Created by Eric Kripke
Distributed by Warner Home Video
Eric Kripke. If you don’t know the name now, you soon will. Kripke, creator of The WB (soon to be The CW)’s moderately successful series Supernatural, is one of our genre’s very best friends. He conceived of the show being a “mini horror movie” each week, primarily telling tales of American folklore and urban legends, some familiar and some brand-new, and has a knack for making them seem completely feasible and explainable. The stories unfold through the eyes of Dean and Sam Winchester (Ackles and Padalecki, respectively), two brothers who fight and kill various evil creatures and monsters in small towns all across the US while searching for their father, who in turn is tracking down the demon that murdered his wife, Mary, 22 years prior when Dean was four and Sam was just six months old. Sam, too, is intent on ensuring that the demon is destroyed since his girl friend, Jess, recently met the same end as Mary: pinned to the bedroom ceiling and engulfed in a raging fire.
Our two young men, who refer to themselves as “hunters,” face down such familiar figures as a Wendigo, a Hook Man, an animated scarecrow, Bloody Mary herself, and yes, even some vampires, all the while bickering between themselves and keeping on the lookout for any sign of Daddy Dearest, aka John Winchester. They scour newspapers and the Internet for any signs of irregular deaths or killings and are occasionally contacted by friends of theirs or their father who know what they do and need their help. Once in a while John himself sends messages to them about a supernatural occurrence that requires their assistance. Sam and Dean have three constant companions on their journeys: Dad’s journal, which seems to contain information about all the mysteries of the universe; Dean’s 1967 Chevy Impala and its trunk that contains enough weapons and gadgets to fight ghosts, goblins, and ghouls into the next century; and a soundtrack full of 1970’s and 1980’s rock tunes by the likes of Skynard, Ozzy and Sabbath, AC/DC, Blue Oyster Cult, Bad Company, and many more classics. As a child of that era, I especially appreciate Kripke’s insistence on those types of tunes in lieu of the typical ballads and trendy crap one usually hears in TV shows today.
The guys are cute and charming, but they’re basically outlaws. They’ve had to elude the cops many times (Dean even fakes his death in one episode to avoid apprehension) and get by on credit card fraud, gambling, and bogus ID’s. They impersonate government officials and other professions ranging from reporters to State Police officers to environmentalists to Homeland Security agents to students to priests. Sure, they stretch the viewer’s acceptance capacity at times, but it’s easy to overlook that sort of thing and instead focus on what’s done right on Supernatural. And there’s quite a bit to praise about the show.
And what about the episodes? Are they free-standing affairs, or is there a continuous thread that binds them all together? For the casual viewer each episode could stand on its own, but what a waste that would be! The appeal of Supernatural lies in its arc and the subtext beneath the surface. The older/younger brother dynamic is exceptionally well done as are the inevitable father/son, family/freedom conflicts. Social issues like racism and child abuse are catalysts for cases the guys investigate, and the question of how to define morality and spirituality is raised several times over the course of the season. Is killing the human body housing a demon the right thing to do? Are hunters like the Winchesters at risk for turning into something just as “bad” as the beasts they hunt?
• A cancer patient who desperately strives to be cured by a faith healer of questionable character
• A ghostly woman in white who tempts and then kills unfaithful men
• A skin-shedding, shapeshifting doppelganger
• A young boy who talks to bugs
• A telekinetic teen whose mother died in the exact same manner as Mary
• Yet another boy (do we sense a pattern here?) who helps the Winchesters battle a big bad from their past known as a shtriga
• A female deputy who, against her better judgment, helps Dean locate Sam after he’s kidnapped by something truly evil — a backwoods human family who put a new spin on what the brothers do
• A demon spirit that lurks around an airport, resulting in one of the more restrained exorcisms I’ve ever seen considering the circumstances
One thing that adds to Supernatural‘s pleasure meter is its “real world” sensibility. References to numerous horror movies like Willard, Ghostbusters, and Poltergeist, characters such as Mulder and Scully, and TV stars Patricia Arquette and Jennifer Love-Hewitt add a fun dash of flavor to the proceedings. In the “Hell House” installment Sam and Dean encounter some budding “paranormal investigators” who are played strictly for laughs. But make no mistake: The creators take the show — and the scares — seriously. Humor is used solely as a counterpoint to the overlying dark tone and atmosphere. Lest we forget, these kids lost their mother, and in Sam’s case, the love of his life, to a demon. Think Route 66 crossed with an X Files monster-of-the-week episode with a pinch of the Buffy/Angel-verse thrown in. Every single person involved on the creative side expresses affection for the horror genre, and their resumes bear this out. With experience on projects as diverse as The X Files, Tru Calling, 24, The Mothman Prophecies, and Smallville, it’s no wonder the writers and directors of Supernatural turn out such a consistently high quality product. And no review of the show would be a complete without a nod to its two cinematographers, Aaron Schneider (an Oscar winner for his short film Two Soldiers), who set the bar extremely high in “Pilot,” and Serge Ladouceur, who picked up the ball in Episode #2 and ran with it beautifully throughout the remainder of the season. Their masterful use of light and dark — silhouettes in particular — gives Supernaturala striking noir-ish look that is perfectly matched to its often gloomy and menacing subject matter.
Rounding out the set are a still gallery with some very cool drawings that show the transformation of many of the creatures from paper to screen, a 7-1/2 minute gag reel, and a couple of easily found Easter eggs. I’ve made it known in other reviews how much I enjoy gag reels, and Supernatural‘s doesn’t disappoint. The menu is laid out better than most with symbols indicating which episodes provide commentary and/or deleted scenes. We’re also given an option to turn “recap” on or off, which is a nifty little time-saver when watching back-to-back episodes.
When all is said and done, Supernatural is the best thing going nowadays when it comes to horror on TV. The two-part finale really wrapped up the season nicely, leaving the perfect cliffhanger for fans to bite their nails over until Season Two begins on September 28th. I’d love to sit and speculate with you all as to what happened and what we can expect to see once the series resumes, but I gotta grab some rock salt and lighter fluid and meet up with Dean and Sam at the cemetery. We’ve got bones to burn!
Special Features
Commentary on “Pilot” by creator Eric Kripke, director David Nutter, and producer Peter Johnson
Commentary on “Phantom Traveler” by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles
“Supernatural: Tales from the Edge of Darkness” featurette
“Day in the Life of Jared and Jensen” featurette
Gag reel
Unaired/deleted scenes
Still gallery
DVD-ROM capabilities
Two hidden features (Disc 6)
4 ½ out of 5