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alibi_shopThis is the only one of Mike Flanagan's TV projects that was meant to continue, but it was immediately cancelled so for better or worse it ended up being another of his horror miniseries. (That's why this review isn't on Letterboxd, where ongoing or meant-to-be-ongoing shows aren't listed.) I liked two of the earlier ones a lot, another more-than-a-lot (I'll write about Midnight Mass eventually), and another not as much. It's obvious right away that this is the same guy, working in a similar style, doing another mashup of multiple works with an ensemble cast—but instead of his usual ensemble (except for a few cameos), it's a bunch of teen characters in adaptations of young-adult books by Christopher Pike. And it's great—one of his best I think, although the material is so different that it's hard to compare.
I haven't read Pike, but I know that the through-line of this—terminally ill kids getting to know each other in a possibly-haunted hospice, and sharing horror stories they've made up—is from one book while the stories are adapted from others, and I think that works better in a lot of ways than the "force the different pieces to connect up somehow in the plot" approach he used with The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Fall of the House of Usher. The stories are cast with the same actors and (I'm guessing) reshaped a little to play up similarities with the personal issues of the hospice kids, but that makes total sense for this since, in-story, they're the authors. It's also a great excuse for Flanagan to try out a lot of different styles and subgenres and levels of seriousness; some of this stuff is very serious, some of it is self-serious for the character but corny to us in a believably teenage way, and some of it is deliberately stupid and hilarious (like the bit where one of the teenagers can't help throwing in jump-scares, so we get about 20 of them in a row rapid-fire with the same ghost for no reason—all filmed with equal precision). The science-fiction-ish stuff works the least well for me, I think it's just not so much Flanagan's type of thing and it's more expositiony, but that's a pretty small part.
Meanwhile, the through-line story in the hospice alternates between an occult mystery plot and the mundane personal struggles and interactions of the kids. The kids are all extremely well cast (although they don't all get as much to do, since there are 9 of them) and Ruth Codd in particular is stellar. I'm glad I saw Usher before this even though it was made last, because otherwise Usher would've been a terrible letdown: Codd was good in Usher but had a pretty limited part, whereas here she's carrying huge parts of the show and doing awesome work in what was apparently her first screen role. (There are maybe two times where she doesn't quite manage to make one of Flanagan's long monologue bits sound convincing, but it's a heroic effort—I think those bits were just overwritten.) Sometimes the emotional arcs are melodramatic, but in an appropriately teenage way; other times the writing takes an unexpected turn and lets people just be good to each other when you expected conflict. I honestly don't think this is just for a YA audience; for me it's effective drama, period, and there's some really thoughtful stuff about how people deal with illness and mortality.
The mystery plot is the main thing that suffered from the series being cut off at this point, but there's a satisfying enough amount of it and it benefits from some wonderful work by the two main grown-up actors: Heather Langenkamp (former scream queen) as the doctor in charge, and Samantha Sloyan (former Midnight Mass villain) as an herbalist in a nearby commune. Langenkamp is just the right amount of an adult anchor for the show, and I'm awfully happy that she's now a recurring part of Flanagan's crew. Sloyan's character is exactly like a combination of several people I've known in northern California, who for various reasons drive me up the wall even though I realize that's just me and they're actually fine; it's a very real performance in its self-satisfied too-muchness.
I haven't read Pike, but I know that the through-line of this—terminally ill kids getting to know each other in a possibly-haunted hospice, and sharing horror stories they've made up—is from one book while the stories are adapted from others, and I think that works better in a lot of ways than the "force the different pieces to connect up somehow in the plot" approach he used with The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Fall of the House of Usher. The stories are cast with the same actors and (I'm guessing) reshaped a little to play up similarities with the personal issues of the hospice kids, but that makes total sense for this since, in-story, they're the authors. It's also a great excuse for Flanagan to try out a lot of different styles and subgenres and levels of seriousness; some of this stuff is very serious, some of it is self-serious for the character but corny to us in a believably teenage way, and some of it is deliberately stupid and hilarious (like the bit where one of the teenagers can't help throwing in jump-scares, so we get about 20 of them in a row rapid-fire with the same ghost for no reason—all filmed with equal precision). The science-fiction-ish stuff works the least well for me, I think it's just not so much Flanagan's type of thing and it's more expositiony, but that's a pretty small part.
Meanwhile, the through-line story in the hospice alternates between an occult mystery plot and the mundane personal struggles and interactions of the kids. The kids are all extremely well cast (although they don't all get as much to do, since there are 9 of them) and Ruth Codd in particular is stellar. I'm glad I saw Usher before this even though it was made last, because otherwise Usher would've been a terrible letdown: Codd was good in Usher but had a pretty limited part, whereas here she's carrying huge parts of the show and doing awesome work in what was apparently her first screen role. (There are maybe two times where she doesn't quite manage to make one of Flanagan's long monologue bits sound convincing, but it's a heroic effort—I think those bits were just overwritten.) Sometimes the emotional arcs are melodramatic, but in an appropriately teenage way; other times the writing takes an unexpected turn and lets people just be good to each other when you expected conflict. I honestly don't think this is just for a YA audience; for me it's effective drama, period, and there's some really thoughtful stuff about how people deal with illness and mortality.
The mystery plot is the main thing that suffered from the series being cut off at this point, but there's a satisfying enough amount of it and it benefits from some wonderful work by the two main grown-up actors: Heather Langenkamp (former scream queen) as the doctor in charge, and Samantha Sloyan (former Midnight Mass villain) as an herbalist in a nearby commune. Langenkamp is just the right amount of an adult anchor for the show, and I'm awfully happy that she's now a recurring part of Flanagan's crew. Sloyan's character is exactly like a combination of several people I've known in northern California, who for various reasons drive me up the wall even though I realize that's just me and they're actually fine; it's a very real performance in its self-satisfied too-muchness.
