Netflix has not ceased to reap success in each original production series it has brought for the enjoyment of its story-hungry audience. In this summer of 2020, the company has decided to bet once again on a thriller, but this time brought directly from Italy, and with that comes Curon. Will this be the new series to marathon non-stop? Discover here 4 reasons to watch Curon:
1. A real story in the background
Curon Venosta is a royal town in South Tyrol, right on the border between Italy and Switzerland. The name of this community not only gives the title to this TV series but also provides the thread of the paranormal facts that give life to the story created by Ezio Abbate, Ivano Fachin, Giovanni Galassi and Tommaso Matano.
The town of Curon is famous for its particular bell tower that has unleashed more than one urban legend and that the creators take as their main inspiration for the fantastic events that unfold in the drama.
The story goes that in the middle of the last century, this village on the Alpine slope disappeared under the waters since it was decided to flood it to create a dam in the area that would unify the Resia and Curon lakes.
Not even the prayers and entreaties of the villagers to the Pope served to stop the inevitable, and of this ancient village, there is now no more evidence than that Roman church bell tower that stands in the middle of the lake and is so high that the waters did not cover it.
Today, this tower is part of the main tourist attraction in the town and whole folklore developed around it, a legend that states that during the cold winter when the winds are more impetuous, the bells of this tower can still be heard ringing, even though they were removed decades ago.
This is how the showrunners take advantage of this story to develop the legend that gives rise to the main plot of this series, “if you listen to the bells, you will die”.
2. Ominous atmosphere
Like its German predecessor, Dark, Curon takes place in a mountain village surrounded by a penetrating forest and an ominous atmosphere that invites you to imagine the ghosts and monsters hidden among the trees, Lake Di Resia and other spaces in the small community of the Tyrolean valley.
With a palette of cold colors, Netflix brings us a series with blue and chilling shades that make even the bravest hair stand on end. During the course of each episode, we can have the feeling of watching an almost monochromatic play where blues, greens, and greys melt into a chilling mixture that collaborates with the strange and uncomfortable atmosphere that surrounds the village and each of its inhabitants.
The strangeness and the discomfort, the feeling of disenchantment and distress, are elements that accompany our main protagonists throughout the story. When they arrive at the village of Curon, they feel like fish out of water and this feeling is transferred to us as viewers because we do not feel comfortable and it is okay because in Curon we should not feel very comfortable.
3. Timeless soundtrack
Curon targets young adult audiences and has this very clear in a selection of electro-pop and hip-hop that includes M¥SS KETA (very much in tune with 2020) and ventures into a richer and more surprising selection within its original soundtrack.
From the first to the last episode, we can get an interesting selection that goes from the electroclash of Emerge, through the post-punk revival of The Rapture, the trip-hop of Portishead and Unkle and of course, as it could not miss making us enter the party and youthful Italian atmosphere: a splendid curtain of Eurodance and nu-italo that take us away from 2020 and make us travel through the last decades of the last century.
4. Young Adult Weave
Curon ventures into the thriller genre with elements of folk horror, which makes it a very attractive proposition considering the success of other similar Netflix productions such as the French series “Marianne”.
Even so, this drama does not intend to dazzle its audience with plots that are too dense and not very digestible. On the contrary, Curon finds a space in a commonplace of the young adult plot. It dilutes the density of its sinister plot by incorporating more banal elements into its subplots that include school integration, bullying, family drama, youthful romance, and even the exploration of adolescent sexuality.
For some people, this point may also be the Achilles’ heel of the series but the truth is, Curon simply has no pretensions beyond entertaining his target audience and he does this very well.
Is Curon worth watching?
Curon came to Netflix as a fresh and youthful proposal, not too innovative because it usually falls into commonplaces of the genre but definitely, the story of the twins Daria and Mauro will captivate and motivate more than one to accompany them in their mission to unveil the mysteries of the village of the bell tower.
So, is this youthful series worth a look? The answer is definitely yes. This series is one of those that deserve to be given a chance both because of its excellent composition and because of a rather interesting premise regarding its main plot.
It is worth mentioning that this series has brought in its first season only 7 episodes, something unusual in a TV series and it is presented with a 45 minutes length format, so it is ideal to watch episode after episode in a row while the mysteries of the inhabitants of this town are revealed one by one and we discover what is that secret that the bell tower keeps.
In the first season, there were many plot holes and unknowns to solve so we are sure that if you got hooked on watching this series you will be excited about a second season, which although it has not been officially announced yet seems pretty sure that after the success of this first season we will see more Curon in the future.