It is curious the strategy than the binomial Ryan Murphy/Netflix has continued for the last two miniseries of the former. On the one hand, ‘DAHMER – Monster’ was released practically by surprise to, almost when we had not digested the biopic of the psychopath, launch ‘Vigilant‘ (Watcher), a haunting suburban nightmare miniseries.
Inspired by true events, Murphy and his regular partner Ian Brennan recreate the story of a family that, after buying the “perfect house” on the outskirts of the city begins to receive a series of threatening and sinister letters signed by a mysterious anonymous individual.
A source material that in itself has those elements that the creator likes (a really disturbing story) and allows him to immerse himself in other topics of modern and post-covid life. With the premise of these letters we fall down a rabbit hole with paranoia, sex, jealousy, sacrifices, murders and commentary on suburban life, real estate speculation, and a world that’s getting a little crazier by the minute.
To enhance it, and as usual, the writer and director plays his already classic trick of putting on a striking cast: Bobby Cannavale and Naomi Watts like the Braddocks; Margot Martindale, Richard Kind and Mia Farrow like the peculiar neighbors; Jennifer Coolidge (which we will see this Monday in ‘The White Lotus’) as the real estate agent, etc.
Using springs of terror
While I don’t know to what extent we could consider ‘Vigilante’ like a horror series in a strict senseYes, Murphy and Brennan use the codes of the genre to turn the miniseries into a sort of B-side of the first season of ‘American Horror Story’.
In this sense, the responsible seek to recreate a suburban nightmare where its protagonist, as if it were someone from Gothic literature, loses more and more his head trying to find out who the epistolary stalker is.
Even the series embraces its true crime status and decides to tell the story by appealing to our fears and obsessions and controlling the narrative at all times… no matter how absurd and crazy what he proposes to us. The main story is mixed with dark stories (legends, almost) about the past of the building and its inhabitants.
Like everything from Murphy, ‘Vigilante’ is often excessive and extravagant… but here comes a cast very devoted to both the proposal and aware that they are responsible for leveling everything and ensuring that in these comings and goings the whole is edible enough. Neither cloying nor bland.
Yes, seeing the series leaves the feeling that it is one designed for these times of fast consumption. Contrary to ‘Dahmer’, which called for a calm viewing (due to its grotesqueness), ‘Vigilante’ is designed (and it is seen in how it is structured) so that we can enjoy it in the form of a marathon. And works.