Penny Dreadful
Tags: paranormal

Plot synopsis:
Penny (Rachel Miner), a young woman traumatized by a childhood auto accident that killed her parents, accompanies her therapist Orianna (Mimi Rogers) on a road trip to a mountain community as part of her therapy to overcome her fear of cars. On the way, Orianna hits, but does not seriously injure, a hitchhiker, who she then offers a ride. The hitchhiker is silent during the ride, except to point out his destination.
After dropping off the hitchhiker, they discover that he has punctured one of the tires. Orianna sets off to get reception for her cell phone but fails to return. Penny goes off to find Orianna but trips and falls, having injured her ankle earlier. When she wakes up, she's back in the car, which has been wedged between two trees. Orianna, whose death has been recorded on a video camera, is beside her. Penny tries to call for help, but the hitchhiker continues to terrorize and torture her. Several people who live and work nearby are killed by the hitchhiker when they attempt to help her or to get in his way.
Penny is tortured for another few hours; and, when she tries to crawl out the car window, the hitchhiker grabs her right foot and cuts off one of her toes. After finally falling asleep, she turns around to find the hitchhiker sitting in the back wearing Orianna's clothes, who then pulls off the hood (revealing to be a demented female mental patient) and tries to strangle her while saying, "Don't forget your breathing exercises, Penny." She manages to fight off the hitchhiker by stabbing her in the eye with a pencil and escape from the car, only to trip from her injured foot. The hitchhiker finds her and tries to attack, but a man driving a pick-up truck drives past in time to hit the hitchhiker. The hitchhiker appears to be dead at this point, and the truck driver is panicking. He tells Penny to wait in the vehicle while he assists the hitchhiker. Penny feels a bit of relief as she watches the man and the dead hitchhiker. But terror boils up when she realizes the hitchhiker is still moving.

Review: Great production design and cinematography: by the time we get to see Victorian London as night descends upon the city and the fog starts creeping through those narrow cobblestone alleys, nearly every frame looks like a beautiful, Gothic painting (and not once did I spot a fake looking CG-background).
As far as the actors are concerned, they portray their obscure, troubled characters with a certain kind of "theatre" intensity that fits the story and the turn-of-the-century setting very well.Story-wise I don't want to give away anything – but of course, there are unholy things lurking in the shadows that need to be fought (and they look rather convincing: the make-up effects are another strong point of this show).
Like the iconic "Hammer Horror" films of old (usually starring either Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing – or both), 'Penny Dreadful' draws its setting, characters and general inspiration mainly from some famously dark tales written by Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde (and to a lesser extent from sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories).
And just like the Hammer films - who may seem rather tame now but were shockingly violent for their time - this show is neither for purists of said literary works nor for the faint of heart.While some scenes are genuinely scary in a tension building, "old school" kind of way, we also get blood soaked action sequences that will probably put off some viewers, but seem entirely appropriate given the show's title (in the 19th century a "penny dreadful" used to be a booklet of cheap, sensational fiction printed on pulp paper which could be purchased for - wait for it: a penny).My overall verdict: 'Penny Dreadful' dishes out a hefty mix of gory violence, classic horror creatures, sex and action, but it never forgets to build atmosphere.
Beautifully crafted and with a great cast, I strongly recommend this show to anyone who likes the old "Hammer Horror" movies as well as films in the vein of Tim Burton's 'Sweeney Todd' and 'Sleepy Hollow'.But not just for the fans of "Goth Horror" is this well worth checking out; I would say that after 'True Detective' and perhaps 'Fargo' this is one of the most promising new TV-shows of 2014.Favorite Films: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054200841/Lesser-known Masterpieces: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070242495/Favorite Low-Budget and B-movies: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054808375/Favorite TV-Shows reviewed: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls075552387/.
The first episode of Penny Dreadful does a number of things right, making me hopeful for the future of this series.1.
But also the very under-rated film Van Helsing, which brilliantly re-imagined the classic horror movies of the 1930s, but failed to find an audience perhaps because of its highly energetic style.Penny Dreadful seems to have learned from both of these sources.
If it does not...well, don't let my poor reenactment of the style be an obstacle in watching this truly magnificent piece of art.It's more than a TV series, it's music, it's image, it's story.
This show is definitely not your average telling of famous stories (vampires, Dorian Gray) as it takes the most gruesome aspects of those tales and incorporates them in whatever manner suits the storyline; Penny Dreadful does not shy away from the taboo, something that has been plaguing certain stories such as Frankenstein and Dorian Gray.
Penny Dreadful is to horror what Game of Thrones is to fantasy and Walking Dead is to the zombie apocalypse - its all about the characters and story lines that are only possible when set in their unique universes.This show is amazing.
the production values would rival most high budget movies and the acting is definitely 2 steps up from anything else horror orientated on TV( with the exception of billie piper who does an irish mish mash of accents while pulling the faces of a bulldog chewing a wasp)this however is a minor complaint, even josh hartnett pulls it out of the bag as far as the rest of the cast go.
If you like your classic horror tales or goth horror then this is definitely worth checking out, i grew up watching the mummy,Dracula,the wolfman and frankenstein on late night TV and i have to say this series revisits those nights curled beneath the duvet with the class and atmosphere of the tales from which it draws it's inspiration.
The show takes you to a setting evoking a sense of alarm under all the intrigue.This feeling is heightened by the score which is both evocative and hauntingly beautiful.Timothy Dalton plays Sir Malcom, an explorer, who needs to bring together this group of mysterious individuals each seemingly having a secret of their own to locate his missing daughter.Both Dalton and Josh Hartnett are reasonably good but it's Harry Treadaway and Eva Green who steal the show with their performances.
Where Green can be both cold and beautiful Treadaway does an equally good job as a young Dr. Victor Frankenstein especially in the "plant the flag on truth" scene.With the show currently in its initial stages much remains to be seen as to how it unfolds with so many characters (monsters??!!) to be introduced into a single plot.
Well I'll try and not reveal much however Penny Dreadful is most certainly one of the best series on our screens at the moment.
Again the more you understand what's going on the more you think they had nothing to say and just wanted to mix things together to make a dark Gothic show.On a more positive note its visually awesome, the costumes, accents, scenery and everything 19th century-like is really well made.
After a slightly shaky start, (I think trying to encapsulate the stories of Frankenstein and his monster, Dracula, Dorian Gray, not to mention a rip-off of "The Exorcist", with a werewolf thrown in for good measure, might have been going a creature or two too far), "Penny Dreadful" turned out to be one of the year's more pleasant, as well as nastiest, surprises.
It was also very well acted by a decent and starry cast, (as a young Victor Frankenstein and his creature both Luke Treadaway and Rory Kinnear were outstanding while even Josh Hartnett acquitted himself quite well this time round), written and directed.
Already during the first episode, Penny Dreadful reminded me of a movie i've seen roughly a decade ago: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003).
Although its always fun watching Timothy Dalton chew the scenery as well as his co-stars is always fun, but really, the clumsy acting by everyone else(especially my current hate, Eva Green) made me give up at episode 4.The writing was even worse, cliché ridden and utterly banal.
Penny Dreadful started out as a Period Horror with extreme violence and a great cast.
Since then, it feels as if the director and creator have just got lost in the pursuit of edgy and ultra violent horror and forgot the script.Its a bit like watching a movie with great CGI where you can chomp on your pop corn until the next great set piece.Similarly here, there are many places where you could fast forward missing absolutely nothing.In fact even missing some episodes may not make any difference to viewing.
and often does), shows like this one showcase the new generation of series TV, freed from the constraints of the predictable weekly plot arc, and enriched by the kind of talent behind the camera that formerly was found only in features.Lets quickly put behind us the irony of a former Bond paired with a former Bond girl.
We are above that sort of nonsense.More interesting here is the observation that shows like, for example, Deadwood (another breakout series), if strung end to end, would produce the highest quality and longest western ever done.So we lean favorably into the argument that shows like this, by the time they are done, may possibly, if strung end to end, produce the best horror story ever done.
Season 1 was excellent, but displayed more performance art acting, while the 3rd and final season, my least favorite, is what ties the loose ends in a different story arc with all its core characters separated.
The acting by all is impeccable, but Eva Green plays her dual role of tortured dark heroine with passion, conviction, empathy and powerful emotions with a character strongly linked to its religious beliefs.
characters Dorian Gray and Jackyll and Hyde were not explored with true depth, and season 3 could have been better, instead it focused on a story about apache wolfs that dragged and bored.
All in all, the splendor of this series, the beauty of its Gothic display and the heartfelt performances make this one of the very best horror shows out there, putting others (AHS) to shame.
Well, the story wasn't thought through, the characters only had an amputated attention seeking short live, although it was build up greatly in the first season (So how could you do that to this great actors?).This stuff has great potential and hopefully in 20 years it will be found again and a great producer will have an idea how to turn this story from an artificial one to one getting to the core.
Taking all the iconic horror personae and putting together for a mixed ordeal just didn't work out as promising as the synopsis made it appear.Having seen two episodes of "Penny Dreadful" I am already giving up on the series.
The storyline was a mess and having spent close to two hours in total on two episodes, I sit here and think 'what was the purpose to this series?'And while the amazing performance by Timothy Dalton and the special effects team do their part to make the show interesting, the appeal is essentially killed off by a very messy and hollow storyline.I will say that the props and effects teams really work overtime here, because there are so many nice details.
And the costumes are also impressive and nice to look at.Personally, I am not going to continue watching this, and I doubt that this is a TV series that will be around much longer than a single season or two.
I'm a big fan of Supernatural; I loved the idea of the Gothic setting in Victorian London and really wanted to like this programme...
and his monster.Okay, so I let that one go with an open mind, hoping for more fights with vampires which now originate from Egypt, not Europe, and hoped that the writers weren't falling in love with the poetic spiel of the characters, because all they seemed to do was talk.This was the same for the third and fourth episodes also: nothing happened bar some pretty language and superb acting from Timothy Dalton and Eva Green, until suddenly, in a scene straight out of the film Philidephia, Dorian Grey (yes, he's in it too), seduces the red-blooded, all-American dead-shot cowboy with the music of Wagner and a single glass of Green Fairy!Sigh.
Episode 5 is just completely unlike the rest and doesn't work at all and from there flops down into some silly endless possession cliché that only needed to be filmed on a iPhone to be The Cloth 2 or some such rubbish The acting was really impressive and I never thought I'd rate Billie Piper but she was excellent !!!
Penny Dreadful is a series that revolves around old England and the horrors of time.
They take a perfectly good premise, decent writing even if it is a rehash of the plot ideas from the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," and "Once Upon a Time" except not a single character in this series can be called anything resembling heroic.OK so it's dark; Gothic and extremely gory...
I admit that the only reason why I stuck with the show (even with the absurdly shaky story development in the first season) is because of Eva Green, Josh Hartnet and Timothy Dalton.
Eva Green is still unbelievable, best acting I've seen in a long time, and Hartnet is giving the performance of his otherwise mediocre career.
It would have been great to watch a really good effort towards providing depth to the characters and their stories instead of throwing as much gore and horror as they could in the show just to get the viewers' attention.I guess if the point was to recreate an actual penny dreadful...
Every scene he was in was unnecessary and eye-roll worthy.It really is a shame because I liked the idea of fairy-tale and fictitious monsters blending into Victorian London but the writing was too poor to give the good actors (Eva Green for example) a chance.I would not recommend this show to anyone..
While it may be regarded as horror, I think it is more of a thriller.The best thing about it is the actors and characters.
Just watched episodes 7 and 8 after our sky box failed to record episode 7, fortunately we were able to download from catchup, and what a good job we could, episode 7 was epically awesome, and so on to the last episode of this series, wow, epic stuff, and yes it became obvious that it would leave us till the next series hanging one way or another, and it did, but hey ho we cannot wait for the return of Penny Dreadful in 2015, will be a long wait, but we'll worth the wait, and even more good news, it may be a 10 episode run, bring it on, one of the best TV series we've watched in a long time, if not the best, the writing for the show, the casting of parts, the steadily increasing interactions between the characters and the unfolding of the storyline just leaves you wanting more and more, things that were completely unexpected, and story lines yet to be told and things to be revealed!!!
Us viewers have only seen three episodes of this Victorian Gothic horror series, I speak for many when I claim that a plethora of us are positively hooked.
This show is not only a refreshing and twisted little take on several classic horror novels (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Picture Of Dorian Gray , anyone?!) but it is also bestowing upon us some original aberrant characters in which are intriguing little mysteries that leave us yearning for more.The writing and acting is excellent and true to the era in which this show depicts.
I've been waiting for a series to fall in love with since American Horror Story.
Overall it is a complete Horror/Mystery series.EVA Green has probably given one of her best performances yet.
The characters are amazing, how they intertwine is amazing, the acting is amazing...and to connect them all to the stories of our childhood - new favorite show - 2015 cannot come fast enough!!Just when you think you know something, B A M, they throw in a plot twist to keep you on the edge of your seat!
Being someone who likes the genre, I often have a hard time finding a horror TV show or movie that is neither stupid nor entirely cheesy (or both), as horror seems to be often vulgarized and mostly just plain moronic.Penny Dreadful is one of those rare gems for me.The dark and brooding Victorian atmosphere, with shades of melancholy and cold blue despair brewing underneath is so refined and so spectacularly brought forth, the series would deserve a full 10 out of 10 just for that artistic excellence alone.Moreover, Penny Dreadful characters have depth and multidimensionality very rarely seen in TV shows, and they keep developing further as the series progresses and moving deeper still.
But the thing that makes it bearable and intriguing is the story itself - the expertly written, fully rounded narrative.The story keeps unravelling, revealing, mystifying, mythologizing, enthralling, captivating...While the entire casting is fabulous and all the actors excellent, Eva Green (playing Vanessa Ives) must be given a special place for pure perfection - it's the role that must have been written for her and her alone.Both vulnerable and strong, with fascinating beauty and exuding iron will, she stands out like an impossible flicker of a dying candle in a field swallowed by the pith-black darkness.
With just three seasons of this great horror show, it belongs to my top 10 shows of all time.
And it does not belong there because of three running seasons, no - the whole story, dark Gothic ambient, characters and acting are great.
Personally, I liked all of the actors' characters in Penny Dreadful, but Eva Green was most striking in it.
If you are a horror fan who likes Gothic ambient, good story, great actors and characters this one is not to be missed!.
With classic horror characters well done by the great actors selected un the casting.
Epic Horror and Mystery Drama: Penny Dreadful makes Supernatural look like kindergarten.
Epic Horror and Mystery Drama: Penny Dreadful makes Supernatural look like kindergarten.
Super stars like Eva Green and Josh Hartnett presence as main characters also gives this show an edge over the other show of the horror genre.
Super stars like Eva Green and Josh Hartnett presence as main characters also gives this show an edge over the other show of the horror genre.
I think you need to want to like Penny Dreadful before you start watching this show.
Just not the right kind!I thought the casting was impeccable - reviving Timothy Dalton, a stunning Eva Green, and Hartnett, Carney, Treadaway all fully deliver entertaining performances of haunted/fanatical characters.
I think I am going to stick with Game of Thrones and American Horror Story because even though they are slow burners, the cinematography, the acting, and the storyline seem to be going somewhere unexpected, whereas this show is "been there done that, seen it, change the channel."The second episode was pathetic at best, the acting is great but if all the show is going to be doing is introducing the leads, then save yourself the clichés and overdone characters and watch something more interesting.
I just completed watching 2 seasons of Penny Dreadful and I am all praise for it.