the cabinet.

Photo: Matt Grace/Prime Video

The orc right here nonetheless holds to the final canon — it’s a malicious creature, trying like a flayed particular person, and a foe whose preventing ability remains to be bested by a mom and her son. But the menace of it feels actual in a means that lots of the remainder of Rings of Power can’t fairly materialize. While a swarm of them may really feel threatening within the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a single orc right here nonetheless feels doubtlessly lethal. To put it a method, it’s the distinction between Alien and Aliens, illuminating the vulnerability that comes with every model of the monster.

It’s actually sufficient to get Bronwyn and her fellow townspeople to set out at first mild to hunt assist from the elves. And whereas there’s rather a lot we nonetheless don’t learn about how Rings of Power will (or received’t) change Tolkien’s canon, this looks like a step in the correct course. The most fascinating factor you are able to do with a prequel is use methods to deconstruct what makes a factor tick and then extra deeply discover features of the story that already really feel acquainted. It lets us see one thing in a brand new mild in an effort to allow us to perceive it higher. With the menace posed by only one orc — the best way it strikes and what it’s — it illuminates the bone-chilling terror of dealing with down a military of them, and the stakes of each orc showdown to return.