The Man in the High Castle may look like a high-minded period drama, but at its racing heart it’s a horror show. The Amazon Original Series, based on Philip K. Dick’s 1962 novel, imagines an alternate history in which the Allies lost World War II, leaving America occupied by Nazi Germany in the East and Imperial Japan in the West.

Alexa Davalos (above) and Rupert Evans star as Juliana Crain and Frank Frink, a couple caught up in the resistance when Juliana receives a film depicting shocking historical events that never happened — at least not in her world. The film becomes a window to a different reality, just as the show itself offers viewers a glimpse into an alternate version of history.

The show is all the more chilling because of historical costume and set details that lend credibility to the fantasy of an America under occupation. Production designer Drew Boughton dug deep into German, Japanese, American and Eastern European cultural history to help The Man in the High Castle nail its period details.

With season 2 debuting Dec. 16, Boughton walked us through five scenes from the first season to show how the series created a 1962 that never was.