Brimming with Stephen King tropes and a bleak version of late-'80s nostalgia, the new horror anthology series is tailor-made for fans of Stranger Things clamoring for a new, darker fix.
Channel Zero: Candle Cove is faithful to creepypasta in the way that matters most: by recognizing that children can experience fear that's as complex, terrifying, and real as anything felt by adults.
Once it gets going, Channel Zero: Candle Cove smartly peels back additional layers of its central mystery so that the audience won't be satisfied until they finally get to the core of what really happened in Iron Hill all those years ago.
The whole enterprise plays sort of fast and loose. Then again, maybe that's the point. Urban legends are always a bit sketchy; it's the missing pieces that, to some extent, provide the tingle for the spine.
Not all of the dialogue was bad; it was simply really bad at its most heavy-handed, which was clearly the weak point in an otherwise promising opening episode.
While it occasionally dragged in spots, director Craig Macneill (who helmed 2015's excellent budding-sociopath horror-thriller The Boy) managed to establish a quietly unnerving tone that feels unique to anything else on TV right now.
Seeing the series invest in a narrative that attempts to expand the original conceit while capitalizing on its creepy, unsettling nature is reason enough to continue watching.
Candle Cove stands in direct opposition to the histrionics of American Horror Story and the like; it's a quiet, unsettling work that builds to a buzzing, static-hum crescendo in its final act.
