Reviews
[Anime Horrors] “The Promised Neverland” is a Great Work of Suspenseful Horror
The Promised Neverland has made quite the buzz, making it one of 2019’s biggest anime releases. As far as the sub is concerned, the show concluded on March 29th; with everything finally wrapped up, here is a full review of the show’s first season.
Please note: This review will contain major spoilers. If you’re curious to hear my thoughts regarding the show’s first half (which also contains spoilers), you can follow the link here. This review will pick at some minor points from that previous article, but primarily will focus on the season’s second half and the show as whole.
Recapping the anime’s synopsis: The Promised Neverland follows three protagonists, Emma, Norman, and Ray, along with a cast of orphans who live together. Their lives have been full of joy, that is until the protagonists learn the orphanage is really a farm where children are raised and given to demons to be eaten. Learning that they have a limited amount of time on their side, the three work out a plan to escape with the rest of the children.
Whereas the pacing of the season’s first half felt like it would drag on at times, the second half is chock full of tension. In episode five we learn that Ray is a spy for Isabella (who is in charge of watching the children at the farm); what makes this twist more interesting, however, is how Ray takes on the role of a double agent to help Norman and Emma.
The anime focuses heavily towards being a work built around suspense; there’s only a slight bit of shock horror moving forward, similar to the discovery of Conny’s body. All that said, it is intriguing to watch Emma and the others work towards their escape plan; it also makes for quite the anxiety to know how Isabella is hot on their trail, and in some cases, prepared for them. Isabella even goes as far as to break Emma’s leg and shares how the children have lived happy lives and can die quickly.
Between the protagonists working together and the chilling moments with Isabella, The Promised Neverland delivers on keeping viewers anticipating who is ahead and what will happen next.
From the start, each of our protagonists, including side characters like Don and Gilda, remain likable and interesting. It is easy for viewers to become invested in these characters, which makes it all the more difficult when they struggle or lose hope. And because of the care the viewer may have for these characters, it also invests them in the actual process of conspiring against Isabella. As we watch the children strategize their escape, we feel like we are part of the group and keeping the plan a secret. The journey with the children throughout the season provides a plethora of moments both joyous and heartbreaking; the relationships between all of them give an air of sincerity, making their efforts to help one another powerful.
The show’s emotional chords reach an extreme high when shortly after Norman is shipped out, we learn that in time Ray will be the next. As the viewer, we watch as Emma and Ray “give up hope” of escaping, learning later on their demeanor was meant to trick Isabella. When they finally do go about their escape, Emma realizes she will have to leave the children under four years old, declaring that she will return to save them. The final two episodes do a tremendous job of displaying the growth of the children as a whole, for all their bravery and determination allows them to escape successfully.
Other than the children, we also get to spend a little more time with Isabella. During the children’s escape from the farm, we are provided flashbacks of her life training to become a Mom. While she watches the children escape, the audience also discovering that she’s Ray’s biological mother via the flashbacks, she begins to hope that the children will survive in the world. Learning these details about her life and witnessing her shift in perspective adds more questions to the show; how bad is the world out there that Isabella would have to keep her child on the farm? Will she decide to help the little ones who are still with her?
It is with these questions and the children’s escape from the farm where season one of The Promised Neverland ends. Overall the show not only delivers on thrills, tension, and great characters, but it uses all three to keep us excited for what is to come. The wonderful animation, terrific use of emotion and action, as well as the story itself, make The Promised Neverland an excellent tale thus far. As one of 2019’s newest shows, The Promised Neverland proudly stands as a great work of suspenseful horror.
Season two of The Promised Neverland is set to release sometime in 2020.
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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