#tv horror
What is this show?
Mike Flanagan, creator of the Haunting of Hill House show, came back to Netflix to deliver us from [give me a sec to come up with something that rhymes with evil and means bad shows or something]. This show centers on the residents of the sleepy Crockett Island when a mysterious new priest steps in and all things spooky and miraculous (?) start happening.
How scary is it?
It is pretty similar to Haunting of Hill House in that it takes a lot of time and care developing its characters and takes sometime to unleash the horror. Some people may find it slow but I think this works to great effect, as it helps us get attached to the characters and grounded in the world so when the real sinister stuff starts happening, it feels very visceral, like it’s happening to people you know. That said, there are moments that reach pretty high levels of terror. It’s great.
It’s particularly chilling if you were raised Catholic.
Jump Scares?
A bit, yeah.
Is there blood and gore?
:)
On a scale of 1 - 10 (10 being Alien: Covenant [I need a new scale for this, I don’t remember Alien: Covenant]), how dumb were the characters?
There are those who act against their own self-interest but in a way that feels all too real. Maybe a 5/10 for standard human levels of dumb.
Anyways, yeah I love this show. I think it outdoes Hill House in that it communicates its big ideas more effectively. There are once again quite a lot of monologues as is Mike Flanagan’s way, but he writes them well and the actors really give them their all. Hamish Linklater delivering homilies goes crazy. The characters are each drawn out with a lot of empathy and you grow to understand each one pretty intimately. The island town itself feels very real and proved a very good setting for this horror story, with its isolation and the fact that it felt like a character unto itself. It had a hold over all the characters, especially the two main characters who wanted to escape it but ended up back in its grasp.
This is pretty close to perfect storytelling. I’m tempted to say it’s the best horror show out there. The only one that comes to mind that may be better is The Terror season 1. But, I do think more people would enjoy this one. Sure, I’ll give this bad boy a 10/10.
Spoiler-y random thoughts below.
God damn do I love the vampire/angel design.
On that note, I’m just gonna put it out there that I’m pretty sure it wasn’t actually an angel, just a vampire in a world where vampires aren’t part of the cultural lexicon.
The scene with the halo on the vampire, the scene with the vampire in the coat and hat shushing Paul, the scene with the vampire in the chasuble. YES!
I was pretty terrified in the moments leading up to the vampire appearing at the church.
It’s on site with Bev Keene.
Riley in the boat will haunt me. Very good stuff.
