Cracow Monsters

Cracow Monsters is, as you might guess from the title, a Polish show that’s on Netflix. Wikipedia bills it as horror but it’s much more in a dark modern mythology area than a traditional horror. It’s definitely about the conflict between good and evil but on a cosmic, rather than a human or human-adjacent monster scale. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some horror-style moments but they’re not the main thrust of the story, the focus.

This show comes with a spate of trigger warnings for sexual scenes, suicide, drug misuse and some others. Broadly speaking all of those are accurate but, honestly, it’s pretty mild stuff. One of the warnings is for sexual violence and I’m left wondering what it was for to be honest.

It should be far too easy to dismiss this series. It’s relatively simple to watch and, without even really analysing, spot a bucket load of tropes. We literally have a club for misfit kids with superpowers run by a professor for example. Sound familiar? A character that wears gloves nearly all the time because he’s afraid of what his touch-activated powers will do. However, these tropes are filtered through Polish storytellers and while it doesn’t make them entirely new, it does cast most of them in a different light. That helps make this series seem much fresher than it would if an American or British company had made it.

Add to that the rich, deep, consistent folk lore, drawn from Poland and the Baltic States, which adds another layer of novelty and unfamiliarity for most of us. I’ve got a good general grasp on folk lore, while this isn’t a region I’ve looked at in depth before, I had to look up a lot of what was going on here but, at the same time for the details, the broad strokes were painted in so you don’t have to if you don’t want to.

That combination gives this show a really strong base to build from. A bit like Orphan Black I didn’t necessarily warm to the lead character (if you read Sarah as the lead in OB). I found Alex, like Sarah, too different for me to warm too, but still interesting - I always wanted to know what each of them was doing in their respective shows, what they would do next and, more importantly perhaps, why they’re like that. Your reaction to Alex may vary, but if it doesn’t and you need to like characters, but are enjoying the lore, there are a variety of other characters around, both men and women (they’re all university student age) who are less prominent but still present in every episode for you.

One of the interesting things is that, although there’s a lot of supernatural creepy stuff, in terms of the acting three of the most disturbing but accomplished performances come from young women. Of course there’s nothing to say that women can’t do this just as well as men, and I can think of both films and TV shows where they have. But usually we have the creepy man, be that stalker, rapist, serial killer or whatever. While there are dangerous male characters in this show, having so many disturbing female ones is rare and fun to see.

Arguably this shouldn’t work but, for me, it ticked a load of boxes. The things I thought about writing this, like the tropes through a different cultural lens, were occasionally in my mind but didn’t really detract at all. This won’t be for everyone, not even everyone that likes dark modern fantasy, but it’s worth a look if you think you might.

Bechdel Test: Pass. There are multiple, named female characters. They talk about all kinds of things, most commonly legends and magic. Sometimes they talk about men, but they talk about legends and magic more.

Ko Test: Fail. In common with a lot of Eastern European TV, everyone is white.

Russo Test: Pass. There’s definitely a lesbian character but she’s only in three of four episodes. It’s really strongly painted that she’s still in a codependent relationship with Alex, but that they’re exes, on-again-off-again or in an open relationship rather than still a traditional couple. Alex doesn’t specifically label herself but she’s clearly shown as bi or pan.