Agreed, I'm a big fan. Honestly, I didn't even need the creatures and mansion, though I am sure they'll add intrigue. The sense of total foreboding, of setting out into a hostile and uncharted world was palpable, all the more so because it's actually a world I am comfortable in but the characters were not. It's done more to take me out of myself than most horror/fantasy I've seen recently, and I'm a genre devotee. Full marks.
That they should so handily embrace the mythos and confront the bigot who wrote it is an added narrative benefit. There could not have been a better moment for this show, and it wears its timeliness with confidence.
Also, and please don't let this distract from the above, Jurnee Smollett is hot.