let's get the important stuff out of the way

0. there are onscreen animal deaths, though the cats are blessedly not that graphic or convincing post-mortem. the dog dies. this is a spoiler i won't hide or apologize for because i've never met a single person who doesn't want to know this spoiler tbh.
1. bev keane is a sanctimonious little shit who doesn't get her just desserts until the final episode, so look forward to suffering that for an eternity
2. rahul kohli deserves to be in front of my eyes at all times, especially with a beard and especially with all that intensity
3. kate spiegel has got to stop making me cry
4. hamish linklater gets the standout appreciation because i just watched him play a horrific child predator in lily rabe's amazon prime series and did not ONCE think about that character during this performance?? not even when he was being suspicious or delusional. like wtf why is he such a good actor and for that matter—
5. all of the acting in this is unbelievably good. like it's unfair how good even the child actors were.

onto the actual review:

do you like mike flanagan? do you love incredible actors getting to give intense monologues that make you kind of want to die? are you okay with the fact that literally everything is going to be sad (of course you are, if you said yes to the first question)?

then watch this. you'll enjoy it, no question. just be down for a slow pace, bleakness and intensity, and the usual not-quite-horror vibes. flanagan's work never rests on horror laurels and i feel like it makes his pieces stronger.

also: i spent the entire time leading up to the actual release having no idea that hamish was the Mysterious Charming priest character and spent the whole first episode going ZACH WHY ARE YOU SO SAD AND NOT MYSTERIOUS but tbh it all made sense soon enough.

anyway, for those of you wondering who shouldn't watch this: a LOT of talk of death. alcoholism. small town trapped feelings, and loss of life that gradually picks up pace throughout the series. i'd say skip this if bleak content puts you in a bad place. i also have a relative recently diagnosed with alzheimer's and that made the first couple episodes a bit harder.

since it's pretty obvious from the first or second episode, the rest of my comment isn't technically a spoiler BUT if you like going in totally blind, stop now!!

i think the way this show handles vampirism mythology is actually quite unique. it focuses far less on the vampire lore itself and far more on how easy it is for people desperate for answers to the universe to fit everything from completely ordinary occurrences to an actual batwinged monstrosity into a religious context if they just quote the right piece of scripture.