Thursday 23 February 2023

The Rig (2023) Series Review

The Rig is a six-part series available on Amazon Prime. It focuses on Kinloch Bravo, an oil rig in the North Sea due to be decommissioned by the energy company that owns it, Pictor, that finds itself invaded by a mysterious, seemingly supernatural entity.

(As always, this review is full of spoilers so jump ship now if you don't want to know.)

Oil rigs are made for horror. They’re rough, desolate, isolated places unfamiliar to most of us. They might as well be foreign lands. Add the fact that they’re cramped places, with people living on top of each other for long stretches and you’ve got an environment just begging for disaster. Tensions run high. In tight spaces like that, minor inconveniences grow into lingering grudges – and that’s before anything goes wrong. Throw a monster into the mix…

With references to John Wyndham’s The Kraken Wakes, you’d be forgiven for expecting a whopping Cthulu-esque, eldritch beastie to be at the heart of the Bravo’s misfortune. I know I was. That’s nowhere near what you get with The Rig, though. It’s a slower, quieter horror but, strangely, I wasn’t disappointed. As these apocalyptic things usually go, the real monster is us. And, of course, monster gets what it deserves at the end of The Rig so, although there aren’t any tentacles or teeth, it’s still satisfying.

How’s it working out?

Not good for us.

Although it wasn’t what I was expecting, The Rig is still good horror. It’s atmospheric as hell, for starters. A lot of shows take a couple of episodes to bed in but this one gets under your skin straight away.

There are small signs of something going wrong long before the shit really hits the fan, with plenty of hints like lost signals to clue in attentive viewers. Then a mysterious fog rolls in, enveloping the Bravo (and making for some great imagery,) in and things kick off. 

I especially love shots of the rig lit up against the darkness of the fog at night. They're like something out of a dystopian hellscape and are particularly chilling. And, of course, having an "infected" member of your crew wandering around in that fog… not knowing where they are… with noises and distances being distorted… It raises the hairs.

It goes back to isolation. To cliques and old grudges. People who’ve already got beef take very little convincing when it comes time to mistrust their colleagues. So, when the fog clears, only to be followed by a shower of ash from the doomed Kinloch Charlie that acts as a carrier for the “attacking” ancient spores whose only mode of communication is… well, joining with the crew members, things get nasty very quickly.

Because people suck at communication when they can use words.

The spores’ (more super nature than supernatural) attempts to communicate, while a complete failure, are valiant. They speak in terms of mass extinction events, using circles to represent the times they’ve had to wipe the slate clean in the past, with a final broken circle to show our time running out. I’m not a total idiot (Honest!) but I didn’t realize what the spores were trying to say until Rose explained it so… yeah, as a species, we’d probably be fucked, lol.

The scary thing is that we talk about it all the time. There are always memes online about how we’re in the middle of an extinction level event, but we still have to pay our taxes, etc. (haha) but we’re obviously not getting it. The Rig challenges us to think harder. To really pay attention for once. Like… what will it take? Will it take the planet physically fighting back for us to change? If the fate of the Bravo is any indication…

Probably.

Our inability to communicate effectively is just one of the many layers The Rig uncovers in its short but powerful run. That, I think, more than its low-key horror or stunning visual effects, is what I enjoyed most, that there’s so much happening on so many levels, all the time – apropos, given the setting.

I mentioned the relationships already, and that’s definitely part of it. With that thought in mind, I have to mention The Rig’s diversity & inclusivity. There are men and women, gay and straight, young and old. You’ve got strong representation across the board, which was a relief. And, as an added bonus, the women don’t face constant sexual harassment just for being in a “man’s field,” which I’ll admit I was half-expecting.

What can I say? The film & TV industry’s got me jaded as fuck, y’all.

Anyway… I like that you’ve got this traditionally ultra-macho place like an oil rig but no one bats at eye at different sexualities. Like, it’s just normal, yeah? Which it is. But you expect friction from the dinosaurs (which you get about pretty much everything else) but it’s not even an issue. There are queer characters without being queer having to be part of the plot. It’s normalized and thank you very much.

While we’re talking about dinosaurs, though…

The Rig acknowledges how hard the end of oil, steel, coal, etc. will be on older generations, on the folks who’ve never known any different. It shares their pain. But it doesn’t pander to them. It says, we know. We’re sorry that your day is done but this is our future, and we have to protect it. It acknowledges the pain of one side while at the same time one hundred percent making a judgement about the right way forward. There’s no both-sides-are-valid bullshit and I am fucking here for it.

Which might not even be such a bad thing – unless you want to be doing this when you’re 65 and the sky is burning.

You feel for the plight of the Bravo because the character development is so well done. Characters you hate at the beginning, like Emily Hampshire’s Rose, are the ones you’re rooting for at the end. Mostly. Some you still want to chuck off the rig. (Cough, cough, Hutton, cough, cough.) The Rig works because it’s so emotional. So character-driven. And it doesn't hurt that the actors are damn good at their jobs. It’s well cast with a lot of familiar faces from the likes of Line of Duty and Game ofThrones. I want to mention a few standout performances.

Owen Teale’s Hutton walks into frame and it’s easy to spot the asshole. (To be fair, he always plays the asshole.) You know the moment Hutton walks in that he’s going to be a problem and guess what… he is. There’s nothing redeemable about his character. From the beginning, he’s a liability. He’s selfish and delights in stirring shit. It doesn’t matter that they humanize him later on because he’s done so much wrong through the other episodes and I think that’s important. Sometimes, you can try to wipe the slate clean, but there’s no coming back from the damage you’ve done. You have to carry that with you. And I am glad they didn’t try to do that whole earns-his-redemption-through-death crap thing at the end. Massive pet peeve.

I have to mention Rochenda Sandall’s Cat because she’s my new hero. She’s so tough and no-nonsense. You know she’s been through hell, but she doesn’t let it break her. All the way through, you’re waiting for her breaking point and a few times you think she’s reached it, but she keeps pushing through. The old white men crumble around her, but she keeps her shit together. Which is why the end is so, so much more unfair for her.

(Doesn’t hurt that she kicks Hutton’s ass, either…)

And, of course, there’s poor tragic, villainized Baz (Calvin Demba) who just wanted to understand. To listen and protect. At the end, there’s really no need for Baz to die. He knows there’s nothing he can do. He knows that the collective entity made up of spores might not even let him back in. But he stays to try - and fuck if that’s not the  fucking moral of the story. Yeah, we’re all fucked... but shouldn’t we fucking try anyway?

Which is kind of the point, isn’t it? The whole point of The Rig seems to be that it’s too late.

It’s. Too. Late.

Fuck.

Hard truths, y’all. When the Doomsday Clock is just 90 seconds from the end, and you’re watching The Rig, and it’s giving you a visual representation of your own demise – the one you’re drinking and fucking and eating and buying like crazy to ignore – it really hits you. It’s entertaining but also fucking hard. It’s the feels. All the feels.

There are no fans left for shit to hit.

I can’t express how stunning The Rig is to watch. It’s eerily beautiful in places and just straight up enchantingly mesmerizing in others. I could watch the spores dance among the flora they created for hours. At the same time, watching Leck’s (Emun Elliott) tattoos bleed away as his fillings were forced from his teeth evoke a very visceral response. It’s hard to capture both a sense of otherworldly magic and pure body horror, but The Rig does.

If The Rig doesn’t get renewed because it’s too costly to make, you’d understand. That kind of SFX can’t be cheap. But I’d like to see it get another chance. Give us another chance.

Overall? The Rig is sombre but not despairing. It’s dark but not dreary. And it never does what you expect it to do.

I still would have liked a big fuck off monster, though… Maybe next time?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Saturday 11 February 2023

Sorry About the Demon (2022) Review

Sorry About the Demon (2022) is a tongue-in-cheek horror comedy from writer/director Emily Hagins. It follows recently dumped serial quitter, Will (Jon Michael Simpson) who's duped into renting a house from whiter-than-white Ken and Tammy Sellers (Dave Peniuk and Sarah Cleveland) who see nothing wrong with striking a deal with the demon who inhabits their house: the life of their precious daughter, Grace (Presley Allard,) for the life of an unsuspecting stranger. 

"No money down!"

Too bad the demon in question, the unfortunately named Deomonous, doesn't much care for their choice in sacrifices.

Poor Will... I spent the whole movie waiting for Deomonous to say, "You are a loser, Will." The voice actor, Tony Vespe, has the perfect voice for a sarcastic symbiote. 

My childhood overachiever/adult burnout, neurodivergent TikTokers will feel Will's plight. (Or is that feel attacked by Will's character? Lol.) He's the guy who takes up a million new hobbies - or, you know... intends to... tomorrow, maybe - but never sees anything through. Until Deomonous sets its evil little eye on Will's ex, Amy (Paige Evans.) 

The thing I love most about Sorry About the Demon is how casually Will just copes with the ghosts who inhabit the house and are manipulated by Deomonous. Because, hey, any Millennial knows that living with a couple of ghosts is worth finding a cheap place to rent! Evil demon in the basement? Sharing the telly with a ghost? But look at the size of that house! Sign me the Hell up!

Sorry About the Demon isn't just customer service cringe and light slapstick. There are some genuinely creepy moments and, even though it never presumes to take itself too seriously, it still manages to maintain an eerie ambiance throughout the laughs. There are good fake outs and even better stings. I can't decide if my favourite moment comes when the female ghost reaches out from underneath the bed to grab Will around the throat (gets me every time) or when a kitchen cabinet swings open to wallop Will's annoying hipster friend, Patrick (Jeff McQuitty) in the face...

In addition to droll humour, sympathetic characters (except maybe Patrick, screw that guy,) and decent horror, Sorry About the Demon includes a couple of good nods to horror classics like Poltergeist and The Exorcist and even manages to wind things up with a happily-ever-after. 

Sort of. 

We stumbled across this one after seeing exactly no advertising for it, which is a shame. People need to be out there bigging up Sorry About the Demon because it really is one of those hidden horror gems flying under the radar. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐