CURON Season One
Won’t ring your bell
UK/US Netflix, streaming now Director Ezio Abbate, Ivano Fachin,
Giovanni Galassi, Tommaso Matano
Cast Valeria Bilello, Margherita Morchio, Federico Russo, Anna Ferzetti
All that remains of the former town of Curon is its bell tower, sticking up surreally from the middle of a man-made lake. Though the bell was removed, locals claim they still hear it ring.
Amazingly, that much of the premise of this Italian-made supernatural drama is true. But in the show, the legend of the bells isn’t just spooky – it’s deadly.
Decades after swearing never to return, Anna (Valeria Bilello) returns to Curon with her 17-year-old twins. Helpfully, her dad (Luca Lionello) lives in an empty hotel, so there’s plenty of space for them. When Anna disappears, though, rebellious Daria (Margherita Morchio) and shy Mauro (Federico Russo) have to juggle figuring out the town’s curse with starting a new school – with all the crushes, bullies and other teenage stuff that comes along with that. Plus, there are wolves everywhere.
If you’re hoping for scares, you’ll be disappointed. Curon barely qualifies as horror. Instead, it’s a sort of magical realist philosophy lesson. The mystery comes with a set of moral dilemmas, some more thoughtprovoking than others, but all of them very talky.
Thanks to the town’s location on the Italian/Austrian border, characters speak a mixture of languages, which adds colour if not much else. Its whereabouts turn out to be both the show’s biggest blessing and its biggest curse. As it was shot mostly on location, we get gorgeous scenery and a ready-made atmosphere, what with the way that tower looms ominously out of the water and all. But it’s also very contained, almost to the point of absurdity (why doesn’t everyone just move?) If the mythology had been a little more developed, and the subtext a bit more subtle, this could’ve been a must-watch. As it is… well, the show might just add the real-life location to a few more sightseeing bucket lists.
Sarah Dobbs
150 families were forcibly relocated when the original Curon Venosta was demolished and flooded.