Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Ashleigh Cummings, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Zachary Quinto, Jahkara Smith, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Virginia Krull, Ashley Romans, Mattea Conforti, Jonathan Langdon, Dalton Harrod, Jason David, Celeste Arias, John James Cronin, Paul Schneider, Sweta Keswani, Larry Vigus.
It is a demonstration to the pursuit of a truth and reflection that the writing of Joe Hill resonates with so much angst and the passion of possible sorrow that it could be argued that he is able to take a step into the darkness that his own famous father, and one of the finest exponents of horror of all time, Stephen King, was unable to truly master; that of the ordinary insight given its own inference of damage.
In the second series of the excellent adaptation of NOS4A2 the sense of family desperation, an ache of the unresolved and the drama of damage within the soul takes centre stage, and as the unquiet ghoulish spirit of Charlie Manx rises from the apparent dead, the anguish of Vic McQueen’s life bares its own upsetting fruit and the conflict to comes places her own family, her son right in the middle of the hellish storm.
The impact of the second series might feel initially as if it is drawing on a deeper misery by exploring the effects on the psyche of Vic McQueen, played once more by Ashleigh Cummings, but it is one that is worth the risk as it highlights the relationship between the use of the horror and the speculation of the horrors of drug and alcohol abuse.
The second series deeply engrain and engages itself with looking at this relationship as the sense of drama heightens and reaches its peak with the understanding of tension and fear that surrounds itself with the final battle between the motorbike riding Vic, and the ghoulish Charlie Manx.
What does come across as a marker of interest is the way that second series disclose more of Charlie’s own downfall and his mind being groomed by another creature of the dark residing in the form of man. It is almost as if the production is asking that the viewer sees both sides of the tale, that evil is not only inherent, but also capable of being transferred from person to person like a disease.
With Ashleigh Cummings and Zachery Quinto giving excellent performances and immersing themselves into their respective roles with a serious relish, NOS4A2 is a particularly revealing kind of horror adaptation that does much to chill the blood.
Ian D. Hall