Enjoying Gracie Darling: fast hyperlinks
Australian tv loves thriller. What they don’t appear to like fairly a lot is an effective spooky thriller, which is what separates Enjoying Gracie Darling from the pack. Sure, it’s one other small-town thriller the place a darkish and lethal previous haunts the current – solely this time, there’s a powerful sense that the haunting half is literal.
Enjoying Gracie Darling: the previous
Again in 1997, a bunch of teenagers went out to a cabin within the woods to carry a séance, and even for those who’ve by no means seen a horror film in your life you recognize this isn’t going to finish properly. ‘We open ourselves to the spirit world and command evil to remain outdoors the circle,’ says the host of the séance, Gracie Darling (Kristina Bogic). Yeah, good luck with that.
They’re making an attempt to contact somebody known as Levi, a spirit trapped in limbo who – amongst different issues – says by way of the Ouija board that he’s been watching the ladies within the bathe. As an alternative of hanging up on him they preserve going, and issues quickly worsen. ‘Let me out,’ Levi insists, first a technique then one other; within the turmoil that follows, Gracie’s bestie Joni Gray (Eloise Rothfield) flees the cabin.
Enjoying Gracie Darling: the current
Soar ahead 27 years and the now mom of two Joni (Morgana O’Reilly) spends her days in an establishment – don’t fear, she works there as a baby psychologist – and comes residence at evening to her mom (Harriet Walter) doing tarot readings for her youngsters. So nothing heightened or supernatural happening there.
Watch the Playing Gracie Darling trailer.
Then she receives a telephone name from previous good friend and fellow séance survivor Jay Rajeswaran (Rudi Dharmalingam) telling her one other Darling lady’s gone lacking ‘identical to Gracie”’ And never a lot ‘identical to’ as ‘precisely like’: when she vanished her and her associates have been again within the previous forest cabin taking part in ‘Gracie Darling’, a copycat séance the native teenagers have been holding for the reason that unique disappearance.
After all Joni can’t keep away, and regardless of the preliminary disapproval of Jay, who’s now the native cop however is off the case for being too near issues, she quickly begins her personal advert hoc investigation into this newest disappearance. Jay’s daughter Raffy (Saiesha Sundaralingam) was associates with the lacking Frankie Darling and was there the evening she vanished. ‘One thing evil acquired inside her,’ she tells Joni, ‘one thing known as … Levi?’
Enjoying Gracie Darling: the supernatural divide
There’s quite a bit taking place right here on each side of the supernatural divide and Enjoying Gracie Darling largely retains its playing cards near its chest. Created by Miranda Nation, and directed by Jonathan Brough, it’s as a lot about private perceptions as something, with everybody holding tight to their very own model of occasions – or their very own model of actuality.
It might not descend instantly into outright horror (it’s an Australian prime-time drama in any case) however the tone is extra unsettling than your typical six-part small city thriller. Within the three episodes out there to critics, it does a strong job of conserving issues good and uneasy.
In every single place Joni and Jay flip, there’s motives and suspects. The Darlings are large supporters of the regionally divisive wind farm, which has made them enemies on the town. Frankie’s mom Ruth (Celia Pacquola) desires individuals on the market looking out; her personal mom, having been by this earlier than, is extra about ideas and prayers.
Quite a few flashbacks to Gracie and Joni of their teenagers solely deepens the thriller. Early adventures are all mixtapes and bike rides; after the séance, Joni has her personal keep in a creepy establishment the place making an attempt to contact the useless is seen as therapeutic. Hope her insurance coverage is paying for that.
In the meantime within the current, the in poor health omens mount. Lifeless birds are all over the place; the key image that the teenager ladies created haunts the grownup Joni, and a flaming effigy in essential avenue is, in line with Jay, simply somebody ‘sending a message’. The brand new technology of teenagers have their very own points, and the adults round them won’t be as reliable as they appear.
Enjoying Gracie Darling: a neighborhood returns
The opposite factor that makes this greater than yet one more story of a scenic city scarred by a darkish previous the place a contemporary thriller can solely be solved by the return of a former native for whom every thing happening is private (Australian drama definitely does have a kind) is Joni’s investigation. Refreshingly, it’s largely a case of her simply turning up across the place and asking awkward questions.
Early on she walks into the Darling’s home as a result of the again door was open. Not surprisingly, Ruth is like ‘uh, are you able to please depart?’. Afterward Joni begins questioning a bunch of random teenagers on the street and the one purpose they don’t shout ‘Narc!’ is as a result of it’s written throughout their faces.
Her occupation has given her the instruments to search out straightforward solutions to what’s happening, however with a lady nonetheless lacking – and probably a killer on the market – speak of shared trauma and ‘mass sociogenic sickness’ isn’t going to chop it. The one factor for positive is that no matter’s happening in that forest, it’s dangerous information.
That sense that right here possibly there aren’t any agency solutions, that what’s happening actually is one thing past rational rationalization, is what takes Enjoying Gracie Darling past the standard thriller cliches and makes it right into a compelling – you may even say haunting – watch.
All six episodes of Enjoying Gracie Darling can be found to stream on Paramount+ from 14 August 2025.
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