Director	Thomas Robins
Writers	Thomas Robins, Pip Hall, Jeremy Dillon	Tweet
Starring	Trith Horan, James Shaw, Andrew Hampton, Riley Brophy, Felicity Milovanovich
Genre	Demonology
Tagline	None Listed
Country

Review

Karen for no apparent reason has a voodoo doll in class, much to Keith's mirth. Naturally something goes haywire in Room 21 with Will's blood ending up activating his own demon, or in this case Barbie of doom. Karen and Will need to keep the doll safe from Killian, marauding dogs, and any number of sharp objects, in order to save Will's soul.

Shane is something of a mummy's boy, which should come in handy as Class 21 are at the local Museum checking out an ancient Egyptian exhibition. Naturally Killian has a completely different history lesson to teach, as Shane, Keith, and Karen become trapped in the Museum with an ancient Egyptian Mummy on the loose with Shane in it's sights.

And to round out the episode Jen learns that shadows can have a bite, especially in the light. Apparently her sister, Nina, puts the idea of shadow demons in Jen's mind in a twist on the usually moderately morality play approach this series takes. Can Jen stay in the light, get rid of the light, and withstand a demon that hides in the dark?

The noticeable thing with Episode 5 of The Killian Curse, besides the use of blue filters edging toward overdone territory, is that Director Thomas Robins is at his strongest with internal settings and loses something with things go out into the great outdoors. Guess the budget didn't stretch to night time shooting, lack of lighting I would imagine, but trying to create something like tension via just camera filters doesn't work terribly well. Guess equally when your whole plot involves two kids chasing after a dog with a voodoo doll in it's mouth, you're not exactly going to be conjuring up The Exorcist. Of the three stories on display through Episode 5, the opening gambit is the weakest due to the decision to go on a field trip, besides which you have to wonder exactly where the school is located given the ever changing surrounds it exists in.

Weakest episode thus far, can things get much worse as the show breaks it's own mythology?

Robins manages to get things back on an even keel with the second story as things go inside the museum of Hammer like horror. He does actually manage to hit the odd bit of atmosphere and tension with good use of light, but guess the whole concept of a Mummy circa 1960 isn't exactly frightening anymore. Robins and his fellow Writers do try to add a touch of humour to proceedings, how often do you get to see a Mummy being unwrapped in a dark genre outing, but it kind of hits the lame end of the spectrum rather than pulling laughter from the Audience. Horror/Comedy is pretty much the hardest thing to pull off and the Writers here don't have the firepower to get it happening. Should have stuck to outright horror themes and tried for something of a zombie twist or something on the Mummy thing, or heck just gone in a completely new direction. And before anyone starts to whine on about target Audiences, let's not talk down to the kids here, they are likely to underline lame and retarded in their descriptions of the show.

Unfortunately the episode doesn't round out in strong style with the whole shadow demon thing being pretty haphazard at best. The final story in the episode breaks a number of rules that The Killian Curse was seemingly operating under, and doesn't do so to any conceivably good purpose. The Writers have completely dropped the ball here and are apt to lose their Audience, the demographic is more apt to want the rules intact than they are to seeing something that breaches the constructs established in previous episodes.

Overall I got through the episode without taking too many hits to my sensibilities though I wasn't exactly grooving to the music being laid down either. While there were some aspects that hit the right notes there were also a lot that fell short of dark genre winning lines. Overall I got the feeling the episode won't delight the tween demographics and it certainly won't have older demographics rushing home to catch it. As stated previously in this episode guide, the Writers of The Killian Curse are about two decades out of step with their intended Audience, the kids are a lot more sophisticated this decade then they were back in the 1980s.

The Killian Curse has gone on the backburner just recently as other things roll into the review queue, which I guess indicates how bored I'm becoming with the whole fandango. Still we are obliged to complete what we start before starting in on new projects so I will attempt to get through the final couple of episodes as quick as possible. Oh no recommendation, I'm not too sure who this show is aimed at, but it doesn't rock my world or worked for the couple of small people I tested it out on. Guess there's not a hell of a lot more I can add to the mix here, view at your own peril folks or simply hunt out something that doesn't talk down to you or anyone else.

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...