Laura Craig-Comin

I don't think I have ever written a movie or series review before, but this one was disappointing enough to make me share my thoughts. It was especially disappointing because it had a lot of potential. There were a dozen themes or mechanisms that could have struck at the real fears of our time and made this a classic. Instead, all of those were stated and displayed so obviously that they wouldn't scare anyone and they didn't focus on any of them long enough to build any real suspense. The disproportionate unreality of the real estate market, the dressed up "politeness" of suburban life, the obsessive possessiveness of old school new englanders, the greed that drives all of these, the financial instability of most American families (even those with high salaries because everyone lives just barely within their means), the shrinking middle class and wage inequality, the mental breakdowns of white men who don't feel they've lived up to the patriarchal ideal, the creepiness of old houses with secrets, the pervasive feeling of being unsafe even when surrounded by security, the feeling of being gaslit, valuing appearances over substance, obsessions with status and control... the potential was so abundant that it ruined the product. I think if they had tried to make this a feature length film instead of a mini series, they might have been forced to edit the story into something real and visceral. They leapt into the parade of themes almost immediately without any subtly or revelation, and didn’t let up until they'd run the whole gamut. This is only a scary story for people who don't actually want to be scared or intrigued. The characters had all the nuance of the dinner guests in Clue with none of charming flamboyance or the delightfully campy mystery. They departed wildly from the true story this is based on without once grounding it somewhere else. Big bummer... it could have been great.