HBO's 30 Coins: Spoiler-Free Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out This is a spoiler-free review of HBO's new horror series 30 Coins. The first two episodes are currently available on HBO and HBO Max, with subsequent episodes airing Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and available on HBO Max under its new "International Genre" collection. [poilib element="accentDivider"] It's often said that exorcism horror has been done to death. But every so often a new project comes along that reinvigorates the classic subgenre and expands on the years of terror it has instilled. 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. 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. 30 Coins often feels more like a big-budget horror movie than a TV show in terms of both aesthetic and production values. 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. The horror begins when Paco (Miguel Ángel Silvestre), the mayor of a small Spanish town named Pedraza, is called away from his own inauguration. What could be that important? Well, that would be veering into spoiler territory, but let's just say it's something supernatural. It's here we meet Elena (Megan Montaner), the town's kindly veterinarian who is witness to the first horror of Pedraza. 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). This is just the beginning of a series of awful events that plague Pedraza and are connected to Vergara's mysterious and dangerous past. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/11/hbos-30-coins-official-trailer"] Much of the strength of 30 Coins comes from this trio of leads. Fernández does a brilliant job at balancing the pulpy archetype he's given with a level of gravitas and grit to ground him. Silvestre is utterly believable as the ambitious politician more concerned with being electable than saving the world. But 30 Coins' beating heart is Montaner. Elena is the embodiment of grief and loss, moored by the determination and resilience that come with it. 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. 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. Easily the best thing about the show is that, aside from the horror, it also works as an Indiana Jones-style artifact quest. 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. 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. 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. It helps that Iglesia and Guerricaechevarría have a great handle on their world and its rules, no matter how fantastical. 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. Instead, the pair create a streamlined and scary story that is just as interested in the culpability and evil of humans as it is with macabre monsters. Walking that tightrope between the real and imagined is often what separates a good horror story from a great one, and luckily 30 Coins definitely falls into the latter category. Even in the rare episode where the monster of the week aspect might lose you, there's the greater mystery to solve. Drawing you into the larger conspiracy and supernatural spectrum of the coins means that there's always more to be invested in than the often inspired and creepy creatures that our heroes come up against. Speaking of those, we get some truly great on-screen creations here, with the feature-length pilot episode featuring some especially horrifying beasts straight out of a Francis Bacon painting that'll surely haunt your nightmares long after the credits roll. [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=4c478d9d-70ed-46fc-9dd4-ded0d54056a1"]

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