Reviews
[TV Review] “Salem” Episode 3.02: ‘The Heart is a Devil’
One thing Salem has always excelled at is not dawdling for too long on one singular storyline. Take Mary’s undercover mission into her son’s house. That is something that could have easily occupied half of the season, but Salem is impatient as ever and decides to have Mary’s ulterior motives discovered in one episode. This could have felt rushed in the hands of a less talented writer (the screenplay is credited to co-creator Adam Simon), but Salem somehow makes it work. “The Heart is a Devil” belonged to Janet Montgomery, and she brought her A-game.
Resurrection couldn’t be that easy, could it? While poor Mary Sibley was brought back to life in the closing moments of last week’s episode, it came with a price. Confining Mary to Salem for the rest of her life is a cruel plot twist for the character, but at least it ensures that she’ll never leave the show, right? Before she does anything (even bathe), she heads straight to John Alden for a quick lovemaking session. Their reunion was a touching one, and solidified their relationship as one of the more stable parts of the series, even if John is still lacking as a character (more on that in a bit).
It wasn’t long before Mary was put through the wringer again. The episode jumped right into her infiltration of the Dark Lord’s house, with quickly arousing the suspicion of his brother (apparently named the Sentinel). Screenwriter (and co-creator) Adam Simon did a commendable job building suspense with every scene in the Dark Lord’s house. The Sentinel is proving to be a more formidable opponent than the Dark Lord himself, and it was a nice callback to the pilot episode to have him be all of the bugs that crawled over Mary when her baby was snatched from her womb.
Oh, and he can pull giant millipedes out of his mouth and shove them in people’s ears to get the truth out of them. It’s a grotesque form of torture, but for some reason didn’t work on Mary. Her failure of the Dark Lord’s final twist was a good one (though it would have been preferable had the twist been that she actually did kill the right person), so it’s alarming to see that for once, Mary is in over her head.
John spends the majority of the episode drinking and sexing (see above). The sub-plot involving people flooding the town because of invading French and Indians was put on the backburner this week, with screen time favoring Mary. Because of that, John’s storyline didn’t get to evolve much in “The Heart is a Devil.” It will undoubtedly become a more central aspect of the season (and no doubt affect the Dark Lord’s master plan) in future episodes, but this episode seemed more focused on getting John out of the bar. It’s about as interesting as it sounds.
Shane West is a fine actor in other things, but he’s never fully succeeded at making John Alden a compelling character (the writing does him no favors either). Were it not for Mary’s feelings for him, he would be completely useless. One would hope that in its third season Salem would be able to make him more than just Mary’s love interest, but it hasn’t been able to do that yet. His scenes end with him training the local militia to fight off the refugees, so maybe that will lead somewhere, but when the Devil is in town, a war between mortals just doesn’t seem all that exciting.
One of the more interesting sub-plots of the week saw Cotton (poor, poor Cotton) wise up and start playing along with Anne’s game. It isn’t believable for one second that Cotton is actually turning a corner and falling for Anne again, but it’s nice to see the character stop acting like a whining child. You don’t make it out of Salem alive unless you play the game properly, and Cotton has just entered the playing field. Once again though, it’s all setup with very little payoff (unless you consider him taking a lock of Anne’s hair “payoff”). That is to be expected in the second episode of the season though, so the episode can’t be faulted too much for it.
“The Heart is a Devil” essentially served as Part 2 of the premiere. It finished moving all of the pieces into position to set up the rest of the season. While we got more Mary and a more satisfactory Cotton storyline, the rest of the episode failed to make much of an impression. That being said, it has set up enough storylines to keep you interested.
Random Notes
- Grossest Moment: Definitely that giant millipede crawling into Mary’s ear. The runner up was Tituba pulling the eyes out of that poor cat.
- Number of times Tituba was called a bitch: 2
- “What have you done to me now, Queen of Bitches?” -Oh how I’ve missed Mary’s acid-tongued barbs.
- “You conniving bitch.” -John Alden, upping his insult game.
- So what’s up with that boy who is actually a girl that kept trying to buy John a drink? She’ll probably be important later, right?
- Not a lot of Mercy tonight, but she did give Hathorne a wicked case of the boils. Go Mercy!
- Isaac is playing detective with Marilyn Manson’s mortician, leading him straight to Alice. Might he cross paths with Mercy soon? Methinks he will!
- I yelled “Take a bath first!” during Mary and John’s sex scene. So unsanitary.
- Sebastian’s face when he saw a very much alive Mary was priceless.
- “You lying filthy whore!”
- “Lay a finger on Cotton and I will paint these walls with your insides. That boy be damned.”
- “I’ve been alive, dead and alive again and right now all I want is to feel you inside me.”
- “Welcome to my bird’s nest. Do you see any birds you’d like to share a nest with?” -This was a terrible line of dialogue, even for Mercy.
- “As an unmarried man you cannot hope to understand the unbreakable bonds that hold a man to his wife.” -Was this Cotton trying to let John know that he was trapped? I couldn’t tell.
Movies
‘Recluse’ Review – Harrowing Haunted House Horror With Lots Of Skeletons In Its Closet [Tribeca 2026]
A haunted house story is tense, terrifying storytelling when it’s properly executed. There’s been a growing tendency in horror to blend together harrowing haunted house stories with traumatic homecomings. A family member’s illness or death triggers a return to something dark that was intentionally left behind. Recluse hits all the tropes that one expects to find in this type of horror film, yet it manages to push this story in a daring, disturbing new direction that uses sound as a superpower.
It’s a unique lens to experience a familiar story about family secrets, generational trauma, unresolved grief, and the importance of not just legacy, but preservation. It’s a hell of a directorial debut from Henry Chaisson that’s guaranteed to get under the audience’s skin as they’re dragged through this painful, toxic tale.
Recluse is a gothic haunted house story where an isolated audio engineer, Joan (Sasha Frolova), returns to her family’s estate to check in on her father after he suffers a terrible accident. Joan suddenly discovers something much more sinister that paints her family’s tragedies in a very different light. Chaisson’s debut functions as a fascinating companion piece to this year’s undertone, which does a lot of the same things.
These two films make for a fascinating case of parallel thinking that tackles comparable subject matter through a similar lens, albeit in a bigger, less claustrophobic story in Recluse’s case. In fact, it’s the perfect horror film for anyone who was let down by undertone and didn’t feel like it brought enough to the table. It’s a considerably more conventional horror film, but this isn’t meant to denigrate its high quality. Recluse may hit some familiar notes, but it’s a scary, well-crafted haunted house horror story that goes for the jugular.
A gripping mystery that involves the tragic, unresolved circumstances that surround Joan’s mother teases a chilling connection to the recent horrors that have afflicted her father. Joan desperately tries to put these pieces together and give her family some sense of grander peace before she’s pulled under and becomes another victim of this festering curse that’s systematically worked its way through the Wyatt family. By doing so, Recluse digs into some deeper commentary on collective trauma, a very literal look at the “sins of the father” adage, and how one selfish decision can ripple through generations and fracture off into different dilemmas. By the end, Recluse has brilliantly flipped the powerful concept of legacy on its head by illustrating the horrors and sense of entitlement that can be born out of this idea.
A legacy is just another name for a curse under the right context.
”Listen” is a simple but powerful command from Joan’s father that she briefly obsesses over. In a way, it becomes Recluse’s grander mission statement, whether it’s in response to Joan listening to the people in her life, the signals that her body and mind are telling her, or the world’s greater whims. It’s important to reconnect with these grounding pillars, especially when it feels like control is slipping away.
Recluse excels with how audio and soundscapes can create entire universes that are full of rich details that transport individuals to these environments. There’s also a level of objectivity when it comes to audio recordings and the evergreen permanence that they’re able to provide. Joan’s career as an audio engineer makes sense for someone who wants to cling to hard evidence and proof of existence. It provides great insight into Joan without ever getting lost in contrived exposition.
Joan’s entire life is built around audio engineering, and so it makes sense that Recluse features excellent sound design that really goes above and beyond with its production elements. All of the sound design is expertly handled and turns the film into something special. These auditory elements intuitively keep the audience on edge so that they’re more susceptible to the actual scares that eventually strike. The smallest sound effect gets turned into a crushing, cacophonous assault. It’s a really effective way to build terror. Writer/Director Chaisson also handles the film’s music, which achieves a sublime, unnerving dissonance that further heightens the free-floating anxiety.
The story at the center of Recluse is slightly generic in some respects, but the film’s visual language and tone make it feel distinctly memorable. It also doesn’t hurt that the home that Joan returns to is basically an eerie art studio that’s full of contorted paintings. Recluse never struggles to generate mounting dread and terror that pump through every scene. Powerful, thoughtful cinematography consistently reinforces the film’s themes. Joan is constantly reflected in different surfaces or viewed through mirrors. She’s also often confined to tight, constricting framing that all speaks to her refracted identity during this moment of loss and her attempts to regain agency and control by making sense of something that’s seemingly unexplainable.
Recluse is full of truly disturbing visuals that make it seem like Joan is lost in a dream that turns out to be an extended nightmare. It’s a surreal journey reminiscent of invasive psychological horror like Silent Hill, with a touch of Sinister and Hereditary thrown in for good measure. There are so many individual frames that could endlessly fuel urban legends and creepypastas.
It does a great job with how it presents Joan’s fragile state of mind, where chilling flashes of the past sneak up on her and unresolved trauma manifests into unsettling imagery. There are endless shots that are obscured in darkness, or shadow is creeping in from the corners of frames like a suffocating force of nature. It’s very rare that a scene is fully lit. It leads to a very lonely, isolating atmosphere that’s easy to get lost in.
Chaisson’s debut stands out from the many other high-minded haunted house horror films without succumbing to the same pretensions that often drag down these stories. It’s a grief-stricken character study that’s full of upsetting visuals that scratch at something visceral and raw. The horror elements connect, and the answers to its grander mystery provide an appropriate and believable sense of closure. Those who are looking for an atmospheric horror film that isn’t afraid to be different while still channeling something real will appreciate Recluse.
Recluse made its world premiere at Tribeca; release info TBD.
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