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Candle Cove

Meredith Quill

By Meredith Quill
in Channel Zero [V]

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raven

raven

I'm cautiously optimistic.  I just found about this a week or so ago.  S1 is based on the CreepyPasta "Candle Cove" (which I read, I haven't read a lot of the CP stories) and I think the promos look sufficiently interesting and creepy.  This promo says it premieres Sept 27 but the SyFy site says the premiere is Oct 11. 

 

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Drogo

Drogo

The return of a kids' TV show from the 1980s coincides with the disappearance of a young person in the premiere of this series, which revolves around a child psychologist's investigation into the 1988 murders of several children, including his twin brother.

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candall

candall

(edited)

After reading these comments, I had to google creepypasta and get up to speed via Wikipedia.  Ah!  I get it--urban legends, sort of.  I saw the L&O:SVU "ripped from the headlines" episode about the skinny man.  I guess my ignorance won't affect watching this show. 

I'm sorry I didn't save up two episodes to watch in a row.  I'm ready for No.2 and don't want to wait a week while my interest is high.

How many episodes are we looking at here?

.

Edited by candall
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Wryly

Wryly

Wow, it was killing me -- everything sounded so familiar but I couldn't place it. I read that Creepypasta story years ago and completely forgot about it. On the plus side, it increased the spook factor because it felt like they were all talking about an unsettling half-remembered dream I had once. I was ready to ask my family, "Did I used to stare at TV static for hours as a child, by any chance...?"

Some of the puppets just aren't doin' it for me, though. In particular, every time they bring that cartoonish skeleton suit out, it kills the moment for me. Jawbone's not scary. But the tooth covered thing is fascinating. Is there some connection there? Jawbone... teeth...

My heart sank when I found out Mike had been in a psych ward. This is just personal taste, but I'm not interested in another "the protagonist might be crazy" storyline. It's carte blanche for every other character in the show to disbelieve him, demonize him, and blame him for every child disappearance that is really the monsters' fault. That gets old fast for me. I'm hoping they don't stick with that for very long, and some of the other adults start to realize Mike is right about the connection to Candle Cove.

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raven

raven

(edited)

The perfectly trained dog in the first ep, waiting for his trainer's cue when he was supposed to be attacking Mike and Eddie, kind of threw me off.  I was really looking forward to this and it's OK, I guess.  I liked the second episode better than the first and I'm curious as to how it will end up. 

The Tooth Child is creepy as hell and the little girl (Katie?) who stabbed her brother is kind of creepy too (or maybe it wasn't her, it was some other creepy entity).

Can't believe Mike just told his mom that he killed Eddie!  Was not expecting that, unless his memory is messed up.

Edited by raven
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tvsoothesthespirit

tvsoothesthespirit

I like this series but the puppets showing up in real life are little hokey; I liked it when the skeleton showed up and you could tell it was a person wearing a costume; that was scarier to me.

The fact that the kids are identical twins makes me believe we may not know exactly which brother is really walking through town.

From the look of this forum, I may be the only one watching this. On the off chance there's someone else out there, I have a question. When the girl's mom was talking to Mike in the hospital by the girl's room, in the background was a hallway with yellowish wallpaper and a guy on crutches followed by a nurse. When the camera went back, the hallway matched the one they were standing in (similar to those weird curtains that were pulled when Mike was walking down the hall). That couldn't have been a continuity error, right? That was on purpose?

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bilgistic

bilgistic

There are at least nine of us watching. I could be proven wrong soon, but it feels to me like it's moving too slowly for only a six-episode run. The sweeping vistas are great, but let's get on with the story.

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Arynm

Arynm

Wait, so now Mike didn't kill his brother? Why is that blond lady killing people and feeding the tooth thing? I feel like I have missed something. Mike killed his brother because he killed all the other kids because the show got into his head right? And now the same thing is happening to the kids today.

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Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory

(edited)

This is a little slow and twisty but there is a interesting sense of dread and Children of The Corn/Village of the Damned feel to the kids and town.  This may be a little too slow burn but otherwise it's a good story. The idea that one set of murders effects the other and people who were kids during the first set are now the adults during the second set is an interesting angle.  I am just not sure where the show is going.

Edited by Chaos Theory
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Cigale

Cigale

11 hours ago, tvsoothesthespirit said:

 It looks like Mrs. Brooks (is that her name? The teacher) might be behind the whole thing. Maybe she was recruited as a child.

Maybe the teacher was "possessed" by the kids and forced to do their bidding.  Just like the twin of what's his name did to what's his name (the bully) when he sent him down to his death.  

You might have guessed that I'm incapable of remembering anyone's name.  That is not a good sign...

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Black Knight

Black Knight

Clever switcheroo there. I kept waiting for the kids to either go to Kim's home expecting to find her there and end up killing her new bed buddy, or to show up in Mrs. Booth's basement and kill Kim there. Was NOT expecting Jessica to die!

And yet I see that they did set it up, what with the reveal that she was supposed to be the next victim when she was a kid, and her final scene with Mike.

So, well-played, Show. I wonder where it goes from here.

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Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory

(edited)

I have been thinking that the idea of a bunch of kids killing adults is a great one because it works both on a visual level and a psychological one.  As a species it goes against everything we are to hurt our children so when a band of weapon wielding kids attacks it is natural for most of us to at least pause.   The scene where Jessica got murdered worked because like one of the kids said she was never going to defend herself against them; they were just kids.  

Only kids.

Edited by Chaos Theory
Cleaned up post a bit
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Arynm

Arynm

They are still smaller than her, I would have pushed them down and ran like hell!! I did like that the kids were outside as well, so they could get her even if she did run. Could have worked I guess, sheer numbers and all that. This show is very slow, but I am hanging on. The teacher must be in charge

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Black Knight

Black Knight

It seemed like the fourth kid came from behind her and stabbed her as she was running, which with her momentum running on slightly uneven ground caused her to fall halfway into that wading pool, which due to the water and her position would have made it difficult for her to get up again...especially with the kid continuing to stab her as she tried. (They didn't show much, but you could hear the splashes as she kept falling back into the water.) Then the other three ran up and started stabbing her too. It seemed plausible to me. If you push someone from behind while they are running, they will generally fall.

Unlike Kim, Jessica didn't know that it was a group of four and so didn't realize the group in the house was short one member. She thought she just needed to get away from those three and didn't anticipate an ambush outside by the fourth.

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raven

raven

So Evil Eddie is trying to manifest through Mike?  And he created Candle Cove?  Or he used it?  I was a little unclear about that.

I guess Mike pulling his teeth was to try to keep Eddie away because Eddie had an extra tooth. 

Pretty creepy overall.  I was sorry to see the deputy get killed by Mrs. Booth.  I did wonder about the kids' parents when they were apparently going to spend the night with her.  I assume the Tooth Child is Jacob but I wonder what the significance of teeth is. 

I think the acting is pretty good overall, even the kids, which is unusual.  Very curious to see how it wraps up. 

On 11/3/2016 at 3:38 PM, Chaos Theory said:

The scene where Jessica got murdered worked because like one of the kids said she was never going to defend herself against them; they were just kids.  

Totally agree - she even pulled a gun out and one of the kids said "you won't use that" and she didn't.  I bet the acting sheriff Amy would have shot though.

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For Cereals

For Cereals

Still don't get this show.  I think it had a lot of potential, but I really don't understand any of it, yet I have watched it the whole time waiting for them to get to something and keep me awake.  Why did Eddie start Candle Cove?  Because he was bullied?  If so, why kill adults?  What the hell is with the tooth kid?  What is that about?  I feel like this has just been a series of creepy, disturbing scenes with no real story to pull it together.  I feel like the manatees are at work here...actually, that would make more sense at the very end than what I've seen up to this point.

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Guest

Guest

I wish they'd spend have spent a little more time writing a compelling story instead of spending sooooooo much time with Mike and his mother and everyone else sitting around Mike's mother's kitchen table. Enough with the kitchen table scenes!

I dunno, the story here isn't moving me, like, at all. One would think in the age of the Internet and its legacy of perpetuating urban legends and conspiracy theories that Candle Cove would be quote popular in certain circles. And what about that guy from Episode 1 (maybe 2?) who was making his own Candle Cove videos? Surely he would have his own Geocities-like website up about the series that everyone, but no one, remembers. 

I like a good slow-burn story much as anyone else, but this feels muddled and directionless. Maybe the ought to make tighter stories confined to two hours instead of six. Not every subject requires a mini-series. 

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ZoqFotPik

ZoqFotPik

It had it's moments, but overall I felt show was dull. I thought the ending was predictable. As soon I Mike told his Mom that he was going to need her to do something I knew how it would end. I'll give next season a try, but I'm not hopeful.

10 hours ago, Andromeda said:

This topic needs to be renamed Channel Zero, since that's the overall title of the anthology series.

The show is called Channel Zero, but each season has its own title in this case Candle Cove. I'm guessing each season will get its own topic.

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bilgistic

bilgistic

I feel like this:

On 11/13/2016 at 9:00 PM, Forcereals said:

Still don't get this show.  I think it had a lot of potential, but I really don't understand any of it, yet I have watched it the whole time waiting for them to get to something and keep me awake.  Why did Eddie start Candle Cove?  Because he was bullied?  If so, why kill adults?  What the hell is with the tooth kid?  What is that about?  I feel like this has just been a series of creepy, disturbing scenes with no real story to pull it together.  I feel like the manatees are at work here...actually, that would make more sense at the very end than what I've seen up to this point.

...still, now, at the end. None if it made any sense. Was Eddie the creator of Candle Cove? Was he also the Tooth Child? Why? Why keep teeth? WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

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Guest

Guest

I have the last episode on the DVR and haven't watched it yet so, wait! We don't find out who the hell Teeth Teen is? We don't know if Eddie really was the creator do Candle Cove and, if so, how'd he get it on TV? Does it matter?

I'd also have liked to have known why Teeth Teen had to eat teeth to maintain his teeth skin. 

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Euriph

Euriph

(edited)
On 10/11/2016 at 11:57 PM, seahag50 said:

Strange it reminds me of IT 

I thought the show was very interesting (this season). It's a mystery/horror so it had a lot of misdirection. This made the story a little slow in areas because you didn't know what was happening. I mean If you look at the whole season I would've never guessed the teacher being a religious freak to a very evil force. I thought she was a mastermind behind the evil to help her son (who seemed special).

Anyways, I think the show had some interesting themes compare to some horror shows. Eddie suffered from extreme bullying (his broken finger in episode one). This was violence with no direction and no point. It gave birth to hatred with equal violence (unnecessary violence at that). It's really no surprise that this created a serial killer in Eddie. Most serial killers are created from a messed up moral system at a young age from unnecessary violence. This is why Eddie targeted children because he was bully by children through extreme, unnecessary violence creating an endless circle of violence.

Mike on the other hand represented a good version of Eddie (like the other side of a coin). He suffered through a tragic event too. He viewed and understood his brother's hate in a way. (he was always near his brother) Mike just didn't go fully insane but learned terrible life lessons from his brother's pain/death. This later was redirected in helping children with the same problems as his brother.

This is where the fun supernatural metaphors begin!

"Why keep teeth?" I believe he kept teeth because teeth are one of the only bones that can represent maturity. (Baby teeth to adult teeth) A painful childhood cause you to grow up faster and can cause regret/pain. Eddie had all of that with a evil vendetta to say the least.

"Was Eddie the creator of candle cove?" This is a fun one and this could be maybe! Eddie's hatred/unnecessary violence was jawbone/skin taker. Jawbone to me though in Eddie's world act like a god of violence. It follows Eddie's plans but in some scenes it acts totally independent from Eddie. Example: Eddie was tricked to play war with mike but skin taker was stabbing itself like it knew eddie was being played. On another point, Is how the teacher knew that someone was going to harm Mike/Eddie. If Eddie could talk to the teacher, he shouldn't of fallen for mike's trick to play war. Could The skin taker be the one trying to protect itself/Eddie from any plan Mike has? Could the skin taker be a creature that represents violence and control Eddie? It could be the unnecessary evil from the abyss (cave) that's in all of us? Which could only manifest itself into a living being through Eddie because he is special. Meh. It's fun to think about!

Shout outs for some awesome stuff that was in this tv show: (it's scifi so I was expecting the worst so I had meh expectations) The music! How could a child adventure tv show music be creepy as hell by tons of suggestive/manipulative actions from puppets that's how! It's jolly but has such a odd feeling to it. I can see myself actually watching this creepy tv show as a child. It craves for adventure to go to the unknown.....an endless looking cave. I was so happy with the made-up, pitiful looking tv show! ((hopefully child version of me wouldn't be brainwashed to follow eddie and feed the skin taker.....))          

Edited by Euriph
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Black Knight

Black Knight

Well, I liked the series, and I liked the ending. The most unnerving moment of the series for me was actually in this finale, when Mike met up with Tooth Man for real and the camera simply moved away as we listened to him gagging as the arm went down his throat. Reminiscent of Jessica's murder, in which again the camera moved away as we listened to the splashing and struggling. It's interesting that the show was typically quite explicit in its violence, like Mrs. Booth slashing that woman's throat, but took a different direction for those two scenes which made them more horrifying really. Like the old saw, it's the stuff you don't see that's scarier.

I just had a feeling Mike would die by season's end, which is a large part of why I found Jessica's murder such a shocking twist. I hadn't put much conscious thought into it, but if I'd been asked who the safest character was, I would have said Jessica.

Overall an enjoyable series. The only real criticism I have is that I wish the actor playing Eddie had been stronger. I know it's hard to cast kids of that age, but Eddie was the big evil, a demigod whose powers were so strong that his own mother had to kill her other son just to keep him from returning, and the actor was just flat.

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raven

raven

(edited)
13 hours ago, Black Knight said:

I just had a feeling Mike would die by season's end, which is a large part of why I found Jessica's murder such a shocking twist.

I agree with this - didn't think Mike would make it out alive but surprised Jessica was killed.    I read a lot of weird fiction, so having a sort of unconcluded conclusion is fine with me.  Regular life doesn't answer all our questions so I don't mind when TV doesn't do it either. 

Eddie may have created Candle Cove as an escape from a bullied childhood and twisted it to revenge.   It was unfortunate that there was a weak minded psycho in his midst (Mrs. Booth).  I liked Mike's mom's verbal smackdown of her, though it was dumb of her to think she could just walk by the crazy lady with the hook.  I'm glad she and Amy made it out alive; thought for sure Mom would die. 

On 11/17/2016 at 11:45 PM, Euriph said:

The music! How could a child adventure tv show music be creepy as hell by tons of suggestive/manipulative actions from puppets that's how! It's jolly but has such a odd feeling to it. I can see myself actually watching this creepy tv show as a child. It craves for adventure to go to the unknown.....an endless looking cave. I was so happy with the made-up, pitiful looking tv show!

I know!  Great balance of creepy but weirdly upbeat - I can't quite put my finger on it.  The pirate doll sure looked unnerved by the whole thing, LOL. 

I liked the odd, dreamy look of the show.  There's a scene where Mike and his daughter are sitting outside and talking about these weird things and it seems like a dreamscape.   Sitting at his mom's kitchen table and having these kinds of crazy conversations also seem like a dream or old memory - in those shots they kind of close everything in.  So I really liked the look and feel of everything.

I wished they hadn't made the tv show connection so quickly.  I would have waited an episode or so for that..more of a bigger reveal that while the kids were watching it, the adults thought it was made up.  It jolted everything along kind of quickly, which was at odds with the rest of the show's pace IMO.

I liked it overall and will watch next year.

Edited by raven
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Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory

In the end I thought the story was a decent one if a little slow; maybe too slow.  That might have been my major complaint.  There is slow stories but Candle Cove might have been slow without purposeZ. Other than that I did enjoy the overall storyline.  It was creepy.  

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Euriph

Euriph

argh! I didn't really criticize the show in my last post. I just stated how I like the themes and explained my opinion of some of the deeper topics it went into. (still really liked the show..... obviously) 

What I dislike about the show.....I thought the turning back on  Mike was kind of a waste of time. Yeah, we understand that he went to a mental hospital and he is not a reliable narrator. This is all quite predictable situations writers seem to enjoy on supernatural shows. The problem is that we were given too much information to discredit Mike from the beginning. Most of the scenes that showed children watching the show were in great numbers. This includes Mike and Eddie watching the show. Even with the reveal that Mike killed Eddie, The Viewer  has enough information to figure out that either Mike had a reason or Mike was brainwashed. We didn't need Mike being arrested and almost killed......the viewer already have outside info from other scenes.

 Eddie's body was a good guy/victim was a good way to show misdirection though. Eddie personality changed it seemed when the show started. We had no information to disprove this. We only knew that he was a troubled child. We also had another case that the teacher was the main evil. So, when they burned the body helping Eddie. Eddie was already planning to kill Jessica. (good misdirection with information)

Good and bad misdirection but what really hurt was the timing of one misdirections. Mike's misdirection hurt the series on how early it occurred in a short season. It was episode 2-3 and we had a bombshell that Mike killed Eddie. This was a great shock but we didn't learn why for the whole episode. The story put him in a situation that couldn't resolve it quickly enough with an equal amount of information. It ended up give information we pretty much already had and built character in ways that didn't further the story. (the chief wanting to fix a house)

What could of happen with this wasted time in the plot. They could have sped the plot up. This allowing them to explain Why eddie needed to kill people or the skintakers  desire to kill people. They could have explained the relationship with the teacher and her son further. Why eddie needed her son compare to all the other children whom he had plenty of brainwash victims....(example: the bully group); could of dove deeper in the adult's psyche (Eddie had grudges towards most of them); or character development in the children's tv show (etc.). The writer's choices Still made a great show but nothing is without fault.     

 

On 11/19/2016 at 10:35 AM, raven said:

I know!  Great balance of creepy but weirdly upbeat - I can't quite put my finger on it.  The pirate doll sure looked unnerved by the whole thing, LOL. 

I liked the odd, dreamy look of the show.  There's a scene where Mike and his daughter are sitting outside and talking about these weird things and it seems like a dreamscape.   Sitting at his mom's kitchen table and having these kinds of crazy conversations also seem like a dream or old memory - in those shots they kind of close everything in.  So I really liked the look and feel of everything.

I wished they hadn't made the tv show connection so quickly.  I would have waited an episode or so for that..more of a bigger reveal that while the kids were watching it, the adults thought it was made up.  It jolted everything along kind of quickly, which was at odds with the rest of the show's pace IMO.

I liked it overall and will watch next year.

I just noticed that they were all dream like. It seemed like a pretty busy town but most of the scenes seem oddly open and void of life.

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Slovenly Muse

Slovenly Muse

(edited)

Hey! I am super late to this topic, but someone recommended this show to me in a "If you like 'Black Mirror,'..." kind of way, so I saved it when it aired and just never watched it until now. Gotta say, it's not playing on the level of "Black Mirror," but I really enjoyed it! I like the way the first episode (actually, episode and a half) seemed to set it up as a standard small-town creepshow (Unsolved murder in small town! Supernatural forces at work! Someone returning home has a strange connection to the killings!), with a dash of bland morality-horror ("Too much TV is warping your children's miiiiiinds! WooOOOooo!"), but as it progressed, you could see it move steadily towards the obvious conclusions (like Mike killing his own brother) and then continue right on through them, forging into stranger and less-predictable territory. It may not have been revolutionary in terms of style and execution, but what it set out to do, it did really well! I liked the way it built the story through the flashbacks, not holding your hand too much, but not being so disorienting and opaque as to be incomprehensible. And even though we could see it coming: Mike telling his mother to kill him rather than letting Eddie take over his body (so now they're BOTH guilty of killing Eddie, in a way), I am so glad they went with that option. I was seriously afraid for a minute there that they were going to have the Child Psychiatrist go to the dark place and heal his psycho brother with the power of talking. I could not have swallowed a happy ending or some "monsters are just people who need love" BS. I think it ended just right.

The weak link in my opinion, and I really hate to say this because I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt, was the acting. Mostly Paul Schneider. I had thought that his performance was a bit flat on Parks and Rec because he was playing the straight man, but seeing him in this role, there was something about the way he played it that just could have been more dynamic. Like, when he was tied to a chair and things started to get ugly, you could tell from what he said that he was freaking out, but he never seemed to convey a sense of real fear. You couldn't tell when the switch flipped from feeling in control of the situation (because he had the answers they were looking for) to being afraid for his life... he always just kind of radiated this unflappability that was difficult to read, whether he was kidnapped by people who wanted to hurt him, seeing nightmare visions of puppets stalking him, or finding his brother's body NOT where he buried it. Was it "I'm terrified by what's happening but I'm not going to let it get to me?" Or was it "I know what's going on here and I'm not happy about it?" I genuinely couldn't tell. I wish I could have really felt his anguish over having to kill his own brother, or his fear of what was stalking him, or his heartbreak over being rejected by his mother and relief at their reunion. But it was all just... flat. And there were other moments, like when Mike and his wife found Lily on the ground, and the tooth monster came out of the woods for Mike. His wife's reaction to seeing a real live monster for the first time, and watching it presumably stick its entire arm down her husband's throat, choking him potentially to death, and then vanish, was surprisingly understated! And then she jogged on over to where Mike and Lily lay, right where that terrible monster was moments ago, without any hesitation... that took me out of the moment. A stronger performance there, or a stronger directorial focus on the performance, could have really sold that moment.

But overall, as I said, I really did enjoy it. It managed to elevate itself beyond "standard murder mystery with supernatural twist" and pull off some genuine surprises! In any case, I am definitely looking forward to season 2.

Edited by Slovenly Muse
Clarity.
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krankydoodle

krankydoodle

On 3/12/2018 at 8:12 PM, Tachi Rocinante said:

Did they ever explain why the cameraman in the 1st episode was a mannequin?  Was he imagining it?

It's been a while since I watched, but, yes, I think he was just imagining or dreaming that.

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