WRITER EXCLUSIVE - Island Life

The Third Day mixes The Wicker Man, Rosemary’s Baby and Don’t Look Now

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TOO OFTEN, TRAILERS ARE SO spoiler-heavy that there’s barely a surprise left by the time the actual movie or TV show drops. That’s not a brickbat you could ever lob at the marketing of The Third Day, a new six-part drama that sees HBO and Sky buddy up for the first time since the critically acclaimed Cherbobyl. If you’ve watched the trailer from March, you’ll know that it looks scary and odd and unsettling – even if, to its credit, it’s more than a little hazy on what it’s actually about.

Okay, so what do we know? That it’s about a man and a woman, played by Jude Law and Naomie Harris, who travel to an island where they encounter a community of sinister, secretive locals (there are some serious Wicker Man vibes).

“Oh, there’s some Wicker Man, there’s some Rosemary’s Baby, and some Don’t Look Now,” admits co-creator and writer Dennis Kelly (Utopia), “but I don’t think any of those are conscious. It’s only when you’ve done it, you look at it and go, ‘Oh, fuckin’ hell!’ But it certainly has elements of horror, and certainly of psychological thriller.’”

As it stands,