Beyond the Walls (Miniseries, 2016)
Matt Boiselle
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Starring Veerle Baetens, Francois Deblock, Geraldine Chaplin
Directed by Herve Hadmar
I’ll admit I had my reservations before checking out Herve Hadmar’s spooky series “Beyond the Walls” (“Au delà des Murs” for all my French copains) – seems as if the majority of streaming services are putting out all the good stuff these days, but something still had me a bit leery before setting eyes on this one. Now that I’ve completed the three episodes so generously offered up to me by the folks at Shudder TV, I can say, “Damn, was I wrong!”
Totaling over two and a half hours in length over the course of the three episodes, we set our sights on Lisa (Baetens), a solemn speech therapy worker who manages to snag the deal of a lifetime: a house willed to her by a man she never met. (Did I mention he sat dead in the same chair for twenty-plus years?)
In any event, and ultimate creepiness aside, Lisa has come into some new digs; and at the onset of her residency, she hears noises… behind the walls at night. The happy side of me would be overjoyed at the thought of a new place to crash, but the sane side would only need to hear one voice, one slam, one ANYTHING, and this guy would gladly hand the keys back over and relax in my cramped apartment. Lisa, however, decides to investigate, and after thoroughly smashing a human-sized hole in her wall, she climbs on in and discovers a parallel world unlike anything she’s ever witnessed before. Lisa’s past traumatic history will pale in comparison to what she’s about to delve into.
Upon entering into this new territory, she meets up with a man named Julien (Deblock), who appears to be on the run from humanoid-type creatures; and before you know it, they’re both in imminent danger and forced to hide out from these nasty-looking suckers. What this series lacks in action at times is swamped with the beauty of its atmosphere – with its Guillermo del Toro-like set decoration and intently frightening visuals (between the lurking creatures and the use of candlelight) – the entire production is something to visually blanket yourself in – it just looks that good.
There are more than a few lagging areas in this presentation, but there is a much bigger purpose for all of the downtime, and it’s the build-up, which works very nicely (no more details for you). Secrets will be unfolded, and while I’ve already checked out the three-episode series, I can only hope that there will be some sort of continuation, spin-off, or whatever come what may.
Do yourself a huge favor, and give this one a good long look if you’re a Shudder subscriber – it’s worth the dough.
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