In South of Midnight, the regional folk tales of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi take center stage during a sorrowful adventure embellished by magical realism and strands of hope. The difficult history of one girl’s community unfolds in a world inspired by the humid swamps and bayous near New Orleans and the dusty sawmills of LaSalle Parish.
Moments after the game begins, a frightful hurricane takes young Hazel Flood’s home. It bobs away down a raging, windswept river with her mother trapped inside. During her ensuing search, Hazel encounters the ghosts of slaves and the downtrodden everywhere.
Through a combination of cynicism and empathy, she uncovers tales of child and animal abuse, accidental or murderous. These affecting, sometimes shocking, stories are told carefully and with respect for the dead.
Hazel (voiced by Adriyan Rae of “Chicago Fire”) is a weaver, a paranormal human who receives powers through two formidable knitting needles. Even when she complains that she needs a bath after falling into polluted water or hog waste, she never stops moving forward. While the story could benefit from moments of self-doubt, Hazel’s love for her mother is all-encompassing. She needs her mother, who is a social worker, to be found alive more than she herself needs to live.
Too much of the game play, however, is familiar: skating on walls, squeezing between rocks and battling with bold pushes that momentarily throw gruesome creatures across grim, bramble-filled terrain. These monstrous haints are made from a damaged Grand Tapestry. They’re angry and ugly, and they must be fought until their strands can be unraveled.
Early on, the beasts and violent encounters feel somewhat new because Hazel’s arsenal is based upon household items one normally doesn’t think of as weaponry. Unfortunately, repetition reigns. When each being first appears, there’s a feeling of happy grossness. As the handful of creature types repeat, the battles become banal.
Olivier Deriviere’s songs and soundtrack are also hit and miss. That’s disappointing because the game’s music has been anticipated since last year’s trailer featuring the Rev. Gary Davis’s bluesy “Death Don’t Have No Mercy.”
Instead, the game’s compositions often track like Broadway jukebox musical versions of songs of the South. My journey from the town of Prospero to the high peak called the Witch’s Nose was accompanied by a generic eclecticism. There’s not enough of what makes the region’s music shine: ragtime, blues, Cajun and Creole, and Jon Batiste-style funk. The lyrics are often too preachy and on the nose, sometimes groan-worthy.
There are notable exceptions like the convivial Mardi Gras instrumentals featured in the Bourbon Street-like Town on the Tapestry, which exists as foggy islands floating in the heavens. Here, the music is as real as a jam at Kermit Ruffins’s Mother-In-Law Lounge. These tunes make the battles far more compelling.
Another song hits home as you approach the Holler and the story of Huggin’ Molly, a witchy woman who’s a scary, matted-haired giant with four eyes. The unadorned tune haunts as you pass a decrepit house and encounter the bearded, shirtless Itchy, who wants to charge Hazel to go further. An unseen singer groans, “Molly, Molly, all in white, snatch you up if you go out at night.”
The character design in South of Midnight, full of mythical creatures, constantly induces fascination, even astonishment.
Catfish, who imparts wisdom and humor as he takes Hazel on his scaly back to travel the muddy river, looks like he became addicted to the BeDazzler, rhinestone-stippled as he is. Honey, a kindly, child version of Swamp Thing, is silent but playful. And Hazel’s tiny companion, Crouton, is a handmade, patchwork doll who giggles as he toddles through tight places to click a power switch.
Although the story’s happy ending feels forced, the road to the finale is filled with twists and turns. There is even a meeting, Robert Johnson-style, at the crossroads. The local folk stories, lush environments and richly hewn characters make me eager to return to this fantastical South.
South of Midnight was reviewed on the Xbox Series X|S. It is also available on the PC.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/arts/south-of-midnight-review.html
