A distant follow up to Netflix’s Castlevania series, Nocturne is set during the French Revolution and focuses on Trevor and Sypha’s descendant Richtor Belmont, his adopted sister and magician Maria Renard, Annette, a former slave with Orisha powers, and Edouard, Annette’s best friend and a opera singer. I started watching right after finishing the first series and the time jump was a little jarring, but I quickly fell for the same complex characterizations and beautiful artwork that pulled me into the first series.
The series starts with Maria trying to start a revolution among the French, fighting for the common people, especially since many of the aristocrats are, of course, bored vampires. Richtor like a good fight, but like all Belmonts starts disillusioned and a little lost in life, not sure how to function around his trauma, the most significant of which was watching a vampire kill his mother and losing his powers. Richtor being afraid to care and Maria caring too much is a nice good guy conflict. When the odds become overwhelming Annette and Edouard appear in time to help.
As much as I loved the complicated symbiose of Trevor and Sypha in the first series as paranormal are my jam, seeing Orisha appear in a horror themed story, and in a good guy, definitely floats my boat. Annette’s addition, to the plot and her struggles as a character add such a brilliant tendril to this tapestry. No less fantastic is Edouard, who being a black male is not presented as the physical bad ass at all, but as the soul of this foursome whose spirit of art and music drives this narrative into amazing new places. He might possibly be my favorite character.
Again this series is not aimed at teens, as it’s violent, contains a lot of cussing and isn’t afraid to introduce sexual themes and themes of sexual identity into the world setting. But I highly recommend it for horror loving audiences as it has a lot more facets and stories to explore than the average horror show.