Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Abbie Hern, Sophia Macy, Jordan Peele, Amanda Burke, Halle Galloway, Anisa Harris, Marci T. House, Esther Li, Graelle Owour.

What is great power without responsibility, a question posed by every comic and graphic novel artist when introducing a new superhero for the fans to wrap their imagination around.

However, the idea of power that has been granted and recklessly employed goes much deeper, fiction learns from myth and legend, the hubris of King Arthur, the conceit of Odysseus, the vanity of Tiresias, albeit in moments which tantalise the reader with the arrogance of their conviction before gaining wisdom after the event, all play their part in revealing that power is nothing without a true friend by their side to smooth the edges of excess from their soul.

The same can be said of those who use or investigate the paranormal, who delve into the world of second sight, reading minds, tarot readings, all manner of other worldly expressions of gaining influence and manipulating the world around them for their own advantage or just to seek ways of pushing an agenda of fear in others.

The Twilight Zone‘s Among The Untrodden, written by Heather Anne Campbell takes that idea of manipulation of responsibility to a place where emotions already run high, where the vulgarity of society and cliques runs deeply engrained among the souls of the inhabitants and the vulnerable; the boarding school with all that it can offer, alleged pedigree, status and possibility, but where reactions to anything that is perceived as not normal, as being the same, is rejected.

Being at school is a hard enough on the senses, not knowing what is fashionable or who is popular from one day to the next, but to be placed in what amounts to an institution, where those emotions and values are magnified, it is no wonder that having a friend to confide in and the feeling of being special, slightly different to all that you may have understood about yourself ride together in tandem, and bring out the belief of responsibility to the fore.

Ms. Campbell’s tale of disillusioned popularity, coupled with the interest in a higher calling of the mind and the paranormal, is ripe for such a setting of boarding school drama, cliques and factions drawn out by a feeling of superiority, and it is the allusion of the coven, the witch in making that gives the story its rightful setting in Jordan Peele’s modern look through the mists of The Twilight Zone.

With and excellent performance by Sophia Macy as the awkward newcomer to the school, Irene, and a tale that perhaps allies itself to the warning of certain establishments having so much influence and control to which money can buy, Among The Untrodden is a story to which you cannot but help notice as being steeped in the mindset of older legends that concern themselves with hubris and reflected learning; a slice of elegance to temper the blood.

Ian D. Hall