Marianne: The French response to ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ (France)

marianne horror movie

For decades, the horror genre has been taken lightly. Probably because every person thinks they can scare anyone or at least someone close.

Fear as a universal feeling is not a universal form. He is subjective and very specific. Someone is fascinated by the fast ride and tall buildings, while another gets a hysterical panic attack of fear of speed and height. That’s why the horror genre is weird. It can provide you with nightmares for the rest of your life, and it can make you laugh in your naivety. It depends on the person.

Fortunately, the horror genre has gotten smarter over the years. An example is “The Haunting of Hill House”, which intelligently blended family drama, psychological horror, and supernatural elements with a smattering of mystery to intrigue a colorful audience.

Do you want to ride with “Marianne”?

After the first episode, it will certainly be very difficult for you to turn off the light in a warm home, but a few episodes later, the story does not remain etched in your memory, but some scenes will haunt you for a very, very long time.

The French response to “The Haunting of Hill House” and Stephen King’s novels begins with confidence to such an extent that it’s impossible to look away when things get pretty tense.

The story follows Emma, ​​a famous writer who writes books in an attempt to protect herself from the witch Marianne who has been chasing her since childhood. Lured back to her hometown, the famous horror author discovers that the evil spirit that haunts her in dreams is now wreaking havoc in the real world too…

From a modern psychedelic and paranoid environment, Marianne moves to the peninsula of Emma’s childhood that visibly evokes the atmosphere of films from the 1970s and 1980s. It is impossible to banish the “Exorcist,” “Omen,” or “Don’t Look Now” that inspired Ari Aster in “Hereditary.”

The ingenious scenes in which Marianne manifests in various forms will astound you. Unfortunately, the intimidation factor begins to decline rapidly before the finale alone due to problematic directorial, costume and masking decisions.

“Marianne” plays on two ends of the spectrum and one works more / less perfectly, and the other part cannot be assembled with itself.

The story of Emma, ​​family, friends, the mystery of the city and the witch is very basic, and often banal. Unfortunately the series is full of frequent changes in tone. The series tries to bring in unnecessary humor and thus break the depressing atmosphere, however it overdoes with the use of sweet music.

Marianne is a witch, and at the beginning she is extremely unpredictable, which makes her even scarier. She can be anyone, she uses the fears and memories that uses against the victim. The maestral version of Marianne in the form of a crazy Emma-obsessed woman is a nightmare in its full glory.

The narrative has neither the complexity nor the screenplay to make it appealing. The drama element of The Haunting of Hill House is the strongest aspect of the series, while the horror element is a valuable bonus. In the case of Marianne, the horror element is the strongest aspect, everything else is average.

We can place “Marianne” in a new generation of atmospheric horror films like Get Out, Babadook, which don’t rely too much on jump scare techniques, but that doesn’t mean they don’t use them at all, because every time we delve into real life, the director pulls out scenes that are scared us in previous episodes.

“Marianne” is far from a bad series. Great horror scenes and flicks will hold your attention, but for those who expect “The Haunting of Hill House” again, it won’t happen because “Marianne” won’t be long in the memory.

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