Feria: L'éclat des ténèbres

As this '90s set Spanish series opens teenager Sofia goes out with a group of youngsters; while out she swims in the lake and passes out. She wakes up at home with Eva, her older sister; strangely their parents aren't there. Shortly afterwards the Guardia Civil come looking for their parents... it turns out that they seem to be linked to twenty three bodies being found at a disused mine. Investigations show that the dead were part of a cult that believes that this life is a fiction and had hoped to open a gateway to the real reality, which they call 'The Kingdom'. Surviving members of the cult start to take an interest in Sofia believing she may be able to open the gateway.

I rather enjoyed this series; it started well with a good sense of mystery concerning what happened at the mine. Early on it isn't entirely obvious whether, within the context of the series, the cult's beliefs are real or if they are just dangerously deluded. The fact that the mine contains dangerous gases means that some of the strange things we are shown could be the characters' hallucinations. Some of these scenes are nicely disturbing. The location, a fairly small remote town, is good and the nineties setting is good as it means middle aged characters can be affected by events that occurred at the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975. The cast do a solid job bringing their characters to life and the special effects are really good. If you are bothered by on screen nudity you might not be a fan of this series as there is rather a lot... I can't think I've seen a TV series with more. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of the genre I hope we get another season.

These comments are based on watching the series in Spanish with English subtitles.

European occult / horror is hit and miss, usually a miss. This was one of the better recent ones. Audio dubbing is a bit awkward so if you can handle subtitles I'd suggest watching it that way.

This 8 episode isn't the usual burner and never drags and it's not as melodramatic as some of the Spanish ones are.

Cast work well together and scenery is really pleasant.

Having said that, you really don't care who lives and dies.

Plot isn't original, the old cult trying to open the door to another realm and others trying to stop it and police not being much help etc. But still it's definitely worth a watch if this is your genre.

It is a fun watch for horror and scy-fi fans, but the story lacks something. It advances very slowly and explanations are a bit lacking. You end up just accepting what happens without understanding why.

The characters are believable for the most part, but I just couldn't get attached to them.

The monster designs are cool tho.

The plot is interesting and pretentious, but several caricatured performances, confusing script and bad effects leave the result far below expectations.

European settings always work great for mystery stories, especially during the 90s before everything turned global. Story here is about two sisters living in an isolated, conservative town that has a dark secret they keep for few decades. The story has potential and is interesting at times, even though not completely original. However, the acting leave a lot to be desired as the character don't act in a way that make a lot of sense and sometimes are overdramatic and over acting.