An isolated island community experiences miraculous events – and frightening omens – after the arrival of a charismatic, mysterious young priest.

Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep) returns to Netflix with another horror serial for Halloween, but it pains me to say that on the evidence of the first two episodes it’s not the show many will be expecting. The show is being sold as ‘From the creator of The Haunting of Hill House’ with a tag line of ‘Be not afraid’, but anyone expecting thrills or chills is going to be disappointed. That’s not saying Flanagan should feel compelled to keep making the same sort of show, but I suspect many will turn off by this point.

Starting promisingly with a young man in handcuffs next to a body, we meet Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford, The Purge: Anarchy), who serves four years in prison for his crime. At this stage we don’t know exactly what he did and we jump forwards four years to his return to Crockett Island (population 127), his family home.

Understandably, his father Ed (Henry Thomas, The Haunting of Hill House) is cold towards him, though mother Annie (Kristin Lehman, Altered Carbon) is doing her best to keep things calm. Riley catches up with an old flame and comes to the conclusion that he is serving no purpose – just eking out life on this island. A new priest, Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater, The Stand), arrives unexpectedly to replace their current one, who is ill on the mainland, and begins to make house calls as well as leading emotional sermons.

Cats are dead on the seashore, a dog appears to have been poisoned and Riley thinks he sees the previous priest outside in the rain, but apart from visions of the dead girl, there’s little else going on at this stage. Maybe it’s a slow burner, and the remaining five episodes will reveal the show in a different light? I really hope so.

Verdict: A disappointing start to what promised to be a Halloween treat. It’s not the show I was looking for. 5/10

Nick Joy