Reviewbr> "Much more powerful than Johnny Campbell's fat bum" - ElizabethIn room 21 Killian's curse continues to torment the class as the dead necromancer seeks eleven souls to allow for his rebirth. While the Caretaker tries his best to defend his young charges, and we are yet to determine his background, he comes to the realisation that each student must face his/her own personal demon. There's no escape when Killian comes to call from the demons in the night. Naturally the episode features three original stories, following the general structure of the first episode. In Water Elizabeth, who doesn't like the substance, faces I guess a Kraken, or at least a demon in the form of a giant squid. Not surprisingly the abundant calamari is able to push tentacles up through any water, including toilet bowls and heating pipes, as one would expect in a supernatural outing. I had a slight issue with this story, how exactly did Elizabeth and her matea determine they were facing the leviathan of the deep from limited information? Anyways Elizabeth chooses to do battle with the aquatic menace in a disused swimming pool. In our second story of the evening, loving the short sharp jabs this series is offering, Lucy who optimises the teen chick with the mobile phone obsession, finds the object of her desire has a malevolent side as her nokia discovers a new ring tone in the form of a poltergeist. The mischievous spirit first alienates Lucy from her class mates via a general SMS message, before launching a prolonged assault on it's unfortunately victim. Can Lucy disconnect from her own demon or will she be put on hold as one of the eleven souls Killian requires? And finally we get a tale of lupine carnage as Owen, a student who doesn't pay attention and hence loses any advantages he might have, comes face to face with a werewolf. Owen finds there are dark woods behind certain doors, and the denizens of said woods aren't friendly. Now if only he wasn't tardy and had paid attention in class he might have got one up on his hirsute foe. Once again I was left wondering however why exactly a werewolf would be Owen's personal demon, am I missing something here? Nice twist to the story however, as the Writers hit a device hinted at early in the piece. While I'm not yet ready to sign off on this one for the general viewer, episode two did grown on me as it unfolded. There were a few issues I discovered with episode two that could have been rectified with a slightly larger budget or perhaps more attention to detail and a final script edit. Besides the personal demon choice question, the Writers could have done more to match particular demons to quirks in their intended victim's personalities perhaps, the running time of each story is affecting any chance of hitting horror highs. Even the intended audience for this one isn't going to be able to convince itself that it is frightened by the low key supernatural offerings presented for our contemplation in the short story span. Must say I'm already well over the "21" motif, used to introduced the supernatural elements as each student face's Killian's legacy, and do we really need the overabundance of filters as things go surreal for individual victims? Killian's Curse lacks the single biggest requirement of a dark genre outing, to surprise and torment the viewer. Hampered by the budget Director Robins at least gets his creature feature right in a kind of less is more approach that works in this case. While it would have been easy enough to allow the props and makeup departments to run riot Robins restrains them, thus making his smallish budget appear bigger than it actually is. Okay while the tentacles of the giant squid might have viewers rolling their eyes, I was actually reminded of a certain infamous Ed Wood outing where he forgot the motor for a certain prop he purloined from a larger Studio, you have to give at least one thumb up to the werewolf effort. While the morphing doesn't match classic scenes in movies like An American Werewolf In London, Robins ability to offer tantalising glimpses of the transformation works like a brought thing. Overall I was happy enough with the creature effects being used, let's face facts here we have all seen worse in our misguided attempts to journey the shabbier alleyways of the dark genre. While I'm not about to recommend this anthology format show to anyone, and yes I do note the Australian ABC has scheduled it recently, I must admit that the second episode is starting to find a voice for the franchise. We're not talking anything that will keep teens foaming at the mouth over Halloween, but younger viewers might be entranced by the whole concept of youngsters having to face their own demons without adult supervision. Actually that makes the whole thing sound like some sort of slasher opus, which isn't the impression I am attempting to give. Yeap I would have to say that episode kind of grew on me, not the most horrid thing you could find yourself watching one evening. I haven't checked recently, and with an ABC screening in due course things might have change, but if after Killian action then try Mighty Ape. For under $25 you can secure the first season, no news on the second season, television NZ sucks at the follow through in most DVD releases of television shows.
ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...br> br> Improvements are being made, though the show doesn't zero in on it's intended Audience. |