Peter Rumancek and his mother (Lili Taylor) have moved to Hemlock Grove.  Soon after, a teenage girl is found murdered and a teenage girl starts spreading rumors that Peter is a werewolf (and killed the girl).  He finds friendship with rich boy Roman Godfrey and they team up to find the rogue werewolf (or vargwolf) and try to stop it before it kills again.   Hemlock Grove has many secrets with several revolving around the Godfrey family and the Godfrey Institute (and the mysterious genetic experiments Dr. Pryce is conducting).   Olivia Godfrey (Famke Janssen) is the mysterious, sexy, and deadly mother of Roman who is trying to protect her children Roman and giant Shelley while she doesn’t trust the gypsy nature of Peter.   Peter’s mother realizes the true nature of Roman (even when Roman isn’t aware of it yet).   Peter faces many dangers from Dr. Chasseur and the growing fear of the residents of Hemlock Grove.  Can Peter and Roman find the real killer before it is too late as they uncover the secrets of Hemlock Grove?

 

HEMLOCK GROVE kept me watching, but watching all the episodes at once works in the favor of this slow burn supernatural soap opera.   You have all types of dysfunctional relationships along with exploring the monster within each character.   It threw a few surprises along with some cliffhangers to set up season 2.   I like how the writers gave a few interesting twists to old monster myths like werewolves, vampires, and even Frankenstein’s monster.  I can’t wait to see season 2 get released to DVD (even though I could go see it now if I subscribed to Netflix which renewed the show for a third and final season).

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentary for JELLYFISH IN THE SKY with Director and Executive Producer Eli Roth with special guest Lorenza Izzo

 

Featurettes on disc 4-

DYSFUNCTIONAL IN EVERY WAY- all about the characters of the show

FAIRYTALES FOR ADULTS- behind-the-scenes featurette that goes into the story and themes of the series

IT HURTS SO GOOD- behind-the-scenes of the first werewolf transformation

THE RUST BENEATH THE SURFACE- production design of the show

THE MONSTER WITHIN- examines what makes the monster within for the characters of the series

ANATOMY OF A KILL- behind-the-scenes of how they made the first murder scene

 

Trailer and TV spots for HEMLOCK GROVE

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  Season one of HEMLOCK GROVE is a slow burn supernatural soap opera with some good actors and enough different story threads to keep me interested.   It provided some interesting and yet familiar twists on monster legends.   I hope Scream Factory doesn’t wait until October 2015 to release the second season

 

This review is ©1-4-2015 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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