I was really looking forward to this show, so well done BBC for managing to create a trailer that somehow managed to garner interest in this cliched toss.
A superb show if you fancy six hours of watching a Topshop mannequin get wheeled around scenic Wales and a big old country house, making every appalling self-centred decision imaginable - set to one of the three 20-second loops of backing music used throughout the show.
Perhaps if the writers had put the same effort into devising an original plot, as wardrobe put into keeping the lead's fringe immaculately maintained, this could have been enjoyable.
As it stands the plot is derivative of (and not a nod to) many of the Hammer horrors I used to sit up and watch on BBC2 and C4 at 1am on a Friday night, back when there were only four TV channels. The plot is tried and tested; person returns to a big old house in a slightly isolated village with strange locals, because "something inside them" draws them to it. They then make every bad decision imaginable until they end up on an altar surrounded by aforementioned locals who transpire to be Satanists or similar - essentially every Hammer film made between 1960-1970. The only difference is a remarkable twist where the possession of the lead by some otherworldly entity, isn't actually halted at the last minute.
While the cast is excellent, so few of the characters are likeable that it's a struggle to make it through all six episodes. If you're already part way through and unsure whether it's worth watching the rest; it isn't.
A superb show if you fancy six hours of watching a Topshop mannequin get wheeled around scenic Wales and a big old country house, making every appalling self-centred decision imaginable - set to one of the three 20-second loops of backing music used throughout the show.
Perhaps if the writers had put the same effort into devising an original plot, as wardrobe put into keeping the lead's fringe immaculately maintained, this could have been enjoyable.
As it stands the plot is derivative of (and not a nod to) many of the Hammer horrors I used to sit up and watch on BBC2 and C4 at 1am on a Friday night, back when there were only four TV channels. The plot is tried and tested; person returns to a big old house in a slightly isolated village with strange locals, because "something inside them" draws them to it. They then make every bad decision imaginable until they end up on an altar surrounded by aforementioned locals who transpire to be Satanists or similar - essentially every Hammer film made between 1960-1970. The only difference is a remarkable twist where the possession of the lead by some otherworldly entity, isn't actually halted at the last minute.
While the cast is excellent, so few of the characters are likeable that it's a struggle to make it through all six episodes. If you're already part way through and unsure whether it's worth watching the rest; it isn't.