Listen to: So Good
A teen is watching TV at night during a storm, when she hears creepy carnival music from outside. This is giving me Scream flashbacks and I love it. She gets up to look for the source of the music, and I’m actually pretty creeped out. The tension builds, until in a flash of lightning she realizes a horrifying man-like monster is behind her. A cat looks on as she screams.
Wow, first jump scare of Just Beyond. Did things just get real? Or am I going to learn something about myself?
A girl (a different one) wakes up from a nightmare. There are strange noises coming from her closet, and she leaves her light on. She’s super scared.
She is Olivia, and she just moved into a new town to a new (to her) house. It’s actually her mother’s old house, and her parents are recently divorced. Olivia is like supergirl, incredibly helpful and optimistic to make sure her mom feels okay. Then it flashes to her falling apart, having a panic attack, clearly not really okay at all. And my heart is now with Olivia, who is putting on such a brave face while actually so scared of everything.
She meets her next-door neighbour, Graham, who is an absolute delight. With no concept of boundaries, he invites himself over and makes himself at home, being both obnoxious and awesome at the same time. He thinks her house is creepy, and is into it.
As a side note, I like how the teens in Just Beyond look like actual teens, not attractive thirty-somethings. But I just looked up Megan Stott and she must have been 17-18 when this was filmed. I would have guessed 14, so I guess everyone looks younger on film?
Anyway, that night there is a lightning storm, and Olivia hears the creepy carnival music. Guys, this is bad, really bad, and genuinely scary. Finally, after more build-up than my poor heart can take, she sees a flash of the masked man in the suit, same as the one that attacked the other girl!
Next day, Graham continues to be awesome and supportive and snarky at the same time and brings her to meet the popular cheerleader girls of the school, who are into her because Olivia is also a cheerleader. She gets invited to a party at an amusement park (an elite invite) but is freaked out about going on the really sketchy terrifying roller coaster. She hears the carnival music in the school. It’s not the house that’s haunted – it’s Olivia!!
She’s trying to research the monster that’s stalking her with Graham in the library, when he has to go. She hears the music again, and follows it deep into the stacks. I’m still finding this so creepy! Why is there a basement in the library? Why are you going down there, little girl? This is the time when you say NO THANK YOU and leave the creepy music alone.
She goes into the basement. Of course the door slams shut behind her and of course she’s trapped. Now the murderous masked man appears at the end of the hall and he’s all stretched out like slim man and I can’t handle this. He sprints towards her and she cringes away. Just before he gets her, the lights go back on and he’s disappeared.
Olivia next has cheerleader practice, and I’m surprised she can move at all. She’s not doing well. She’s sort of thrown into it, everyone telling her she can handle it. But she’s a flyer and they’re flipping her around all over the place and I can see how this would suck for her. Then she looks down and everything goes dark and the monster is standing under her. She falls hard.
Despite her struggles, Graham continues to be the bright spot in all this. He tells her she must go to the amusement park party and ride the roller coaster, because risking her life this once is worth not having a Siberian social life.
Her mom is going out for the night and leaves Olivia with a babysitter – you think she’d be happy to not be alone, but she complains like a teen. But it turns out it was an old babysitter of her mothers, and she had tea to spill. Olivia’s mother used to claim the house was haunted … and that she would hear music. And good god there are a lot of lightning storms here. Climate change?
Olivia confronts her mother, who sighs when she realizes her daughter is afflicted as well. The monster appears when she is nervous. She calls him the squeamer. And by the way, he never goes away. You just have to make friends with him. She tells her daughter with a hug it’s okay to be scared and have bad days and not be perfect.
So creepy monster is the embodiment of Olivia’s fear. And she must accept him as part of his life. I thought that once we learn this lesson, all the scariness would be over, but not really. Olivia gets up that night for some water, and hears heavy footsteps overhead where her little brother is. My god there are so many jumpstarts here.
The monster appears to be going for her brother and she steps in front of it, telling it to back off. She finds her courage, and takes off the monster’s mask. We don’t find out what he looks like, but Olivia is satisfied.
Olivia goes out to that amusement park party and goes on the terrifying rollercoaster (the only one banned by the UN, ha). The masked monster sits next to her, but she tells him the seats already taken. Graham hops in with her and they go for a ride (but you can see the monster’s taken a different seat!)
We learned it’s okay to be scared and we better get comfortable not being perfect all the time. 11 out of 11 lightning storms for serious scare points here!
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