‘The Kirlian Frequency’ combines some of the best media for a short, creepy, hell of a ride.

Ugh. I am so damn exhausted. This month has been exhausting, and this week has been especially so. I’m finding I have less and less time for this blog, and I am considering taking a break for a while. But, there are a few shows and movies I want to review first.

The Kirlian Frequency is one of those programs you don’t hear about; it just shows up one day in your Netflix suggestions or recommended on YouTube. And maybe you don’t click on it right away because you’re not sure what it’s about, so you let sit there till you feel ready.

And you watch it only to find yourself fascinated, disturbed and wondering why it isn’t more popular. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, there’s a reason that the stilty animated, podcast-like, creepy show isn’t more well known; it’s from Argentina and went through several forms before being released onto YouTube. Those videos were taken down, and are now available in English on Netflix.

The show has a very loose structure.

The only consistent character is the Host, a man whose only depicted in shadow who hosts the radio show, the Kirlian Frequency which plays every night in the titular town, and he comments on the goings-on

The show is kind of The Twilight Zone meets Welcome to Night Vale meets the SCP Foundation meets Gravity Falls meets Midnight Radio. We also don’t get to know much about the character, but it certainly seems he knows the most Kirlian with all its eccentricities, which are more dangerous than they may seem. I suspect he’s not quite human.

He has little empathy for others and seems more concerned with keeping Kirlian a secret than anything else. There’s also supposedly a comet heading towards town, never a good thing in fiction but it’s not the main focus.

Which is good. The show only has five episodes, which are only around 10 minutes each. There’s a lot of other details in the show like a mysterious ghost of a child, a creature chained up in some kind of basement or lab, and murder to keep people interested.

 

There is a general ‘style’ that is consistent throughout the series, but each episode plays with the animation a little, and even though it doesn’t really move, it’s interesting and creative and visually pleasing. In one episode, everything looks like it’s drawn by a child and naturally being a horror themed show, this gets pretty disturbing.

I didn’t even notice the changing styles at first but it’s really cool how each style matches it up to the kind of story they’re trying to tell.

 

While a podcast would have worked fine for this format; animation really allows it to really express itself in a way that wouldn’t have been possible in just an audio format or if they had done it in live action.

I won’t spoil much since its so short, but I certainly do hope there are more episodes coming. This is a world that is rich with possibilities and story arcs.

The only things we know for sure is that Kirlian is somewhere in the Buenos Aires province and it’s one of those towns that everyone goes through at some point, but not everyone leaves.

It’s an interesting, creepy, niche that I’m glad I found. And I really hope that some other people watch this because hopefully it will encourage the team to make more episodes. (even though the entire crew is about four people)

Please watch this.

And that’s the scoop.

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Score: 8/10

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Year of release: 2017 (on Youtube), 2019 (Netflix)

Length: 5 episodes, (8 -10 minutes)

Rating: Tv-14

Producers: Tangram Cine and Decimu Labs

The Crew: Cristian Ponce (screenwriter, director and animator), Hernán Bengoa (screenwriter and illustrator), Hernán Biasotti (sound designer) and Marcelo Cataldo (original soundtrack)

Voice actors: Nicolás Van de Moortele, Casper Uncal, María Duplaá, Letizia Bloisi, Ciro Herce, Milagros Molina and Jorge Alonso

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