Yellowjackets: Into the Wilderness of the Mind
Yellowjackets is a harrowing, complex story of drama, fear and hope, survival, supernatural horror and teenage noir. A girls’ high school soccer team crashed in the Canadian wilderness; the series skilfully oscillates between the girls’ struggle for survival and their lives in the present, troubled by the past. The tone of the series is the dark mix of Horror, Mystery and an unsettling Psychological Thriller that keeps audiences feeling both horrified yet intrigued throughout every episode.
Outstanding character acting is provided by the series with special emphasis given to the exceptional portrayals of Tawny Cypress and Melanie Lynskey both of whom perfectly portray tortured women of their respects. Sophie Nélisse and Jasmin Savoy Brown shine as younger versions of their characters, and the performance of members of the group, whether they are trapped in the wilderness or later struggling with demons in the present, is incredibly complex and well-executed.
Eva Sørhaug, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, and Ben Semanoff’s direction is excellent, doing an incredible amount of work to juggle the flashbacks and While its narrative technique is equally successful in providing a visual representation of the eeriness of the show. This contributes to the depiction of the contrasts and the eerie feeling of the ghosts of the past.
Instead of constant use of special effects, they are applied when needed, adding horror to the show’s key moments without dominating its character focus.
Switching between the past and the present is smooth and continues the series’ pace, making the viewer understand all the threads narration and integrated into the story.
Peculiarities of editing contribute to the The suspense is kept constant, and that is something very interesting about it – it does not get monotonous at all.
The conversations are intense, which is quite clearly evidenced by the inner problems of the characters. The series depicts fear, despair and time to time black humor of people stuck in their own personal infernos.
The show emphasizes the psychological horror and survival aspect of the narrative that some viewers might not enjoy. Some of the scenes involving harm to animals may be considered disturbing by some audiences although it is is in line with the desperation which is depicted by the show.
The whole viewing of Yellowjackets remains an hour that took me hours to think of how humans are strong in spirit. The presentation of the topic of trauma and how characters deal with it is graphic, but engrossing, which makes the series one of the best experiences of venturing into the psychological horrors of the mind.
