Another series that's a slow burn leading to a rushed final episode. Personally I preferred the ambiguity of the first half of the series that played up both inherited mental illness and the supernatural.
12 Reviews
All too familiar...
ario3218 October 2021
Was going quite well until 2nd half to end
Seatpleasant2521 October 2021
Season One Review
southdavid16 November 2022
Bafflingly, this is still being pitched as "Season One" at the moment - when it seems unlikely that more will be forthcoming. This is not because of any inherent lack of quality, I enjoyed the series quite a bit, but it seems to have told its entire story in this one run. I'll move the review in the future when we're sure that no more is coming.
In the mid 1800's, recently widowed Sailor Charles Boone (Adrien Brody) inherits an estate in Maine and moves there with his three children. He receives an unusually hostile welcome from the locals, who hated his recently dead family, who are blamed for a curious illness that some residents are suffering from. Only local journalist Rebecca Morgan (Emily Hampshire) is willing to spend time with the family, taking a role as nanny to the younger children. Boone though has a secret of his own, a mental torment, that beset his father, is starting to take a hold on him.
Very loosely adapted from Stephen King's short story, itself a prequel to Salem's Lot, I didn't initially approach "Chapelwaite" with much enthusiasm. Indeed, it's taken a year to arrive in the UK, and even then, dropped onto Paramount Plus without much fanfare. That said, I felt it was a reasonably enjoyable time. It promises more scares than it truly delivers, with foreboding woods and a particularly horrific cellar never really being utilised to full effect. The visual effects though, when they start to occur are well done and with a decent level of gore. Despite varying away from King's story, I thought the plot was reasonably strong. They did a good job of explaining what everyone's motivations were and it all made sense. The two leads are good. Brody's delivery is mannered, but I enjoyed listening to him, if nothing else.
Could it have cut a couple of episodes to be a bit tighter? Absolutely. Could it have been a little clearer explaining the 'rules' of its supernatural entities, indeed it could. But to say how little buzz there was around "Chapelwaite" I thought it was pretty good.
In the mid 1800's, recently widowed Sailor Charles Boone (Adrien Brody) inherits an estate in Maine and moves there with his three children. He receives an unusually hostile welcome from the locals, who hated his recently dead family, who are blamed for a curious illness that some residents are suffering from. Only local journalist Rebecca Morgan (Emily Hampshire) is willing to spend time with the family, taking a role as nanny to the younger children. Boone though has a secret of his own, a mental torment, that beset his father, is starting to take a hold on him.
Very loosely adapted from Stephen King's short story, itself a prequel to Salem's Lot, I didn't initially approach "Chapelwaite" with much enthusiasm. Indeed, it's taken a year to arrive in the UK, and even then, dropped onto Paramount Plus without much fanfare. That said, I felt it was a reasonably enjoyable time. It promises more scares than it truly delivers, with foreboding woods and a particularly horrific cellar never really being utilised to full effect. The visual effects though, when they start to occur are well done and with a decent level of gore. Despite varying away from King's story, I thought the plot was reasonably strong. They did a good job of explaining what everyone's motivations were and it all made sense. The two leads are good. Brody's delivery is mannered, but I enjoyed listening to him, if nothing else.
Could it have cut a couple of episodes to be a bit tighter? Absolutely. Could it have been a little clearer explaining the 'rules' of its supernatural entities, indeed it could. But to say how little buzz there was around "Chapelwaite" I thought it was pretty good.
A Fantastic End to a Fantastic Story
scottmannen117 October 2021
This episode is great. I can only hope that they renew a second season of this show starring Adrian Brody. Brody is an award winning actor and basically carries this entire show on his top notch acting skills. Traditionally Brody is a movie actor, so we are lucky to have him in this show. 9/10.
Great Ending
HockeyMom8617 October 2021
Amazing emotional ending!!
mpcoe2011-471-19837717 October 2021
Rushed, anticlimatic, a bad ending for a very good series
eunbi053017 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This major battle for the De Vermis Mysteriis was so anticlimactic and rushed, it takes only less than half of an episode where most of the fight is done under an understandable low light and vampires' strength where downplayed, also through the fight we only see Charles with a torch - used to scare away the vampires -, but when the fight is done there are other two torches, why weren't they used in the blackout? The most anticlimactic thing though was Jakub's death and Stephen being killed by a rock, for Jakub I was expecting Loa to be the hero and backstab Jakub, but he was an easier kill than Phillip and Stephen was strangling Charles and simply stops making it easier for him to reach for a rock and kill a vampire. This fight should have started on episode 9 (which was basically a long episode just for rallying the people), before the total eclipse, weren't they also talking about killing the humans that sided with the vampires? There were no humans on this episode, I guess it takes Charles' heroism to kill humans even if they chose to side with vampires. Charles and the people of Preacher's Corners should have had a better plan to deal with the people on Jerusalem's Lot.
Also, for a concerned parent, isn't it implied that Loa killed Charles so he would become a vampire? She didn't just turn him - as we saw from the last episode a turned person has to be killed to become a vampire -, he had his own daughter kill him so he would become a vampire.
The episode's fight had to be cut short because they still had to show Charles and Rebecca's romance coming true, Charles and Loa's redemption to each other and that pitiful speech Charles gave to his children and how Rebecca finds her own happiness by upbringing the children of "the only man she has ever loved".
Also, for a concerned parent, isn't it implied that Loa killed Charles so he would become a vampire? She didn't just turn him - as we saw from the last episode a turned person has to be killed to become a vampire -, he had his own daughter kill him so he would become a vampire.
The episode's fight had to be cut short because they still had to show Charles and Rebecca's romance coming true, Charles and Loa's redemption to each other and that pitiful speech Charles gave to his children and how Rebecca finds her own happiness by upbringing the children of "the only man she has ever loved".
What?
thirty-seconds-to-mars21 October 2021
I can forgive the GOT ending. But I cannot forgive this. Like, I get it. Keep it unpredictable, but why make characters do dumb dumb things to do that? This show didn't need this cheap ending. Just look at the drop in the rating.
Worst Story Ending EVER.
mclevy-7718418 October 2021
Has there EVER been a Stupider ending to a vampire tale? Don't you hate when a character says "It's the Only Way..?" And you can think of at LEAST a Dozen, smarter, less suicidal acts? It makes you lose any respect for the character you may have had, plus any for the supporting characters who allow him to carry on with an insane, unexplained decision.
The series itself was a solid 8 until this Ridiculous Mistake of an ending, which ruins the entire 10 episodes and makes one wish they had never wasted 10 whole hours of their lives.
Up until the writers committed suicide for his character, Adrian Brody did a fine enough job, painfully whispering his way through his lines of acting like a miserable wretch, which I assume was the idea.
The beginning of the series was applaudable, but the End Justifies being Mean.
The series itself was a solid 8 until this Ridiculous Mistake of an ending, which ruins the entire 10 episodes and makes one wish they had never wasted 10 whole hours of their lives.
Up until the writers committed suicide for his character, Adrian Brody did a fine enough job, painfully whispering his way through his lines of acting like a miserable wretch, which I assume was the idea.
The beginning of the series was applaudable, but the End Justifies being Mean.
A Chapelwaste Of Time.
artistwriter-5470517 October 2021
9 episodes of great story and the finale.... atrocious.
It ended with a lot of predictable moments however this episode had the added flavor of being the most dialog driven and the least well done of the series.
Ham fisted would be a good way to describe it and about as subtle as a fart during a eulogy. I won't spoil it for you. It was just not the ending that it should have been and truthfully it was a lot of drawn out scenes. Unfortunately the long drawn out scenes were the wrong ones.
Special effects were great though. So that was decent. Like I said though. This was the least satisfying of the bunch.
It ended with a lot of predictable moments however this episode had the added flavor of being the most dialog driven and the least well done of the series.
Ham fisted would be a good way to describe it and about as subtle as a fart during a eulogy. I won't spoil it for you. It was just not the ending that it should have been and truthfully it was a lot of drawn out scenes. Unfortunately the long drawn out scenes were the wrong ones.
Special effects were great though. So that was decent. Like I said though. This was the least satisfying of the bunch.
A great 90 minute movie, wrapped in 400 extra minutes of silly fluff.
jamosmonk6 November 2021
Yet another bloated story that would've been a passable feature film. The same mistakes repeated over and over each episode as Adrien Brody loudly whispers his dialogue. Lowa, Taint, On her. What foolish names for his whiny kids. The mother escaped this drudgery in first episode. She was the lucky one.
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