Those of us who are folk horror fans are forever hungry as they don't make enough of these films (or television series, as the case is here), and what a let-down when someone does it and then...does this.
I didn't care about the goofy lives of high schoolers when I was in high school, and for narrative reasons that escape me, more than half of this series is about teenagers and dating and dances. I have a hard time believing that people who are somehow interested in teenagers and dating and dances care much about agrarian cults, and I have a hard time that people who want to watch a movie about agrarian cults (hi!) care much at all about trite teenage drivel.
At the center of this story is a Luciferian religion which was interesting enough (folk horror fans are familiar with the problem of "whoops, crop problems, so therefore let's sacrifice a human" concept). Very little time is spent exploring the lives of the members of this cult except for their lust to kill someone because of an unfortunate corn smut situation. The concept of isolated cults hidden in the modern world is interesting, and you'd think that'd be red meat for a writer, but...apparently not here.
We're told the cult's origin story in a kind of fast, trite exposition when that should have been the whole story. We should have arrived in the present day after more in-depth depictions of how the cult came to exist and what its internal dynamics were. I particularly hated the satanic cop who's job is to just look evil in his hat all the time. There's no imagination when it comes to these things; they're just tropes. Evil people don't know or think that they're evil. They certainly don't go around looking menacing all the time because who has energy for that.
It's too bad, too. There are some interesting things about this cult, since the cult is not based in some kind of pagan tradition but is specifically based in a rebellion against the supposedly apathetic/unresponsive Christian god, hence the cult retains, outwardly, some Christian aesthetics (nuns, etc.) Here, the inverted crosses actually make some sense; they're not just thrown in there as generic satanic symbols. Inversion is the basis of the cult itself.
But never mind that! Besties are upset that their friends are hanging out with other people in high school and who is going to go to which dance with whom and, like, omg!
You get just a few of those great disgusted "teenage girl in bad movie" dirty looks. Unfortunately they don't occur where they normally occur in stories like this, which is when teenage girls are "proximate to nature," teenage girls apparently (according to almost every movie ever made) being vexed by the prospect of trees and stuff. Like when they move to some new (cursed or haunted) house in the woods somewhere and they just go "ugh" and pop their gum and tap their cell phones with a disgusted look on their face, upset at the foliage. It's a shame too, because in a movie like this you would expect more of that, and I feel cheated. There's a little of it though. I would have gone overboard with it here and had a lot more of it, because it's that kind of a movie.
What is good here, and it deserves special mention, is the music. There is some infernal music based in old English folk aesthetics here which is remarkably well orchestrated. In fact, it's the best thing about this series.
This should have been a three episode series, and all of the pretext around how this cult comes to be known and impacts the modern world should have been completely re-done. The movie tells us nothing about spirituality, religion, mysticism, or really much about the human psyche: our corn is all smutty, therefore we will sacrifice a human to the devil, and it is too bad we are in Ohio where there are no Mexicans around who might suggest that since huitlacoche is totes edible maybe it's an underserved market (I've had it; it's not bad.) and you could make lemonade from them there lemons.
Wasted potential. There's something workable at the center of this and it is just terribly executed with a bunch of teenage drama and psychotherapy and marriage stuff I just wanted to fast forward through.
Worst thing was by the end I didn't care about the fates of the characters, and in stories like this you're supposed to care. Burn or don't burn, get divorced or don't, I don't care.
I liked the little girl who sang, I guess. Mae was pretty good; I liked her psychotic edge. No one else here is interesting.
Unbelievably bland, and a lost opportunity. If you want a good story about crop failure and human sacrifice, you know the one to watch. It isn't this one.
I didn't care about the goofy lives of high schoolers when I was in high school, and for narrative reasons that escape me, more than half of this series is about teenagers and dating and dances. I have a hard time believing that people who are somehow interested in teenagers and dating and dances care much about agrarian cults, and I have a hard time that people who want to watch a movie about agrarian cults (hi!) care much at all about trite teenage drivel.
At the center of this story is a Luciferian religion which was interesting enough (folk horror fans are familiar with the problem of "whoops, crop problems, so therefore let's sacrifice a human" concept). Very little time is spent exploring the lives of the members of this cult except for their lust to kill someone because of an unfortunate corn smut situation. The concept of isolated cults hidden in the modern world is interesting, and you'd think that'd be red meat for a writer, but...apparently not here.
We're told the cult's origin story in a kind of fast, trite exposition when that should have been the whole story. We should have arrived in the present day after more in-depth depictions of how the cult came to exist and what its internal dynamics were. I particularly hated the satanic cop who's job is to just look evil in his hat all the time. There's no imagination when it comes to these things; they're just tropes. Evil people don't know or think that they're evil. They certainly don't go around looking menacing all the time because who has energy for that.
It's too bad, too. There are some interesting things about this cult, since the cult is not based in some kind of pagan tradition but is specifically based in a rebellion against the supposedly apathetic/unresponsive Christian god, hence the cult retains, outwardly, some Christian aesthetics (nuns, etc.) Here, the inverted crosses actually make some sense; they're not just thrown in there as generic satanic symbols. Inversion is the basis of the cult itself.
But never mind that! Besties are upset that their friends are hanging out with other people in high school and who is going to go to which dance with whom and, like, omg!
You get just a few of those great disgusted "teenage girl in bad movie" dirty looks. Unfortunately they don't occur where they normally occur in stories like this, which is when teenage girls are "proximate to nature," teenage girls apparently (according to almost every movie ever made) being vexed by the prospect of trees and stuff. Like when they move to some new (cursed or haunted) house in the woods somewhere and they just go "ugh" and pop their gum and tap their cell phones with a disgusted look on their face, upset at the foliage. It's a shame too, because in a movie like this you would expect more of that, and I feel cheated. There's a little of it though. I would have gone overboard with it here and had a lot more of it, because it's that kind of a movie.
What is good here, and it deserves special mention, is the music. There is some infernal music based in old English folk aesthetics here which is remarkably well orchestrated. In fact, it's the best thing about this series.
This should have been a three episode series, and all of the pretext around how this cult comes to be known and impacts the modern world should have been completely re-done. The movie tells us nothing about spirituality, religion, mysticism, or really much about the human psyche: our corn is all smutty, therefore we will sacrifice a human to the devil, and it is too bad we are in Ohio where there are no Mexicans around who might suggest that since huitlacoche is totes edible maybe it's an underserved market (I've had it; it's not bad.) and you could make lemonade from them there lemons.
Wasted potential. There's something workable at the center of this and it is just terribly executed with a bunch of teenage drama and psychotherapy and marriage stuff I just wanted to fast forward through.
Worst thing was by the end I didn't care about the fates of the characters, and in stories like this you're supposed to care. Burn or don't burn, get divorced or don't, I don't care.
I liked the little girl who sang, I guess. Mae was pretty good; I liked her psychotic edge. No one else here is interesting.
Unbelievably bland, and a lost opportunity. If you want a good story about crop failure and human sacrifice, you know the one to watch. It isn't this one.
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