The Trouble With Tessa Review: Low-Budget Marvel

The Trouble With Tessa is an impressive blend of mystery and horror, wrapped up in the comforting but terrifying tone of a Stephen King-style world.

Tessa and their producer, Aaron (Dennis Cahlo, who also created the series with Bethany Watson), have recently made a documentary that uncovers the uncomfortable truths of a major politician’s life. Disgraced and being sued by the politician’s legal team, Tessa retreats to Lowery to disappear. This picturesque town doesn’t allow mobile phones, has no internet, and no one here knows anything about Tessa. It’s the perfect place to disappear to, but as the title suggests, The Trouble With Tessa isn’t as straightforward as this. There is the nighttime curfew, for example, that all residents stick to, and the friendly but unnerving neighbours, such as Betsy (Maria Wolf, Women’s Playground).

Consisting of six episodes of approximately 20 minutes each, The Trouble With Tessa is swift; each of the six entries is steeped in intrigue and mystery, and more often than not they culminate in something devilishly horrific. On the whole, the payoff is great, if never quite as strong as the preceding suspense. By the end of the first episode, Tessa’s suspicions about Lowery are confirmed when they find a box in the basement of the rental house, one that contains VHS tapes and cassettes that seem to depict a woman being murdered in that same house.

The Trouble With Tessa is stylish and slick, with a tone that belies its low-budget foundations. Co-created by Cahlo, Watson, Tony Wash (Better Luck Than Chuck), and Will Rogers, this little series is a marvel of independent filmmaking. As well as the direction and writing, Cahlo and Watson take on much of the other duties, such as production, cinematography, and editing. Some stilted dialogue aside, almost everything about The Trouble With Tessa is confidently done, with visual flourishes, playful camerawork, a superb original score, and slick editing aiding the story’s tone and suspense. 

If anything, The Trouble With Tessa is a bit too short. The story, drenched in folklore that perhaps could have been explored more, is hugely impressive in one aspect (the unsolved murder of Amelia (Casey Hartnett, Terrifier 2), but less well-rounded in others—notably, the Bone King. The main monster of the show is a fascinating creation, both in its backstory and appearance, but it is frustratingly underdeveloped, as are some other characters. Far from flimsy, however, is the main character of Tessa; Nugent’s performance is thrilling to watch, one of intense vulnerability and captivating charisma. As a show, The Trouble With Tessa only has a few aforementioned issues, but for the titular character, the problems stack up in scintillating fashion.

The Trouble With Tessa, Screambox’s first-ever original series, is now available to stream on Screambox.