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Reviews
Midnight Mass (2021)
I really don't do this much but...
I know anything one posts to the internet is like a fa** to the wind. But I'll say this now to anyone who eventually hears.
No true spoilers here, but at first I was seriously turned off by the obvious young-folks-in-meh-old-people-makeup. Jeez louise, hire old actors for cryssakes. By ep 3 I understood there was a reason for what they were doing here. This motif and this theme has been explored before, but not in this exact way, that I know of. I know a little bit about story telling. I know how it works. This worked.
There are a couple of films that come to mind where people are faced with a threat to humanity and deal with it to the best of their ability to stop it, but you never really know how that played out in the end. Here, you kinda know. In this long film the truly righteous are truly righteous, and it is exhilarating. It is THIRLLING to see character arcs fulfilled. One star off ONLY from the old folks makeup that was simply unconvincing at the start.
This is just in time for Halloween. Some are saying this is not horror, and it is only about religion, but I don't think those reviewers really got through ep 2. If you like horror you will want to watch this to the end. Sure, it may be similar to things you have been exposed to before (novels, graphic novels, shows, movies), but I promise you it is different enough.
The Frankenstein Chronicles (2015)
Nothing you will expect
First of all, people need to stop saying this is an interpretation of the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. It is anything but that. This story takes place about 10 years after that novel was published, which was my first clue that this was going to be something completely different. As a nice early surprise, the novel itself does exists in this tale, which adds further realism to the whole affair. What this tale is though, is two things. First, it's a superb detective mystery. Secondly, it is well-executed, well built-up, gut wrenching horror.
The premise is undeniably very dark, and ingrained in the times, but there are underlying themes that are quite relevant to the world of today--it is a mirror for certain scientific dilemmas of 2015. The protagonist (played by Sean Bean) is a good man but a tortured soul, with high potential for being of unreliable perspective (his character might be experiencing dementia). So that alone will keep you guessing. If you start watching it, watch it to the end. You will see that it is anything but an interpretation of the novel, Frankenstein.