Teacup's strengths are far more numerous than its flaws. It's beautifully shot, with elegant camera moves and compositions. It maintains a dread-filled atmosphere. It gets better as it goes and sets up a bigger Season 2 in an organic way, but it's gripping from the very beginning.

An out-there thriller that rehashes and remixes to engaging B-movie effect.

At best, the series is an entertaining horror story that knows how to use tropes in favor of its mystery. At worst, it has shallow characters and uninspired dialogue, both of which could be improved with a little extra runtime.

For a binge, “Teacup” will scratch the right itch — in November, after all eight episodes are out. Week to week, the series is as much at war with the foibles of its format as with the mysterious force attacking its characters. If underwritten characters and suspense alone can sustain the series, then more power to it.

While the show, executive produced by “Saw” and “The Conjuring” filmmaker James Wan, has a haunting element of terror running through its first half, it becomes muddled by the final episodes as the mystery at the center of the series is revealed.

The final episode ends with a sudden and surprising set piece that sets up a second season nicely, and even seems to have one eye on something more expansive: a story in the style of The Walking Dead, where we continue to follow our unlikely band as they try to survive in the face of a supernatural threat. Unfortunately, nothing in Teacup’s first season suggests that the series will be around long enough to make good on that promise.

A lot could be forgiven or obscured within Teacup if it were just scary. It aggressively is not.