Peach and Smart Mouth come for Izzy, determined to sacrifice her to appease their pestilent god.

There’s a lot going on beneath the surface of Butcher’s Block. True, there’s a lot of David Lynch-inspired craziness (Twin Peaks’ Harley Peyton is one of the writer/producers) and throwbacks to everything from Phantasm to The Brood, but at the heart of this six-part serial is a sad examination of young adult mental illness and the loss of a parent.

While a happy ending was never really on the cards, there is at least resolution, even if it’s bittersweet. The gore is still all present and correct with a throat ripped out by teeth, a skull caved in and a bloody birth. But most disturbing is Rutger Hauer’s transformation once he finds his decapitated family members – a deathly pale ghoul with a blood-soaked cloth stuffed in his mouth, possibly the most Lynchian of the nightmares.

Butcher’s Block hit the ground running, with a fatalistic tone right from the outset. It was weird, distrusting, and highly addictive. Even if the arrival of the antlered god at the end is something of a deus ex machina to take Peach rather messily our of the picture, the alternative astral plane that exists beneath its cloak is literally mind-blowing.

Verdict: Visceral, adult, horror TV with something to nourish the mind while throwing ripe offal at you. Here’s to the next six-part fever dream. 8/10

Nick Joy