The Cutprice Guignol

Friends, let me tell you something: I am horny for the horny.

Which makes perfect sense, but if it doesn’t, let me put it a bit more clearly – I love media (including my own) that takes on sex and sexuality as a major theme, and none more than horror. Sex and spookery, when they’re done right, go together like nothing else – the way the two genres straddle the line between desire, control, and the grotesque hits in a way that little else does, and I am always, always looking for new shows that take on this very underrepresented side of the genre.

Which brings to Yaga, a new TV show from AMC that dropped a couple of weeks ago and is about halfway through its first season. The show (adapted by Kat Sandler from her play of the same name exploring the myth of Baba Yaga) follows the case of Henry Park (Hudson Williams), who goes missing from the coastal town of Whittock in North America; Carson (Clark Backo), a local detective, joins forces with Charlie (Noah Reid, by the way, please watch Outer Range), a private investigator hired by Park’s wealthy family, to get to the bottom of the case. Which, as it turns out, might just have something to do with the impossibly hot Katherine Hargove, a local professor with an interest in the human body, particularly when that body is attached to a younger man.

The procedural horror is having a bit of a moment right now, and I’ve always found it an engaging way to unravel the layers of a horror story like this one; start on the surface, with the presumption of a reasonable explanation, and the further the investigation goes, the more the supernatural elements reveal themselves. Our investigating duo are a mixed bag – Reid has by far the more interesting role so far, entering every scene with a smirk and a semi-hard penis, an infuriatingly charming detective who uses his social malleability to eke out information in any way he can. Backo plays the straight woman, and there’s just really not that much to her despite Backo’s pleasant screen presence – I’m assuming the show’s going to expand on her as we go on, but as it stands now, she’s feels like little more than a sounding board for other, more interesting characters (and an occasional reader of fairy smut, which I can only approve of, encourage, and entirely ordain).

Hudson Williams and Carrie Ann-Moss are the big names here – I’m going to be honest with you and admit that I haven’t seen Heated Rivalry yet, so this is my first encounter with Williams, but he seems to know exactly what he’s meant to be bringing in terms of his presence here and I kind of love it. He slouches on screen with his tits out in nothing but a pair of overalls in one half of the dual role he’s playing (as both Park and his inexplicably-identical roommate, Logan) and points out that they couldn’t possibly be the same guy because he’s got glasses. The main difference between these roles so far is a heinous pair of blue contacts, but Williams is clearly having fun hamming it up a bit in his Horny Flashback Montages (trademark pending). I really enjoy Carrie Ann-Moss in her role – it’s by far the most entertaining of the bunch, a slippery (in more ways that one) and sharp-edged turn that really suits her more established energy.

The show’s tone helps some of its weaker elements slide down (if you’ll excuse the pun) down a little easier, though – there’s a lightness of touch here that keeps things from getting too serious, and the brisk half-hour episodes rarely linger long enough on any of its lesser focal points. I mean, it opens with a Slavic cover of These Boots Were Made for Walking – Sandler is quick to set out her stall here in terms of the tongue-in-cheek, wink-wink take on the classic story, and I appreciate that. That said, I’m not convinced this slightly campy tone serves the more serious attempts at spookery well – the actual scares are pretty few and far between, and some of it, like the hallucinations Charlie has of Katherine in the woods, tip into downright funny territory for me.

But the question remains – is it sexy? And, look, I think Yaga is somewhat constrained by being a mainstream release, in that you’re not going to reach certain levels of sheer, sweaty, nasty, gross, morally questionable straight-up fucking that you might see in some erotic horror. The sex scenes themselves – of which there have been less than I expected so far, to be quite honest – haven’t exactly blown me away, and there’s been a reliance on just “hot people doing sex to each other” rather than a meaningful attempt to explore sex and desire and what it represents for these particular characters at these particular times in the way that I look for in great erotic horror. Some of the flirtatious back-and-forth between characters leans towards “I don’t have any money for this pizza…so I suppose I’ll have to find another way to pay you, Mr Visibly Erect Delivery Man” levels of writing and acting, but the campy tone pretty much lets it skate by without edging into egregious territory. But there’s some promise here – a scene in the first episode between Carrie Ann-Moss and Noah Reid, where he tries to approach her with his usual lines and is shut down, plays on expectation and character within this sexual framework beautifully. It drips with tension and meaning even with very little physical contact, and that’s what I hope the show leans into in future episodes.

Yaga hasn’t quite got all the pieces to fit yet, and there is some tonal unevenness that needs ironing out in the rest of this eight-episode season – but there’s a sense of fun and a grasp on the daft that keeps things from getting too serious, and it’s got a really watchable quality thanks to it. But I’d love to hear your thoughts – are you keeping up with Yaga so far? What do you think of the season as it stands? Where does it rank on the Official Horny Scale? Let me know in the comments below!

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(header image via Gold Derby)