Halloween was once a simpler time, when neighbourhood kids would dress up as mythical serial killers, the undead or bedsheet-wearing ghosts. At some point, following America’s lead, it became sexy and cat-forward. It has now become a sort of conceptual art show.
I’ve heard people this year planning to go to parties dressed as Erling Haaland, Prom Carrie (Prime Video edition) and Bad Bunny’s half-time Super Bowl show. The perception of witches has evolved, too. Once understood to be a malignant version of the crone archetype, sympathy for witches has grown.
They have been embraced as a feminist image of the older woman, free of patriarchal command and possessed of a powerful rage. In recent years, Maleficent, Elphaba from Wicked and Marvel’s Scarlet Witch have given witches a pop edge. Some of my most intense friends proudly wear slogan T-shirts proclaiming themselves descended from the witches whom society failed to burn.
Now, in swoops Yaga (Sat, 9pm, Sky Atlantic), a quasi-horror mystery series from Canadian streamer Crave. They are known for making Heated Rivalry (matching oversized jerseys? Huge Halloween outfit this year).
Yaga is another genre-bender. It opens with a cocky detective, Charlie Rapp, arriving in the quiet fishing town of Whittock, present day. He’s investigating the disappearance of Henry Park, son of a wealthy local family.
As the case grows violent, it brings evidence of cult activity to light, and increasingly hints at the existence of a dark, supernatural figure behind events. To those unfamiliar with Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is a forest-dwelling hag who lives in a hut on chicken’s feet, flies around in a pestle and mortar, and eats children. It is her voice that bookends every episode in a taunting monologue, though her exact involvement with Henry’s disappearance is a grisly little puzzle.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
