Marianne Makes Her Sinister Debut on Netflix
Netflix took full advantage of Friday the 13th falling at the start of the spooky season this year, dropping a surprise horror series, Samuel Bodin and Quoc Dang Tran’s Marianne on unsuspecting viewers, and from the starting gun, they pull no punches. In the opening scene, viewers are greeted by the wide-eyed, bloody grin of Mrs. Daugeron, played exquisitely by Mireille Herbstmeyer, giving viewers a healthy dose of the dread they can expect throughout the show.
The series follows Emma Larsimon (Victoire Du Bois), best-selling author of the “Lizzie Larck” books—a horror series chronicling the battle between the titular character and Marianne, the centuries-old soul of a witch whose only perceived weakness is that she can’t lie about her name. It doesn’t take long, however, before Emma begins to suspect that Marianne’s villainy may extend beyond the pages of her books.
The first episode is as good an intro I’ve seen in a long time, deftly balancing character introductions with atmosphere building and a few terrific scares that don’t rely too heavily on startling images or music. Normally, a show like this will position itself as a mystery with elements of horror peppered throughout; in this way, the writers are able to keep the plot moving steadily forward. Marianne, however, tries to invert the formula, drawing from the horror genre first before giving viewers a thread of mystery to follow.
One shortfall that may potentially turn away some fans is the main character, herself. Emma is not the most sympathetic of protagonists. She keeps herself walled off, neglecting and disrespecting her fans, her friends and her family. She has destructive tendencies and an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. The only person keeping Emma reined in from spiraling completely out of control, it seems, is her assistant and only existing friend at the time of our meeting her, Camille (Lucie Boujenah). In all fairness, I found a lot to like about Du Bois’ portrayal of Emma. She’s playful and sarcastic, but pain is never too far removed from her eyes. Something in her past has brought Emma to her current broken state, and one of the season’s mysteries is uncovering what happened to her as a youth.
Easily the most impressive performance in the series is Herbstmeyer’s Mrs. Daugeron, which is a shame, considering her role falls away as the show wears on. Herbstmeyer is unnervingly convincing as the expressive vessel of the spirit of a demon-witch, though the character fails to make Emma’s struggle anything more than annoying. Emma’s battle with Marianne leaves a tangible path of destruction in its wake and, given the incorporeal nature of the demon, one might expect Emma to take the brunt of the blame, but this rarely happens. Even more surprising is the town’s distrust of Emma. Her departure years earlier had emphatically burned all bridges and her interactions have made it perfectly clear that all is not forgotten. This is especially frustrating from the priest, who knows more about the terrible curse infecting Elden than anyone—yet he does nothing to help, save make threatening remarks toward Emma while flanked by his attack dog. The plot feels a bit too insular, even for a town as small as Elden.
Not that the show didn’t have room to throw a few more obstacles Emma’s way. After a few episodes, we’re kind of kept in a holding pattern as we uncover bits of Emma’s past, as well as Marianne’s; but a fair amount of time is allotted to developing these backstories, though, a few cases aside, the payoff doesn’t necessarily justify the time spent. Still, when it’s on, the scares Marianne provides more than make up for having a few plodding parts when it’s off. The major events are interesting enough to keep you engaged through the filler material. But most importantly, Marianne makes a unique and promising addition to Netflix’s growing repertoire of horror television.
article written by ande thomas
Ande loves the intersection of sci-fi and horror, where our understanding of the natural world clashes with our fear of the new and unknown. He writes about monsters and foreign horror and can also be found over on Letterboxd.
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