The Burning Girls Review: Supernatural Thriller Series Which Enriches the Increasingly Large Paramount+
Cast: Samantha Morton, Aaron-Jon North, Lorelei Winterfrost, Rupert Graves
Created By: Hans Rosenfeldt
Streaming Platform: Paramount+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
2023 is no exception and we find the proposal in this sense in the review of The Burning Girls, the British-style miniseries in six episodes that arrives on October 19th on Paramount+ with a weekly appointment, based on the novel of the same name by CJ Tudor. We saw a half of it in the preview and we explain why it is perfect for getting into the spooky mood – despite the weather outside the house, still summer, not helping – but at the same time it seems to want to open up too many topics and themes, including feminism, monstrosity, and religion. Since the days of Hocus Pocus, witches have accompanied the month of Halloween and the most pagan celebration there is. Halloween is a time of witches, ghost infestations, and eerie atmospheres. It is no coincidence that we find all this in The Burning Girls, a new horror miniseries adaptation of the novel of the same name by CJ Tudor and the latest addition to the perfect visions for the spooky season.
The show, divided into six episodes and available on Paramount+, revolves around the figure of Jack Brooks, a woman with a dark past behind her as well as the new spiritual guide of the English village of Chapel Croft after the suicide of her reverend, who moved to the village to start a new life. Soon, however, our protagonist will realize that Chapel Croft is not the peaceful place it might seem. As we will see in our review of The Burning Girls, the miniseries created by Hans Rosenfeldt certainly does not shine for originality, recalling all the classic tropes of the genre; despite this, it still manages to create a disturbing atmosphere full of mystery, while exploring the real theme around which the show revolves, that is, being a woman within a retrograde and traditionalist context.
The Burning Girls Review: The Story Plot
After the suicide of Reverend Fletcher, it is up to Jack Brooks (Samantha Morton) to take his place as the spiritual guide of Chapel Croft, a small village in the English countryside of Sussex, where he moves with his teenage daughter Flo (Ruby Stokes). The faithful of the town do not know, however, that the new reverend brings with her a heavy baggage: the death of her husband and an accident that occurred in her previous parish pushed the woman to accept the new job far from Nottingham, hoping to be able to start over in a quiet place. But Chapel Croft also has a dark history behind it: thirty years earlier two rebellious students disappeared into thin air without leaving a trace while, in the local church, it seems that the ghosts of two little girls engulfed in flames, burned, often appear. burned at the stake as witches in 1556. Jack Brooks will therefore have to navigate his difficult past, the rather suspicious welcome of the locals, and the sinister apparitions that haunt the town.
The Burning Girls Review and Analysis
Feminism in the religious context, is the main theme addressed by The Burning Girls. The series shows what it means to be a woman within a retrograde and excessively traditionalist society, capable, over the centuries, of changing only her methods (by force of circumstances) but certainly not her bigoted mentality. she. In Chapel Croft, there seems to be an internalized belief that a woman eager to express her opinion or rebel against imposed dogmas represents the manifestation of wickedness and, for this reason, should be punished. With the fire during the years of the witch hunt, with the physical and psychological mortification at the time of the disappearance of the two teenagers, considered hostile and subversive but in reality, only victims of violent families incapable of understanding them.
Even today, however, the community of the small village proves equally incapable of accepting women as such. We understand this right away, to the disappointment of the inhabitants in discovering that “Jack” does not correspond to the name of a man, of the new reverend, but of the one who came to replace him. The woman will thus have to work hard to be accepted by the country and demonstrate her worth. Finally, we see how even the local young generations, in particular the girls, have internalized the misogynistic attitude of Chapel Croft, ending up becoming victims of themselves and ending up fueling abuse and violence. The Burning Girls brings together all the classic tropes of the genre, without leaving out a single one.
We have a tormented protagonist with a mysterious past behind her and a village in the English countryside which, behind her idyllic appearance, hides an evil heart, including ghosts of little girls burned alive, girls who have disappeared into thin air, and suicidal priests. We also find a grumpy but incredibly sensitive and lonely teenager, with the peculiar habit of photographing tombstones with her analog camera, a hobby that makes her decidedly anachronistic compared to her peers. All were seasoned with hostile fellow villagers, bloody nightgowns, cawing crows, flickering candles, and exorcism sets left outside the front door. Although it certainly doesn’t shine with originality and perhaps puts too many storylines on the line, the miniseries based on the novel by CJ Tudor still manages to create a disturbing atmosphere and involve the viewer in all the dark mysteries that slowly come to light. It may not be remembered in years to come, but it certainly proves to be excellent viewing for the period leading up to Halloween.
Samantha Morton gives us an interpretation opposed to the hard and calculating one of The Serpent Queen, showing a generous, altruistic woman, always ready to put herself at the service of others as her profession requires, but at the same time wrapped in the black cloak of her past and in a symbiotic relationship with her daughter, having been left alone and having to face a major loss. Ruby Stokes, on the other hand, already seen in Bridgerton and Lockwood & Co., is the classic sensitive teenager, a bit goth and unconventional, but her bond with the 80s-90s films, her father’s old-fashioned camera and her passion for darkrooms with development “as in the past”, makes her a somewhat anachronistic character for a teenager of today, who seems more to want to please and reach the target of nostalgic thirty-year-olds who are popular today rather than her peers.
In the past of mother and daughter, various secrets will have to be revealed, as well as in that of the village at the center of the story: there is an exorcism involved, a violent attack in a church, the killings and disappearances mentioned above, the curse that seems having cloaked Chapel Croft: whoever sees The Burning Girls of the title is destined to come to a bad end. The all-British cast of The Burning Girls features faces more or less known to regular users of English products: among these, we mention Conrad Khan (Peaky Blinders) in the role of Lucas Wrigley, a particular boy who befriends Flo, who also has an ancient, and Rupert Graves (Sherlock) in the role of one of the most influential and toxic heads of the family in the village. And again Paul Bradley, Janie Dee, Jane Lapotaire, John Macmillan, Elodie Grace Orkin, Safia Oakley-Green, Beth Cordingly, David Dawson, Jack Roth, and Mollie Holder.
Each of these characters has something to do with the unspeakable secrets that Chapel Croft seems to want to take with them to the grave, and not let them be discovered, especially by newcomers, who in turn are running away from something or someone. This is well expressed by the extremely dark photography and the camera that plays with the stylistic features of horror and thriller by mixing them. What The Burning Girls wants to investigate is mainly composed of two thematic lines: the role of women over the centuries, and how today they are too often silenced – just like in the times of witches, the (monstrous) female sex that raises the head just to say something different was viewed with caution by the patriarchs of the community – and above all the weight of religion in such a narrow and closed community. A faith that can lead to fanaticism in the blink of an eye and dangerous consequences for all its members, as Midnight Mass has already brilliantly and allegorically shown us. We hope that the second half of the series will be able to close the too many storylines opened by the miniseries and that it will be able to give a satisfactory answer to all of them so that the circle closes, leaving the audience satisfied and amazed.
The Burning Girls Review: The Last Words
As we will see in our review of The Burning Girls, the miniseries created by Hans Rosenfeldt certainly does not shine for originality, recalling all the classic tropes of the genre; despite this, it still manages to create a disturbing atmosphere full of mystery, while exploring the real theme around which the show revolves, that is, being a woman within a retrograde and traditionalist context. We talked about the role of women and religion in society, in the review of The Burning Girls, the new supernatural thriller series which enriches the increasingly large Paramount+ catalog, a year after its debut in Italy. Samantha Morton is a perfect leader of an all-British cast full of secrets and mysteries just like the protagonist’s village, which overflows with horror suggestions thanks to particularly dark photography. However, she uses too many narrative and thematic lines: she risks indigestion.
The Burning Girls Review: Supernatural Thriller Series Which Enriches the Increasingly Large Paramount+ - Filmyhype
Director: Hans Rosenfeldt
Date Created: 2023-10-20 19:04
3
Pros
- The rarefied and mysterious atmosphere of Chapel Croft.
- The themes of mourning, of women and of religious faith.
- Samantha Morton leads a good cast…
Cons
- …although not all interpreters work at the same time.
- The characters of Ruby and Wrigley are a bit anachronistic.
- Too many open storylines and reflections were addressed.
