Distributor: just entertainment
Episodes: 10
Duration: 50 min. (per episode)
Kattenoog: Het Geheim van de Griezelclub (DVD) – Series Review
Full moon is never a good moment to be out on your own. Witches, zombies and other monsters may be lurking around every corner, or is it all just fantasy? In Kattenoog, a famous legend keeps people captivated, but Max, Mister Mythology is confident to unmask the legend as a scam. We can only hope he is right, and doesn’t get cursed by evil monsters.
In the small village of Kattenoog magical things are happening. It’s almost full moon, which means that, according to the legend of Kattenoog, the magical stone on Kattenoog Island will show its powers. Witches will emerge and people may disappear, and beware of the zombies and other monsters that may cross your path! Also, you shouldn’t go to the island, as a curse will come upon you. The legend attracts many tourists, and the inhabitants of the village make a whole spectacle of it. Sol (Kurt Rogiers), for example, owns the horror museum and keeps the tale alive. Robin (Emma Verlinden), Simone (Rosaline Lantink) and Eli (Warre Verlinden) love to scare the tourists in the village with their ‘shock effects’, but on the night of the full moon, they are shocked themselves, when a monster almost eats Eli’s foot. They are sure it must have been a zombie, and thus they try to find out more, to protect the village from a zombie attack.
In the meantime, the full moon also attracted Max (Ian Thomas), Mister Mythology and host of an online show on Boe! TV, as in his show he tries to discover whether myths are fact or fiction. He is assisted by his new sidekick Daphne (Britt Scholte), who is a professional medium, causing many disputes, as she believes in supernatural powers, while he is extremely down to earth. Together with cameraman Boris (Nathan Naenen), they decide to go to Kattenoog Island, despite the warnings of the villagers, and while Max is reassured that there is nothing special to be found there, Daphne senses strong powers and believes the legend might be true.
Robin, Simone and Eli gradually find out more suspicious things: a zombie book gets stolen, Sol is very on edge, Robin sees a green light and they catch a zombie cat. The three friends are very curious and they go and investigate the case further.
A story about witches, zombies and water monsters sounds rather exciting, and to a certain extent, it is. Even though Robin, Simone and Eli, and the crew of Mythology both investigate the legend, they do so from two entirely different perspectives. While the one group tries to debunk the myth, the other is convinced that witches and zombies do exist, and are trying to do harm to the village. All of this makes sure there is enough content to the story, but it often feels as if they are two different stories, as they hardly ever come together. It feels like, if the two groups would have clashed more, the story could have been even more interesting.
Overall, the characters are quite stereotypical and all have their own phrase or thing they do. Daphne, for example, says ‘Namaste’, just a tad too often, while Max tries to be cool saying ‘rule number one: never touch my hair!’. Simone always wears very bright make up, while Eli blabs a bit too much. This gets annoying at times, as it just feels a bit over the top. On the one hand, the story is realistic, while on the other hand, the zombies and witches do seem to exist, thus making the story a mixture of different things, in which these stereotypes do fit, to a certain extent.
As this series is a collaboration between Flemish and Dutch broadcasting channels, the actors are also Flemish and Dutch, which is sometimes a bit strange, as the accents of the characters differ quite a bit. This is not really a problem in general, but when mother and daughter have a completely different accent, the story loses a bit of its credibility.
All in all the acting is quite decent, even though the stereotypical characters sometimes cause a bit of overacting. Emma Verlinden and Ian Thomas both have lead roles in the series, and while Emma Verlinden does a very good job playing Robin, it shows that Ian Thomas is not as used to acting as she is. Nonetheless, throughout the series he seems to get into it more, making his scenes more enjoyable to watch. Ian Thomas also sang the title song, which is clearly more in his natural habitat.
There are no extras on this DVD release, but on the inside of the box, there is a map of Kattenoog with all the landmarks on it, which does get in handy now and then, if you want to refresh your memory, since there are about fifty episodes to watch. Nonetheless, while these episodes were broadcasted separately, on the DVD release they are bundled into ten big episodes.
Conclusion
Kattenoog provides a story full of creepy monsters and evil powers, with lots of characters, both good and bad. The acting is very decent, certainly considering it’s such a young cast. The stereotypes that are used, may cause you to be annoyed sometimes, but they will probably be appreciated more by the younger audience it is aimed at. Overall, this series is one of the better youth series out there.
Kattenoog: Het Geheim van de Griezelclub (DVD) - Series Review,
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