Feria: The Darkest Light review — Spanish supernatural thriller show is delectably nerve-racking

Feria is a show that should not be missed.

A poster for Feria | Image via Twitter

Feria: The Darkest Light

Synopsis: Eva (Ana Tomeno) and Sofia (Carla Campra) are normal teenagers with normal parents Pablo (Ernest Villegas) and Elena (Marta Nieto) but their comfortable lives are uprooted overnight after 23 dead bodies are found outside of the town’s mine. Their parents, however, are nowhere to be found. A team of investigators, the Civil Guard, are called in to unspool this mystery but they also seem at a loss but not enough to back down from finding out the truth. Meanwhile, the girls are left in a rut, finding solace in each other all the while being alienated by their townspeople.

Review: I spent a good amount of January watching Dark – finally, after years of being peer pressured – and Yellowjackets, the new Showtime survival thriller series (mind-blowing, amazing, still reeling from the shocker of a finale). So, you know by now that after this binge-watching spree I was not at all prepared for what Feria: The Darkest Light had in store.

I tuned in with zero expectations, without even bothering to watch the trailer. I had a faint idea that the story was about two sisters who find out that their parents are involved in a cult ritual. That’s all. Eight episodes in Spanish that are each an hour-long sounded like a mammoth task to tackle. But I did. I have no regrets.

Somehow, tragedy always seems to strike small obscure towns – they are full of long-held secrets, secrets that are dark and dangerous and so hard to believe. And it's always in the 1990s, a period that seems so far away in the past. 

The show is another addition to our fascination with cults, exploring how sinister things can become when you’re deep into the system, how often these sects attract the emotionally vulnerable and how difficult it may be to wrench oneself from this abyss of blind faith. 

The one in Feria though is no regular cult, the followers believe in a philosophy of a “kingdom” that exists in another realm altogether and are convinced that the lives they have, their material attachments and relationships they were born into are all an illusion. To cross over to the other side, a portal has to be opened by the "perfect one". Human sacrifice is commonplace as are supernatural entities using human hosts to survive. The special effects are deftly executed, not at all clunky and will definitely give you the creeps. Even though the episodes span an hour, go back and forth in timelines and cover different points of view, the momentum of the storytelling never loses its edge. With each episode, the story just keeps getting weirder and wilder.

Another aspect that Feria takes on is Eva and Sofia’s relationship, how in spite of finding themselves in dire straits, they hang on to each other for comfort. Even after several cult members indoctrinate Sofia, Eva never gives up on her for no matter how hard the sect tries to extract the former from her familial bonds. There are other subplots running in tandem, other characters that also hold an equally important place in the story, like Mara and Eva’s budding romance, Chisco’s (Jorge Motos) feelings for Sofia, and officer Guillen’s (Isak Ferriz) determination to get to the root of the big mystery he’s tasked to investigate.

Feria: The Darkest Light also does not hold back on gore; it’s gore galore over here (excuse my weak attempt at wordplay). This show is definitely not for the squeamish or those who have a problem with nudity and sexual content. 

Verdict: With seamless storytelling that’s packed with awesome gruesome sequences, impeccable special effects and a cast that executes the material with sincerity, Feria is a show that should not be missed.

Feria: The Darkest Light is streaming on Netflix.

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