Two Seers SLAY All Manner of Baddies in Netflix’s “Crazyhead”

They're gonna getcha, gonna getcha getcha oh oh oh!

Slap On an Anti-Possession Tattoo & Sprinkle the Salt: Crazyhead is Your Weekend Watch

Crazyhead's 1st season is a huge win.

Talk about battling demons! In Netflix's Crazyhead they're the forces (personally AND literally!) that threaten the existence of two young twenty-somethings in England. Amy (Cara Theobold)  shares a flat with her long time best friend, Suzanne (Riann Steele) and spends most of her waking hours working in a bowling alley with her hapless friend and coworker Jake (Lewis Reeves) who is secretly, but not so secretly is in love with Amy. Unrequited love: the sting is real!

Jake: not a lady-killer. .... not a demon-killer either...

One night while out clubbing with her mates, Amy steps away from the crush of bodies in the warehouse to get a breath of air, and she’s struck by a horrific sight. A man, striding along the cars in the parking lot -- his skeletal face hollowed out, and burning. Amy’s no stranger to this kind of thing. These dark visions have plagued Amy for most of her life and had been tentatively kept in check by medication, one that she finally stopped taking. Before the demonic entity gets a chance to eviscerate the blond beauty, a loud, curly-haired Cockney-accented girl steps in. Raquel (Susan Wokoma) springs into action and takes down the demon prick, saving Amy. 

Amy’s forced to face the facts once Raquel gives her the talk: Amy’s hallucinations aren’t her brain tripping out. Instead, Amy is a Seer, someone gifted with the ability to see through the true natures of the demons and otherworldly creatures wandering around.

Raquel has the same supernatural power and has been actively hunting demons and shoving “biiiig poles, straight up their arses” ever since she was 15, and she wants Amy to join her. Yup.

Raquel insists that Amy partner up with her and that the “hell bitches” clean house; wiping out the demons that are lurking in London. It’s when Suzanne is possessed by a demon that Amy and Raquel truly come together and join forces to try to save her. Instead, their botched exorcism drags Suzanne back up from her grave and makes her a Revenant: a cross between a vampire and zombie. Which means she’s all bloodthirsty (ALL the time for that matter) and a shadow of her former self. 

Amy & Raquel hit the forest in  "A Pine Fresh Scent".

The main characters that inhabit the world of Crazyhead Amy, Raquel, and Jake, have all had experiences being outsiders and feeling queer. They’re offbeat, self-deprecating and have a whole lot of heart. This is a show where characters have flaws in abundance, but still are completely lovable and entertaining. The working partnership between Amy and Raquel is based  constant trial and error: the two girls learn things together, and through many disastrous efforts wish they could UNDO some of their actions. It’s this type of flighty anything-goes mentality and the optimism that Amy and Raquel have that they can make things right, that makes them so real and relatable. These leading ladies are completely fleshed out developed characters, with spunk and grit and a hankering to kick some undead booty. Adulting happens here too, the girls dabble in dating when they're not trying to fend off dastardly demons. But most of their efforts are spent trying to unravel the mysteries about Raquel's abilities (why she’s suddenly a MVP in the demon community) and to figure out the purpose of a diabolical organization of demons helmed by pointy rat-faced Callum (Tony Curran).   

Parking lot demon prick flashing his snarl.

Crazyhead isn’t as serious as Joss Whedon’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer and it’s not as heavy-handed with the horror as Supernatural. Instead, Crazyhead is a dark comedy stepped in the paranormal, and it manages to be not only hilarious, but also in turns dramatic and heartbreaking. The special effects for the “demon pricks” aren't the most convincing of CGI. But Crazyhead isn’t selling itself as being a purely horror-driven show. It also doesn’t need to rely on these techniques to be scary or interesting. With their hollowed out cheeks, gray complexion and sinewy mouths they look like decaying zombies. Not exactly original, but at the same time they do break one trope out there: the sexy “bad” boys (and girls). These are not the horned, winged, eyeliner and rock concert garbed demons that sometimes crop up in horror shows, but they’re eye-catching in their own way. And distinctly freakier looking. In Crazyhead these low-life, leeches are pure evil, and almost exclusively male. (Calum’s cronies of choice: say that five times fast). Mercy (Lu Cornfield) is the one exception: she spends her time sucking the life force out of other demons and humans. And, playing single-mum to a little preschool boy, since she ended up possessing his real mom. More calculated than many of Callum's other, dafter, underlings, Mercy is a stone-cold, grudge-holding and deeply powerful demon. The warmth and kindness she gives out while around her son, is a huge contrast to her temperament as a demon. She's not simply deeply, darkly, evil for evil's sake, and is a tad more redeemable and rounded than some of the big bads that populate Crazyhead.

Nothing like a dock-side chat to put the idea of a demon apocalypse into perspective!

The chemistry between Amy and Raquel is the most striking thing about this show! The energy that ping pongs back and forth between these two young Seers is one of the most authentic friendships I’ve seen in a show. Their banter is genuine and hilarious and at times bittersweet. The two girls connect over their less than conventional lives seeing the undead and try and fail and try and fail some more and grow along the way! Both girls keep their distinctive personalities: ever-confident Raquel with her varsity jacket, poofy brown hair and truncheon always in pocket, ready to snap it open whenever a demon prick gets near her, and petite blond Amy with her “stupid spoon face” (gotta love Raquel!) who’s a touch timid and guarded but very resilient, and fiercely loyal. Raquel’s bravado occasionally gives way to show us her more sensitive and insecure side, just as Amy gets braver and ready to take action.

Burying bodies in the forest, all in a night's work for Raquel & Amy.

There are plenty of other elements that come together to make this one exceptional and must-watch show.  Female friendship is one of the biggest themes in Crazyhead, as are some social issues, think: mental health (and what it means to be “crazy”), and race, each of which are as prominent and important as kicking bad-guy butt. 

There's plenty of British slang that goes around (Anglophiles out there will be VERY pleased with this show!) and the locations, especially Raquel and her elder brother Tyler's (Arinze Kene) London digs, and an abandoned theatre decked out with antiques -and the show down for a fateful confrontation-, are very atmospheric without being generic. Crazyhead’s soundtrack is incredibly electric loaded with danceable, stuck-in-your-head-for-days tracks that zip and spark throughout the show as the story progresses. The edgy rock music compliments the plot and adds to an already amazing show. On all counts Crazyhead is a rousing success of a show, and may very well be one of the best shows out there that you’re not currently watching! 
What are you waiting for? Go go go go! Throughout its duration Crazyhead gives a one-two punch to the feels, especially with how short its runtime is. The most tragic thing about the show, and it’s only “flaw” is how we’re given only a mere six episodes to follow Amy and Raquel’s demon hunting, exorcisms, and adventures in adulting! Agh! Sadder yet, as of writing this, there is no estimated release date for when season two will premier! That cracking you’re hearing is the sound of my heart shattering. Waah.

"You BETTER run!" says Raquel, always. xoxo.

photos from IMDB and googleimages