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If you've seen any of the reviews for the new Netflix miniseries American Prime Evil, you'll know what

you're in for. Critics have described it as a harrowing watch, unsparingly bleak, blood-soaked,

grotesquely, mindlessly violent. And all of this gore took place in the Utah territory in

1857. That is, the series is based on a true story or real history.

The Utah War, the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Peter Berg directs the series with a screenplay by Mark Elth Smith.

He wrote the film The Revenant.

We talked with Lindsay Hansen Park this week.

She was an historical consultant for the series and she told us Berg didn't want to create a sanitized version of the West. He wanted something

like he saw in the 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson, something desolate and harsh.

Peter Berg has been interested in the stories of the frontier for a long time, Mark

L. Smith as well. And he talks about first really finding out that there was a creative

palette to work with when he realizes the West is not just shootouts and riding on horses

and meeting in the public square at high noon.

There's this whole story of really complex, really graphic violence.

And he talks about a conversation that he's having with Mark L. Smith, the writer of the series.

And he's showing sort of this collection of weapons that he has from his obsession with this time period in history.

He's got knives and guns.

And he has this ice pick, this axe.

And I walked into the room where Mark was sitting and waiting for the meeting.

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