![]() Their deft delivery of the more outlandish parts of the story makes it far easier to sink into what could've otherwise become a melodramatic or bloated exploration of religious fervor and the horrors of fanaticism. ![]() It helps that Iglesia and Guerricaechevarría have a great handle on their world and its rules, no matter how fantastical. That combination is key to what kept this reviewer hooked as Elena, Vergara, and Paco fall deeper down a dangerous rabbit hole in search of the coins. That theological and historical enigma adds complex and lore-filled layers to the dark horror, reframing it as an adult adventure series that also happens to feature a lot of death, blood, and brutal torture. Instead of giant boulders and Nazis, the heroes are in a race against monsters, ghouls, and ghosts to find the titular coins, which might be the very ones for which Judas betrayed Jesus. Despite such a powerhouse set of leads, 30 Coins also works as an ensemble piece and is peppered with impressive performances from the supporting cast.Įasily the best thing about the show is that, aside from the horror, it also works as an Indiana Jones-style artifact quest. Her struggles with her own faith, her burgeoning horror at what she faces, and her fight to be believed form the emotional core of the show. Elena is the embodiment of grief and loss, moored by the determination and resilience that come with it. Silvestre is utterly believable as the ambitious politician more concerned with being electable than saving the world. Fernández does a brilliant job at balancing the pulpy archetype he's given with a level of gravitas and grit to ground him. Much of the strength of 30 Coins comes from this trio of leads. This is just the beginning of a series of awful events that plague Pedraza and are connected to Vergara's mysterious and dangerous past. Due to Paco's worries about the town going viral for all the wrong reasons (and the questionable veracity of the strange event), we're introduced to the surly new local priest, Manuel Vergara (Eduard Fernández). ![]() It's here we meet Elena (Megan Montaner), the town's kindly veterinarian who is witness to the first horror of Pedraza. What could be that important? Well, that would be veering into spoiler territory, but let's just say it's something supernatural. The horror begins when Paco (Miguel Ángel Silvestre), the mayor of a small Spanish town named Pedraza, is called away from his own inauguration. And it doesn't just look great Iglesia and co-writer Jorge Guerricaechevarría craft an X-Files-esque offering of weekly supernatural shenanigans that deftly weave into something far bigger and darker as the show unfurls. 30 Coins often feels more like a big-budget horror movie than a TV show in terms of both aesthetic and production values. Horror director Álex de la Iglesia (The Day Of The Beast, The Last Circus) helms the series and achieves with it a career-best outing. Recently, Shudder's The Cleansing Hour brought a modern twist to the trope, and HBO Europe's new series 30 Coins continues this mini-resurgence with a sterling supernatural fantasy centered on dark religious secrets and the redemption of a disgraced and haunted priest. But every so often a new project comes along that reinvigorates the classic subgenre and expands on the years of terror it has instilled. He thought he left all his proper demons behind him and was going to live out the rest of his days giving communion to the simple farmers around town, but when a cow gives birth to what appears to be a human baby, he knows something evil is afoot! He teams up with the town's veterinarian and the popular mayor to get to the bottom of the festering evil that is beginning to come around.It's often said that exorcism horror has been done to death. When he arrives in the idyllic burg, he takes the mantle of the new Padre in town very seriously, but there is a hidden evil among the small-town locals that keeps rearing it's ugly head every now and again. Take The Exorcist (1973), but instead of Max Von Sydow spattering holy water and reading the scripture, you got a bad-ass priest spattering 12-gauge buck shot dipped in holy water at the various incarnations of evil coming out of a version of hell that looks like David Cronenberg is in charge, and you got 30 Coins! In this Spanish series we follow a "tough as a coffin nail" priest, who is also a boxer/ex-con/exorcist who was kicked out of Rome and sent to a small town in the boondocks of Spain.
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