Marianne

If you enjoy Stephen King and Insidious-styke horror, check.out this French series. Great cinematography and imagery, good acting, and creepy dread. The unlikeable lead is well played. Robert says, "check it out."

The idea of the plot was interesting, the cinematography was really good, many creepy scenes throughout the series BUT... the writers were really confused. The story is all over the place, everything is happening so fast (especially in the first three episodes), there's no atmosphere or mystery whatsoever. The characters are all superficial at best with no chemistry between them. And also what's with the comedy all the time?? Especially in moments when everyone is supposed to be worried. All in all, it's just sad that such a good story idea was so poorly executed. Watch it but don't have high expectations.

Netflix promises a lot, but not always delivers. They did deliver, though, with "Marianne", an eight-episode French series that will fix your need for all things Stephen King and Conjuring-related.

The story's premise is as formulaic as can be in the horror genre, especially inspired by S. King's novels: Emma, a thirty-something French horror writer, has decided to put an end to a series of books that tell the story of Lizzie Lark, her heroine, who battles an evil witch called (you guessed it) Marianne. Emma has had enough of this character and wants to move on with her life, and, maybe, write something else, something more "serious" (she is a French novelist, after all). Little did she expect a former school friend, Caro, to show up at one of her book signing events, and scare her into returning back to her hometown, which she had left 15 years before, after a terrible tragedy.

The cast is solid, the characters interesting, diverse and well-developed. Some moments are genuinely scary. The pacing may at times be a problem, and the series slows down in the middle, but nothing too problematic. The script is clever and culminates in an extremely promising cliffhanger that will certainly leave you wanting for a second series.

I love horror, but I also know that horror, especially Netflix horror recently can be either really good or really bad, so I went into this with very low expectations, and, honestly, I was very pleasantly surprised. The first episode immediately gripped me and made me want to see more, more of these characters, more of this story. I feel like this series honestly does a lot of things right, especially the characters. I felt like I was never watching characters, but real people. Scenes were they were angry at each-other had a very real tension to it, scenes were they were happy and having fun with each-other make you feel happy to see a group of friends being able to see the bright-side in dark situations. And even the language barrier didn't bother me, sure I don't speak french, and sure the subtitles were a bit wonky every now and then, but still, I was able to understand everything that was going on. Of course, like everything, this series has some issues, but very minor (at least to me). Overall, this was a very well crafted, short series, that I hope does well enough to warrant a second season because, honestly, I can't wait to see where they take the story, and what will happen next given the circumstances of were they left off.

Wow! I've known for a while that the French can make great drama and thrillers, but here they come with a horror series and they knock it out of the park yet again! There's an option for both subtitles and dubbing, and the dubbing works quite well, if you're like me and can't stare avidly at the screen at all times. I absolutely LOVED Marianne! The acting was great, the setting and buildup just right and executed correctly. The twists were really good and that ending means we need a season two! We NEED IT.