The Cutprice Guignol

Dim the lights, prepare the pranks, and pop in your sclera contacts: it’s Séance Time.

Much like its first season, Inside No. 9 closes out with a bit of straight-up horror (though, truly, I am still on my fainting couch after all that farting in La Couchette). Following Hives (Shearsmith), a disgraced TV prank show presenter looking to boost his career with a reboot, the séance prank set-up soon takes a turn for the decidedly bleak as events from the previous iteration of the show start to force their way into the new version.

And, yes, while this is undoubtedly a more traditionally horror-centric episode, it’s also one of the several episodes of the show that deals in the true horrors of the entertainment industry: the luvvies. Much like The Understudy, the drama behind-the-scenes as the shooting of the prank show takes place serves a whole heap of comedy alongside the scares – much of it via an unfathomably unlikeable Hives and the rest filled out by the inimitably-brilliant Allison Steadman in the best Woman in Black cosplay you’ve ever seen. This kind of entertainment industry comedy can feel a bit like low-hanging fruit, maybe too meta for its own good, but it’s delivered with such a polish and sense of arch fun that it’s hard to dislike it. I also can’t let the comic aspect of this episode pass without drawing your attention to Alice Lowe, another one of the guest-stars this week – as well as being a horror legend in her own right (Prevenge! Go watch fucking Prevenge!), she has this dry, slightly dismal delivery that I find endlessly entertaining.

It’s such a funny episode, in fact, that when the horror hits, it lands even more of a punch. The slow build, as strange happenings start to plague the set, gives the whole story an uneasy edge, with the sinister and decidedly tragic story of the impact the show had on one of its unfortunate subjects playing out perfectly (it was definitely the right choice to keep the incident off-screen, lending it that feel of something unknowable looming in the background of the episode). I can think of little the show has done that has made my stomach lurch the way the sight of the drowned boy’s ghost in the crib does – I love the way the shot lingers, giving you time to study the scene before you realize exactly what you’re looking at. As we approach spooky season proper (though, if you’re sensible, every season is spooky season, as it well should be), this is exactly the episode to see us into Halloween.

And on that note, I will be back next month to start with series three! I’m taking a week or two off to visit some family and do some travelling, and generally try to lounge around with a few cats sitting on my chest as much as possible. Have a great rest of the month, and I hope to see you back for more Inside No. 9 soon!

If you liked this article and want to see more stuff like it, please check out the rest of my Inside No. 9 reviews. I’d also love it if you would check out my horrible short story collection, and, if you’d like to support my work, please consider supporting me on Patreon!

(header image via Exeunt Magazine)