When I saw this advertised I thought I'd give it a go even though it looked like it would just a standard slasher with a group in good looking twenty-somethings being murdered in bizarre ways. Sure enough the series opened with the expected characters boarding a boat to the titular Harper's Island where two of them are to be wed.
The first victim is killed before the boat has left the dock, a poor chap for has been chained to the boats propeller shaft and goes through the prop as soon as it starts to turn, this is an indication of how the series will proceed. The rest of the group don't notice and continue to the island were more of them go missing. At first its just assumed they have gone off somewhere or got lost but when the bride's father dies in a rather gruesome way in the church they realise that there is a killer at large. This isn't the first time a serial killer had targeted the island seven years before a killer called John Wakefield had slaughtered several people including wedding guest Abby Mills' mother... it can't be him though as the local sheriff, Abby's father killed him. As the series progresses more people die and a variety of suspects emerge, although becoming the chief suspect tends to lead to a characters gory death.
As the story is told over thirteen episodes there is plenty of time for us to get ideas who is doing the killing and to decide who we hope will survive. This also made the story more gripping than it would have been if it was told as a film. While I don't think anybody will be getting any acting awards for this the cast did a good enough job. As it was made for television it wasn't as bloody as a film would probably have been but I don't think that is a bad thing. Over all I enjoyed it and would recommend watching it although I'm not sure I'd want to watch it again as the thrills rely on having no idea what will happen next.
The first victim is killed before the boat has left the dock, a poor chap for has been chained to the boats propeller shaft and goes through the prop as soon as it starts to turn, this is an indication of how the series will proceed. The rest of the group don't notice and continue to the island were more of them go missing. At first its just assumed they have gone off somewhere or got lost but when the bride's father dies in a rather gruesome way in the church they realise that there is a killer at large. This isn't the first time a serial killer had targeted the island seven years before a killer called John Wakefield had slaughtered several people including wedding guest Abby Mills' mother... it can't be him though as the local sheriff, Abby's father killed him. As the series progresses more people die and a variety of suspects emerge, although becoming the chief suspect tends to lead to a characters gory death.
As the story is told over thirteen episodes there is plenty of time for us to get ideas who is doing the killing and to decide who we hope will survive. This also made the story more gripping than it would have been if it was told as a film. While I don't think anybody will be getting any acting awards for this the cast did a good enough job. As it was made for television it wasn't as bloody as a film would probably have been but I don't think that is a bad thing. Over all I enjoyed it and would recommend watching it although I'm not sure I'd want to watch it again as the thrills rely on having no idea what will happen next.