Adapted by Nick Antosca and Lenore Zion from Todd Grimson’s 1996 novel of the same name,Brand New Cherry Flavoris an eight-episode horror miniseries that arrived in Netflix’s library last August. Rosa Salazar, best known as the wide-eyed title character fromAlita: Battle Angel, stars as Lisa Nova, a budding young filmmaker who moves to Los Angeles in the mid-‘90s and contends with predatory producers and paranormal predators. Despite receiving mostly positive reviews from critics (at least according to Rotten Tomatoes, where it has an approval rating of 81% with an average score of 7.1/10), this bizarre mix of horror and Hollywood came and went without sparking much fandom or water-cooler debate. It wasn’t the bomb thatMarco Polowas, but it wasn’t the monster hit thatTiger Kingwas, either.
But it’s well worth checking out. There’s no other horror series quite like it. The first episode ofBrand New Cherry Flavorstarts off as a typical “go to Hollywood and follow your dreams” showbiz fairy tale. An aspiring directorheads out to L.A.to meet with a hotshot movie producer who instantly options her short and hires her to adapt it into her debut feature. There are hints of the horrors to come peppered throughout the early scenes. Lisa is followed to L.A. by a mysterious motorcyclist and suffers through a hallucination of a bunch of kittens devouring a coyote carcass that sets up a delightful recurring kitten motif that’s both unsettling and adorable.
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WhenBrand New Cherry Flavorreally gets going, itfeels like a David Lynch moviewith the cartoonish visuals and dry, dark humor of Jim Jarmusch’s vision of horror seen inThe Dead Don’t Die. With its cocktail of horror motifs and Hollywood sleaze, it would appear that Lynch’s biggest influence on the show wasMulholland Drive(Patrick Fischler even has a supporting role), but the series takes inspiration from all over Lynch’s filmography. Lisa is an everywoman surrounded by evil who’s forced to confront the evil in herself, similar toKyle MacLachlan’s everyman inBlue Velvet. Catherine Keener’s Boro fills the role ofLost Highway’s “Mystery Man.” She’s an eccentric supernatural character enveloped in ambient noise, possibly a visitor from another dimension, who freezes a crowded party scene to introduce the protagonist to the story’s spookiest elements.
Keener is a joy to watch as always, bringing her usual indie-movie nuanced naturalism but also indulging in the fun of playing a bonkers horror character with clairvoyant powers. This performance evokes Keener’s turn asteacup-clinking psychopath Missy Armitage inGet Out. As great as Keener’s supporting turn is, though, Salazar carriesBrand New Cherry Flavoron her shoulders with a spectacular lead performance. Lisa is a ruthlessly ambitious artist who uncovers her own dark side in her quest to express herself. Lisa has the fierce vengeful drive of a Pam Grier heroine and the existential crisis ofLeonardo DiCaprio inShutter Island, and Salazar nails both sides of the role.
The show becomes a revenge story in the shocking final scene of its first episode. Lisa gets chewed up and spit out by the Hollywood machine (and, more horrifyingly, harassed, abused, assaulted, and gaslit by a piece of human garbage) in the space of a couple of days. With nothing left to lose, she teams up with Keener’s mysterious undead witch-queen to plague her attacker with a curse. The desire for vengeance as a result of feeling powerless in a situation is universally relatable. When the series takes a disturbing turn into full-blown surreal terror, it contrasts the horrors of a sleazeball-infested Hollywood withthe horrors of zombies, witch curses, and human-kitten birthing rituals.
The showtakes place in the ‘90s, but it offers a timely, uncompromising portrayal of the monsters within the film industry that were exposed by the #MeToo movement. The Weinsteins and Ratners and Spaceys of Hollywood are all distilled into one truly hateable villain named Lou Burke, played with ample smarm, arrogance, and violent menace by Eric Lange. Lou starts meeting with new directors for Lisa’s movie after she rejects his unwanted sexual advances. The series’ increasing use of unnerving horror imagery coincides with the ugly side of Hollywood revealing itself through Lou’s reprehensible behavior.
Brand New Cherry Flavor Is A Brand New Flavor Of Horror
With a truly unique vision of horror,Brand New Cherry Flavoris a must-see forfans of the genre. The series uses a classic spookshow to peel away the facade of glitz and glamor in the unscrupulous film industry. Its bizarre Lynchian imagery in the context of Hollywood satire plays like a pulpier, grislier version ofMulholland Drive. LikeMulholland Drive,Brand New Cherry Flavorkicks off as a romantic peek behind the curtain into the magic of movie-making before that curtain is abruptly torn down by supernatural forces and monsters of the human and inhuman variety.
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