With The Mist, series creator Christian Torpe has taken a short story by Stephen King from nearly 40 years ago, and adapted it into a sprawling drama that feels completely fresh and relevant. The Mist will please fans of more thoughtful horror, and play well to the Walking Dead demographic. Even if you aren’t generally a fan of the genre, give this a chance anyway, and just think of it less as a horror series and more of a scary drama—what’s more, a genuinely gripping drama, with fleshed-out characters and high tension.

In The Mist, the residents of Bridgeville, Maine, find their town engulfed in an ominous mist containing an assortment of menacing and unusual threats. The rules of society begin to break down and everyone’s morality is put to the test. In essence, this is a story about fear.

Stephen King‘s novella of The Mist was originally published in his 1980 anthology Dark Forces. The story takes place almost entirely in a supermarket, and in its first edition ran a mere 134 pages. Though the obvious threat of the story is the mysterious mist and the creatures living within it, as Torpe asserts “the permanent grip of fear, the loss of reason” is at the heart of the novella. “Unfortunately,” he writes, “it also seems to be the dominant feeling in the world in 2017.” He has a point. We live in an age of reboots, and Torpe’s reimagining of King’s story feels uniquely inspired and contemporary.

Okezie Morro, Danica Curcic, Morgan Spector, and Russell Posner in The Mist (Spike)

The pilot of The Mist introduces us to a dozen key players, and at the center of things is the Copeland family. Morgan Spector stars as patriarch Kevin, who prides himself on being a modern, liberal, civilized man. Alyssa Sutherland plays his wife Eve, a schoolteacher who has been suspended for teaching students sex ed. They clash over how to raise their rebellious teen daughter, Alex (Gus Birney), and their marriage is strained in the extreme when she is the victim of a hideous crime. It’s a scandal that rocks not only their family, but all of Bridgeville.

The performances are mostly terrific and believable. A standout is Russell Posner as Adrian Garf, a skinny gay misfit whose mother tells him, “You know your father can’t hear you when you’re wearing makeup.” Posner has been featured heavily in Spike’s marketing of the show. An enigma, Adrian is clearly scarred from years of psychological abuse, proving himself to be dishonest and possibly full of secrets.

Though the supernatural horror elements are effectively handled and suspenseful, what really makes The Mist work is Torpe’s interest in these people. It appears that the entire of town of Bridgeville is on the edge of a violent civil war even before the mist enshrouds it. Torpe has an ear for everyday human hypocrisies, inconsistencies and shortcomings. Eve puts her job on the line to teach her students about sex, but she won’t stand for her daughter attending a high school party. Danica Curcic stars as Mia, a manipulative and desperate drug addict who is nevertheless resilient, resourceful and appears ready to fight tooth-and-nail for her survival and what’s left of her soul.

Alyssa Sutherland stars as Eve Copeland in The Mist (Spike)

Sometimes horror gets a bum rap. To be fair, a majority of horror films and television shows are mindless blood and guts. The Mist is refreshingly sincere, and, like its source material, more concerned with the human side of things. Oh, and it is quite frightening at times, too. Some horror influences are easy to spot: the Acherontia lachesis (“death’s head”) moth from The Silence of the Lambs (1991) makes an appearance, and strangers who are stranded in a shopping mall obviously calls to mind George A. Romero‘s Dawn of the Dead (1978). Torpe knows this genre, and is finding his own voice within it.

The Mist was adapted once already, in a 2007 film starring Thomas Jane and Marcia Gay Harden. The film was written and directed by Frank Darabont, who also directed the acclaimed King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile (1999), and is widely known for having one of the most downbeat and uncompromising endings ever in a mainstream Hollywood movie. The 2007 version was a pretty good film, and even better in an atmospheric black and white re-release.

Thanks to a smart script and a committed cast, it appears King’s short story might lend itself quite well to this TV. Consider us hooked.

This is a review of the pilot of The Mist.

The Mist premieres Thursday, June 22, at 10 p.m. ET on Spike.