The Burning Girls is a gripping Netflix horror with twists, suspense and standout performances, making the slow burn well worth it, writes GEMMA JOHNSON
TITLE: The Burning Girls
RELEASED: 19 October 2023
DIRECTOR: Charles Martin and Kieron Hawkes
CAST: Samantha Morton, Ruby Stokes, Conrad Khan, David Dawson, Paul Bradley, Janie Dee, Jane Lapotaire, John Macmillan, Elodie Grace Orkin, Rupert Graves
Review of The Burning Girls
I have tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible within this review.
The Burning Girls is a new Netflix horror-based drama series, which was released on 28 October, just in time for Halloween.
It consists of six episodes and there are some familiar faces within the cast, including Ruby Stokes (Lockwood and Co) Samantha Morton (The Walking Dead) and Paul Bradley (Holby City and Eastenders).
The trailer draws us in with the promise of dark horror, suspense and mystery. But did it live up to expectations?
In episode one, we are told about the history of the village and a strange local tradition of burning small twig sculptures, representing two girls who were burnt at the stake in the 16th Century.
The girls are still rumoured to haunt the village and anyone who sees them is doomed.
A shiny new vicar, Jack, and her daughter Flo, have arrived in the village and we see them settling into village life.
There are a range of strange characters residing within the village. including the Harper Family and the Curate of the church. So far so good, tension and mystery are successfully created.
There are elements of many different horror films and horror shows that have clearly influenced the writing – Blair Witch, The Exorcist and Mike Flannigans Midnight Mass – it is rich in symbolism and this comes more into play within episode two as we learn that not everything is what it seems.
A bug bear that was noticed within this episode is that the outside of the church doesn’t match up with the interior of the church in terms of the placement and presence of windows. A very small detail but once we noticed it, we commented on it each time.
Within episode three, we discover more about Jack’s history and the dark undertones of the Harper Family come more to light.
There were some quite genuinely scary moments within this episode and, at times, it reminded us of The Haunting of Hill House in terms of the jump scare factor. There are several different story lines at play by this point and it is not clear where the story is taking us.
Episode four was a tough one to watch, there are always those episodes, within a series, where there are several different plot lines merging and this was that episode.
It was an episode where you have to concentrate otherwise you quickly lose track. It jumps from past to present, sometimes without a logical reason why, there were some smoke and mirrors tactics going on within this episode.
At this point we really hoped that there would be a big pay off coming as we worked through the final two episodes.
Observation: Why does no-one in the countryside lock their doors? There is lots of walking into people’s homes in episode five and it made me want to go and check my own front door.
The secrets run deep, the mysteries continue as did the riddles but things are slowly coming to a head. I had an instinct about a particular character from episode one and my suspicions were confirmed here.
There seems to be so much to wrap up within the final episode and we had real concerns that it would be left on a cliff-hanger with series two to follow. This episode was completely set in the present making it seem much less clunky than episode four.
It has been a slow burner, there are times when you really need to stick with it but it is completely worth it.
Plot twists, bombshells and shocking revelations come to light in this final episode.
Bravo to the writers because most of what was revealed could not be seen coming and it fully explains the need for the tricky episode four.
Hats off to Samantha Morton for her incredible performance as the vicar, she was the thread throughout and her absolute commitment to the role shone.
She was kind, gracious, softly spoken but also a strong fearless woman unafraid to fight for what she believed in.
I fully recommend that you watch this, be prepared to be shaken to the core and do stick with it. The payoff is worth every “what on earth is going on?”
The Burning Girls is now available on Netflix.
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