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... EST. ⏎ How was the first episode? ⏎Paul Jensen ⏎ Rating: 4.5 ⏎ Hello there, nightmare fuel. I rarely get much entertainment out of horror titles that rely on excessive gore or jump scares, but The Promised Neverland looks like it'll be far more compelling than the average spook-fest. This first episode in particular does an excellent job of starting off with the vague unease of a psychological thriller and gradually ramping up into outright horror as it taps into the classic childhood fear of monsters in the closet. Couple that with expressive animation that fully conveys the characters' emotions and you've got an intensely gripping premiere. ⏎ I walked into this show with no background knowledge whatsoever, so the first half of this episode played out as a bit of a guessing game for me. As we learn more about the kids and their life at Grace Field House, the occasional hints that something's amiss allow the viewer's imagination to run wild trying to guess what's really going on. That mix of curiosity and suspicion ramps up once Emma and Norman run off to deliver Conny's forgotten stuffed rabbit, and the tension hits its first big high point once Emma looks inside the truck. From there it's a pretty standard “hide from the monster” scene, albeit one that's presented exceedingly well. ⏎ Honestly, I found a lot of the smaller details to be more compelling than the big revelation of the corpse. The show gives us enough information to figure out that the voices at the gate aren't human before we actually see the monsters, which is exactly what it ought to do. Showing the audience a monster can be a little scary, but letting the audience have that “oh, crap” moment of realizing that the monster exists is a much better way to crank up the fear level. The same goes for the aftermath of the gate sequence, where Emma and Norman's panicked attempts at figuring out what to do next emphasize just how utterly screwed these kids are. Their conversation hints at a lot of future challenges, like evading “Mom” and getting the other children to believe them, and the fact that I was trying to brainstorm along with them is a good sign. ⏎ The Promised Neverland now faces the same problem as every other horror story: the more we know, the harder it becomes to keep things scary. As the audience starts to learn what the monsters are and how they work, the show will need to keep one-upping itself without coming across as ridiculous or excessive. That is by no means an easy thing to do, but if The Promised Neverland can pull it off, it stands to be once of this season's, and perhaps even one of this year's, most compelling titles. As long as you don't mind scary stories with child protagonists, this series should be on your shortlist. ⏎ Theron Martin ⏎ Rating: 4.5 ⏎ Going...