Netflix's Marianne makes The Haunting of Hill House seem like weak tea

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"Hell is near the ocean"

Note: Mild spoilers ahead! 

There's something afoot in the town of Elden. The fictional town in France sits by the sea, featuring sweeping coastal vistas and a creepy lighthouse that sends out unsettling pulses of light through people's windows when they sleep. It's devastatingly beautiful, but the lonely landscape also serves as the backdrop for Netflix's recent Friday the 13th surprise. 

Marianne is Netflix's latest horror original, and it may just be one of the scariest things I've seen in a while. The 8-episode French horror series may not be based on a particularly novel premise, but its excellent writing, talented cast, and masterful camera work and score come together to create a palpable aura of dread that never entirely dissipates. I'd describe the most persistent feeling I had throughout the series as one of mild terror – even when everything appeared fine, I always knew that night, or Marianne, was just around the corner.

Emma Larsimon, played by Victoire Du Bois, is a popular horror novelist who has gotten rich off her Lizzie Larck series of books. In her novels, Lizzie is a proxy for Emma's fight against Marianne, but she eventually tries to bring the series to a close and move on to more "serious" writing. Marianne won't let her though, and Emma eventually finds herself back in her hometown of Elden.

An author forced to keep writing? It's hard not to think of Stephen King's Misery here, but Marianne fortunately serves up something quite different.

Back in Elden, Emma eventually rekindles her friendship with her old friends whom she has not seen in 15 years. Childhood friends banding together to close the Pandora's box they opened and overcome past misdeeds is nothing new. Nor are witches, demons, and your regulation priest that prattles on about how evil is very, very real. Some bits are even a bit corny, with a narrative voiceover of Marianne's trial as one intrepid detective peruses the town's record of witchcraft. But showrunner Samuel Bodin takes all that and makes them into something new, showing off an uncanny understanding of the human psyche and what disturbs it. 

As it turns out, what you don't see will always be far more terrifying than any horror that is dragged out into the light of day. That's because the human imagination has the capacity to conceive of infinite horrors, however vague and nebulous. Form isn't necessary to make a monster, and the idea of one will always be more awful than any beast that stalks out into the open. 

Marianne plays off this idea expertly. She lurks in the shadows for most of the series, appearing only in the form of prying hands, an insidious invitation to seek her out in the dark recesses of the furniture, or a corpse wrapped forebodingly in a gunny sack. And when Bodin deigns to reveal her, he does so only in sporadic flashes, just enough to seed the idea of her in your head.

However, what makes Marianne so terrifying is perhaps not the witch herself or even any particular supernatural entity. It's the fact that even the most mundane and banal aspects of everyday life can be a fount of innumerable horrors. Marianne spends most of the series in the body of Madame Daugeron (Mireille Herbstmeyer), and it's unsettling how a human face, weathered and creased by the years, can so become the face of evil and depravity.

Similarly, the aged body, stripped bare and wandering about in its own abode in the dead of night, is immensely disconcerting.

Bodin cleverly makes use of disturbing imagery throughout the series, successfully turning the ordinary into ominous and distressing signs. A hole in the ground becomes a literal pit of horrors, whispering heresy and beckoning to you. An unconscious patient turns her head toward you and menaces you with a grin, before proceeding to reinsert her own very long feeding tube down her throat.

The scares in the show are immaculate, and it almost never resorts to cheap jump scares or loud noises. It's the soft tap in the dark, or lilting laughter drifting down the gloom-draped staircase, that's more terrifying than the loud bang on the door. Bodin manipulates the viewer with near perfection, playing with our desire to see and yet remain protected. Something scuttles into your room on all fours and slithers under your bed. Do you look?

The cast holds the show up admirably as well. The acting is excellent, and everyone feels remarkably human. Emma may be the protagonist, but she isn't particularly likeable, displaying an amoral, selfish streak that might have ultimately been her undoing. However, as the show progresses, a picture emerges of a deeply flawed character that's simply trying to do right by those she cares about. Emma's brash exterior hides deep-seated trauma and pain, making it tough not to end up sympathising with her. 

Of course, Marianne is hardly perfect. It has some odd tonal shifts from Bodin's attempts to inject humour and lighten the mood. At the end, there are also some plot points that feel like they could have been tighter, like why exactly Marianna has latched onto Emma specifically, and character fates that remain improperly addressed.

However, those are just small blemishes on the surface of an otherwise terrifying masterpiece. The surprising twist at the end will also have you begging for a second season. Please Netflix, make it happen.

Ultimately, Marianne leaves me with a lasting impression, and that's coming from someone who usually forgets about horror movies the minute I leave the cinema. "Hell is near the ocean," says Camille, as they drive off into a hopefully more horrifying season 2. That haunted line will stay with me for a while, yet another example of Bodin's ability to twist and pervert the ordinary into truly binge-worthy horror. 

The verdict

If you thought The Haunting of Hill House was scary, Marianne will have you shopping for adult diapers. It's a masterwork of horror, showing that it's not your subject material that really matters, but how you execute it. It's also a must-watch for anyone who likes hex bags made of skin and teeth, haunting nursery rhymes, and other witchy business. One final thing – remember to watch it in its original French and not the English dub. 

Marianne is streaming on Netflix right now.

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