A small, isolated town seemingly fuelled by gossip and the church. A chilly welcome to “mainlanders”. School bullying. Ableist discrimination. A persistent fear of the occult. LARPing. A detective with a series case of burnout. Walter Presents: Evilside is a new six part series that really does throw everything at you.
In a tiny, snow-capped fishing village in Northern Finland, the shoe of missing sixteen year old Aapo (Olavi Angervo) is pulled from the harbour. Moments later, his body – minus his eyes, which have been gouged out in some sort of sacrificial practice – is found. All eyes turn on Johanna (Olivia Ainali), a bullied outcast who listens to death metal. With the village quick to point fingers, it is up to detective Ulla Penttinen (Amira Khalifa) to work out what really happened. But, as she comes from Vantaa, on the mainland, the locals are unwilling to open up about what might have prompted such a traumatic death.
What’s unusual about this particular crime drama is that we don’t actually follow the detective for most of the series. Yes, we get glimpses into how her investigation is going (usually nowhere, met with the harumphs and derision of the villagers) but the main focus is our suspect. Olivia Ainali carries the series with a performance that is both relatable and compelling.
This is because the primary focus of Evilside, besides the rumours of the occult, is her loneliness. This is not a village where it is okay to be different. The fact that Johanna likes to wear black lipstick and gothic buckled boots make her an easy target amongst her peers and those who are older but not quite wiser. The death threats she has received since the age of thirteen go unchallenged by the police. Her school lunch is knocked from her hands. A video of her singing circulates around the school to be mocked. She is regularly in tears due to the unkind words of her peers. The LARPing (that’s live action role playing) that she undertakes with Aapo is the perfect escapism. She gets to be a strong character with a purpose – something she is seriously lacking in reality.
Her blossoming relationship with fellow LARPer, Pinja (Saimi Kahri) is sweet and endearing to behold, particularly the scene in which they imagine their life “on the mainland.” There will be “parks and streets and brick houses,” Pinja sighs wistfully. The two girls bond over their parental woes and their desire to escape the labels that the insular village has placed on them.
The scenery here is bright with snow, but this isn’t a cosy little village. Everyone is standoffish and only concerned with who hasn’t been at church on a particular weekend. In fact, the miles and miles of endless snow and slush make the island feel more like a trap than a paradise. When Ulla arrives, she does so on a freezing looking ferry filled with slush, her grey jacket and hat blending in with her surroundings.
This is a series that you will probably want to binge watch, primarily because there is less piecing together of the investigation than you are probably familiar with. Instead, each of the first four episodes spends time giving you back stories and sub-plots of specific characters, perhaps allowing you to form your own “wall of red string”. In that sense, the pacing does struggle a little. But, episodes five and six more than make up for this.
By the end of the series, Evilside starts to live up to its name, with things taking a very dark turn that would not be out of place in a horror film. There’s religious mania, potential human sacrifice, druggings and violence. Floorboards that were once just creaky now seem sinister; every sideways glance carries weight. And the pace really does pick up to a point of frenzy. Again, throughout most of this, Ulla is largely absent and we see everything through Johanna’s eyes. This does make for an interesting take on the well-worn (and well-loved) crime drama format.
Evilside is an unusual series in that it does take you off on a lot of “side quests” whilst still trying to keep your focus on the murder to be solved. Focusing on the suspect, rather than the police, is an interesting angle to take and the young lead actors, here, are well worth the watch. Brace yourself for a frantic ending … and the freezing cold. Evilside really does make you want to reach for another layer.
Evilside comes to Channel 4 streaming on February 21 and launches on Channel 4 on February 23.