Photo: Locke & Key, @Netflix
The flu has been going on in my house so this weekend meant lots of binge watching and resting (and quarantining myself!)
I started with binge watching Locke & Key—the trailer seemed like it was going to be a really terrifying show (too scary for me) but then seemed family friendly (?) So I gave it a shot and hoped for the best. I’m so glad I did! I wrote a little bit about it here too, if you want to check out what I recommended binging around Valentines Day (nothing cheesy, all good stuff!)
Locke & Key is about a family that moves into a mansion following the murder of their father, trying to start fresh at a new place and new school. The mansion they move into is one that has been kept in the family for years, (ha! Just realized this is exactly like in October Faction too—see below). Anywho, the three kids start to discover weird things happening around the house, and the youngest figures out that there are a series of different keys hidden that unlock different powers. Of course, with powers, comes evil demons that want the keys for themselves. They figure out why their dad was murdered, what happened in the past that was covered up, and ultimately have a showdown with evil. I’m kind of sensitive to really scary shows, but I was able to watch this without being too terrified at all. I think the fact that it’s a family fighting evil, that there’s plenty of non scary moments to help catch your breath, and even some comedy sprinkled in, make it enjoyable. As I mentioned in my other post, there isn’t a lot of gratuitous gore and violence just for the sake of it. There really isn’t much gore at all actually..! So that goes to show you that a show can still be scary without all of that stuff, but also I’d say this show is safe for the family to watch.
Photo: October Faction, @Netflix
Moving onto October Faction—as soon as I was done with Locke and Key I was feeling a huge void (as I usually do after finishing a series), and figured October Faction would be a good next show to watch as it being in a similar genre—dealing with supernatural etc. However, October Faction I will say is not as family friendly, there definitely is some gore in there, and the monsters are a little more terrifying. This show also begins with a family moving into a spooky house that was kept in the family and passed down. What the son and daughter aren’t aware of is that their parents are a part of a secret global agency that hunts down monsters (think: warlocks, vampires) in order to protect everyone. As the episodes go on, weird things start to happen to the son and daughter, as they start witnessing supernatural events and having these abilities that they don’t know what to do with. I won’t get too much into it so I don’t spoil it for you—but trust me, this show is worth watching. And it truly isn’t that scary because the husband and wife are so casual about having to hunt and kill these monsters they act like it’s not a big deal at all--they’ve been doing this so long they could practically do it in their sleep. This was definitely an enjoyable show for me to binge after Locke and Key—slightly more scary, a little more of the supernatural aspects in there, but great drama throughout.
Photo: Dracula, @Netflix
Finally, after finishing both shows and still not feeling fulfilled of the scary/supernatural/family shows yet, I finally gave Netflix’s Dracula a chance (this was the scariest/goriest out of all three). I heard multiple reviews on this show, some good and some bad. It’s a little bit of a different format that we’re used to seeing—it’s three episodes long but each episode is about an hour and a half each. Although each episode is related, it’s like watching a different movie about the same topic, in different time periods. In the final episode, they’ve flash forwarded to present day. So although very different, I think if you’re going to try and retell a classic such as Dracula, you need to begin with an interpretation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel. The present day episode wasn’t really necessary, but I definitely enjoyed it. I also believe perhaps more people would have watched had there been more present day material, but I think with this show they were trying to find ways to please a broader audience. Here is where I can see the problem with the show for those critics that did not enjoy it as much: it’s trying to do too much, the canvas may just be too big. The sense of direction gets lost. Also, this is from the creators of Sherlock which is such an epic show that these creators have a reputation to uphold after that, so everyone was most likely expecting a lot. For me, it delivered and I enjoyed it. I can understand the critiques but I say you should still give it a shot!