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Movies & Series 28 September 2019, 16:29

Dark Thillers and Horror – TV Series to Make You Feel Uncanny

Many of us like to be scared every now and then. Dark stories allow us to fulfill this desire relatively safely – and many streaming platforms' offerings will cater to those needs. Meet the most unsettling series.

Table of Contents

True Detective (first season)

  1. Tags: crime, gothic noir, Southern USA, dense atmosphere, philosophical
  2. Streaming platform: HBO GO

The True Detective came right out of the blue – with the force of a lightning bolt. This is one of those short but powerful stories with superior and unique quality. It’s one of the shows that still makes HBO originals hard to match. For the screenwriter Nica Pizzolatto, the series turned out a big entrance – the author has become a well-known figure in the consciousness of the mass audience. Additionally, Matthew McConaughey made a great comeback in full glory after a weaker period, during which he played flat troublemakers, surfers, and sweet-looking machos in romantic comedies. Woody Harrelson also delivered, so he wasn't lagging behind McConaughey.

True Detective made it on almost every level. The actors surpassed each other in their performance with each episode. The shots, sequences, sceneries were top-notch, and the script tricked and mislead the viewers in a maze of misguided trails. On top of that, there was the dark, nostalgic soundtrack, reflecting the disturbing spirit of the whole thing – including the main theme by The Handsome Family.

At first glance, the series looked like a rather realistic story about the struggle between two policemen with difficult past, who once were good friends. However, it soon turned out that it was something much, much deeper than that. True Detective seduced with nihilism and erudition. And there was something else. On the fringes of the story in True Detective, there was something ghastly and unknown.

Together with main protagonists, the viewers landed in hot, humid Louisiana, full of mysteries, muddy marshes, and ordinary human meanness. There was something dark in the background, but the Yellow King, taken directly from Richard Chambers' stories, preyed only on human demons. Nevertheless, this was enough to intensify the atmosphere of anxiety that was already accompanying the audience at every step of the main story. In addition, there were the horrifying, poetic and symbolic scenes from crime scenes, and a sense of insecurity, as the viewer followed the protagonists. The fantastic acting also underlined the moral ambiguity of the main characters.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Other two seasons are practically not connected with the first one, but it's still worth checking them out. The second one can be difficult to watch, because it's a gangster ballad set in concrete jungle with corrupted cops – all this stuff stumbles over a over-exaggerated story, but still enchants with its mood. The third season is a return to the original formula full of unknown territories, haunting, mysterious murders and unsettling symbolism.

Hubert Sosnowski

Hubert Sosnowski

He joined GRYOnline.pl in 2017, as an author of texts about games and movies. He's currently the head of the film department and the Filmomaniak.pl website. Learned how to write articles while working for the Dzika Banda portal. His texts were published on kawerna.pl, film.onet.pl, zwierciadlo.pl, and in the Polish Playboy. Has published stories in the monthly Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror magazine, as well as in the first volume of the Antologii Wolsung. Lives for "middle cinema" and meaty entertainment, but he won't despise any experiment or Fast and Furious. In games, looks for a good story. Loves Baldur's Gate 2, but when he sees Unreal Tournament, Doom, or a good race game, the inner child wakes up. In love with sheds and thrash metal. Since 2012, has been playing and creating live action role-playing, both within the framework of the Bialystok Larp Club Zywia, and commercial ventures in the style of Witcher School.

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