'The Essex Serpent' expresses more than romance or drama. It clearly shows two types of people trying to understand something inexplicable in their scope of knowledge or experience: science or religion. How Cora approaches serpent is reasoning while how villagers try to overcome serpent is faith and superstition. Other than mysterious, eerie, and dark nuance and atmosphere, this juxtaposition is something to watch. I liked Gothic presentation because all elements of a movie work together to achieve the aesthetics: colors, settings, camera work (especially, bird-eye view of winding river), and music. The weakness is that the story is not powerful enough especially when it wants to persuade audience of union between Cora and Will. It has to sweep up and push the viewers without them realizing that Will's hypocrisy and Cora's nuisance in addition to Stella's matchmaking of his husband with another woman.
Review of The Essex Serpent
