Prologue: A church bell rings. We see the tower against a black sky, immersed in a black lake. A solitary car moves through the darkness toward Curon. Suddenly the teenage Ana goes into a house, where her parents are arguing. Her father orders her to go up to her room and stay there. Awhile later,she hears screaming, and goes downstairs to see her mother killed-- by a girl with her face.
Scene 1: 17 years have passed, and Ana (Gilli Messer) is driving down that dark road again, while her 16-year old twins complain: rebellious Daria (Margherita Morchio) hates that they are leaving Milan for a hillbilly town in the sticks, and quiet, shy Mauro (Federico Russo, the owner of the abs in the top photo) is upset because he lost his drone in the Black Lake.
Scene 3: Grandpa Thomas feeds them. Ana fusses over her son while ignoring her daughter. Grandpa glares at her. Does he know something sinister abot Ana?
Scene 4: The twins bed down in the same room (in a hotel, wouldn't there be enough rooms so they wouldn't have to share?). Ana is um...doing lady stuff while taking a bath. Mauro gets out of bed. Good Lord, is he planning to join her?
No -- he's attracted to a mysterious locked door with a rumbling noise and leaking water. But just as he's picking the lock, Grandpa intervenes and hugs him. Why? What almost happened?
Scene 5: Ana awakens, spooked by a nightmare. She goes to the twins' room and asks to sleep with them. Daria scoots over to make room, but she chooses Mauro's bed! Ok, heavy incest vibe. This lady is a sexual predator, and apparently Grandpa knows all about it.
Scene 6: In the morning, Grandpa Thomas shows them his pet wolf. Then Ana takes them to school. The local kids ignore the twins, so Daria trips one of them to get his attention.
Scene 7: In class. The teacher conspicuously has a cross, not a crucifix, because crucifixes are "too sad." Well, I guess they do depict Jesus dying. We discover that Mauro wears a hearing aid. Two guys hugging in a corner stare at him (Finally, some gayness. I was getting tired of the incest)
Scene 8: After school, Daria is smoking and complaining, when one of the Hugging Guys steals Mauro's hearing aid. She decks him. Mauro wants to rent a boat to go onto the Black Lake to get his drone (from Scene 1), but the rental guy angry refuses: "You're the scum of Curon!"
Meanwhile, Grandpa Thomas and Ana are back at the "You can't stay here!" argument.
It's a gay party outdoors. mostly boys dancing with boys and girls dancing with girls.. Daria flirts with a girl named Micki. The Hugging Guys flirt with Mauro, but he rejects them; he just wants to steal a boat and fetch his drone fromthe Black Lake.
Mauro keeps telling Daria that he wants to leave,but she blows him off. Finally he walks into the woods on his own.
Back at the house, Ana and Grandpa Thomas are still having their "you can't stay here!" argument. Ana can't forget that night. She asks Thomas why she was holding the rifle after her mother "killed herself." Thomas says "Your kids need you, and you bring them back here!"
My takeaway: The women in Ana's family go crazy and kill people, if they're in the hotel.
Scene 9: The Hugging Guys ask Daria and her new girlfriend to do "possum rounds": you drink on a ledge or dock. The last one standing wins. They tell her the legend of the tower: there's no bell, but sometimes it rings anyway, and if you hear it, you will die.
Meanwhile Mauro steals a boat and goes out onto Black Lake to get his drone. He falls in; you expect something terrible to happen, but it doesn't.
Scene 10: Daria has a dream about meeting a wolf in the woods (what big eyes you have!) She awakens on the dock. The Hugging Guys ae gone (off to hug, no doubt). She kisses her new girlfriend.
Scene 11: Mauro shows us some skin, then lies down on his bed to fix the drone. Suddenly the lights go out, and the rumbling from Scene 4 starts up. He investigates. This time he manages to open the door. Inside: Ana, chained to a bed! Or maybe the demonic being who killed his grandmother 17 years ago.
He asks "Who are you?" She attacks.
Scene 12: The boat rental guy notices that the stolen boat is still floating on the lake.
Grandpa Thomas finds Mauro unconscious in the room. He puts him to bed, then gets his rifle and leaves the house. The end.
Whoa. Who is the person in the room, Ana, her twin, a demon? How can Mauro be still on the boat and home in bed at the same time? What happened 17 years ago? Howis it connected to the submerged church tower?
Other Sights: Exteriors in the real Curon Venosta, a German-speaking town in northern Italy, near the borders of Switzerland and Austria. It really has a submerged bell tower.
Gay Characters: Just about everyone seems to be gay or bi. The alternative is to have sex with your mother.
Heterosexism: None.
Will I Keep Watching: Sure.
See also: Locke and Key; Curon, Episode 2
So, northern Italy is like Mississippi?
ReplyDeleteI thought it was the South that was stereotyped as barbaric, uncivilized, and "redneck." Remember "Christ Stopped at Eboli," to everywhere south will have to do without salvation. Daria probably just thinks of any small town as "redneck."
Delete