There is this app, see – it lures you in with guarantees of delights, will get you emotionally invested, makes you willingly soar by infinite hoops, and shortly turns into your all-consuming focus.
Friends, household, obligations and monetary concerns fall by the wayside as you get drawn deeper and deeper into its clutches.
But sufficient about my obsession with Pokemon GO. All this additionally applies to a “killer” app referred to as Red Rose, the central and extremely insidious obtain that options in Netflix’s new teen drama/suspense/horror/social (media) commentary collection of the identical identify.
Set within the English city of Bolton, the present revolves round a gaggle of teenage associates who’ve simply sat for his or her GCSEs and stay up for a summer season of common mucking about.
A troubled woman named Rochelle (Isis Hainsworth) downloads the app, which guarantees to fulfil her each want.
Haunted by her mom’s current suicide and the household’s monetary struggles, she simply falls below its spell when issues like fancy get together outfits and knock-em-dead footwear seem as if by magic.
‘Wow, nobody informed me Pure Evil is viewable in panorama mode too.’
But sinister issues are afoot, as ghostly photographs present up when she appears at her telephone digital camera and the app begins issuing nasty threats.
Her relationship with bestie Wren (Amelia Clarkson) is strained, alongside together with her ties to the remainder of the gang (self-dubbed The D**kheads, exchange the asterisks with the plain).
And that is simply a part of what occurs within the first episode (of eight).
To say extra would spoil the surprises that Red Rose holds in retailer for the viewer, lots of them disagreeable – it IS concerning the nastier elements of life (and maybe afterlife) in any case.
Created by The Haunting Of Hill House co-writers Michael and Paul Clarkson, Red Rose is considerably by-product of earlier techno-horror efforts however fairly on the button in its depiction of rising pains (and the little triumphs to be celebrated in between), and the final obsession with our “good” gadgets and social media.
‘There … that is 500 quid transferred to launch the parcel of gems despatched by my social media boyfriend from Customs custody.’
Teenage angst is right here in giant doses however, not like many different cases the place it solely tends to dampen the viewer’s enthusiasm for a present, right here it is fairly organically woven into the proceedings.
The backside line is, the fears and snappishness are made (largely) relatable, and we simply get invested within the struggles of Red Rose‘s characters because of the uniformly fantastic performances of its solid.
(And in addition to, children who make the sort of film references like those right here simply need to be all proper.)
As the evil forces behind the app slowly manifest, and the D**kheads wrestle to maintain up and keep alive, Red Rose gathers momentum in direction of a twisty, disturbing finale that brings closure of kinds whereas leaving the (again) door open for additional incursions into our already-prodded-till-sore imaginations.
Sure, it could possibly appear a bit handy at instances, with a number of deus ex machina saves by the “man/gal within the chair”, however the total end result is an simply bingeable, thought-provoking trip.
While we’re not saying something about the actual nature (in story phrases) of Red Rose, maybe its most terrifying facet is the realisation that we breathe the identical air because the forces that drive it.
Chilling to make sure, however we are able to take coronary heart from the resolve and resilience of the D**kheads.
All eight episodes of Red Rose can be found on Netflix.
