Iron River, Michigan (2020) User Reviews (7)

Not The Best, But Is Intriguing

[Mehki_Girl · 6/10 · 11 September 2022]

This wasn't the best in the series. Stories 1,2, and 3, with 3 being my absolute favorite were the best in my opinion.

This and the mermaid one were the least favorite for me.

However, this one was interesting and hekd my attention right up until the woods at the end. It is deeper than it appears, however.

We have sympathy for Lauren who's treated horribly by her drunken mother, who just seems to hate her just like some parents seem to hate their children or pick a favorite one and abuses the other. So there's that.

No one can really blame her for wanting a different life. She seems passive and her friend is abusive as well. She does stand up for herself (yay!) at one point and then caves for her manipulative frenemy.

Does she go into the haunted woods? We don't know until later. And we never know what really happened as two versions appear to be fantasies of someone's overactive imagination

Does Lauren steal Elena's life or is it really like what she said - Elena wasn't there anymore so she just took it over and who could blame her?

But the ending changes our empathy toward Lauren when we get a glimpse of the real her and all our empathy vanishes.

I think, also, we can infer that Elena had feelings beyond friendship for Lauren, which may explain why she dumped her two best friends to hang out with the emo, plain Jane "weird" (according to one jealous and suspicious, meangirl ex bestie) Lauren.

Just my take...

[smmans · 7/10 · 20 January 2023]

As with every episode of this anthology, this one leaves you with no clear ending. So here's my take...

Lauren is obviously unhappy with her life, mostly due to a lack of love from her mother (and apparently non-existent father). She is befriended by a spoiled girl who apparently loves her (not sure why) but is also manipulative and controlling like her mother. Lauren realizes that her friend doesn't appreciate her mother's love and feels like she doesn't deserve it, and is also jealous.

So the 3 storylines presented about what happened after her bedroom show that she equates Elena with her mother and finally stands up for herself, that she goes to the woods and accidentally kills Elena, and then that Elena disappears in some sort of distress. Although the 2nd line was what Abby believed happened, I also believe Lauren killed Elena after she kissed her, feeling overwhelmed with fear (at Elena hiding and pretending to be the lumberjack), then anger at her supposed friend being that cruel towards her, combined with the weed I think Lauren snapped and murdered Elena as a sort of proxy for the hatred Lauren has for her mother.

The dream sequence in the cabin brought Lauren's psyche to a crossroads, where she could either come clean about the fact that she murdered Elena, or continue to live Elena's life. She chose the latter, feeling that she deserved it more.

Okay, This Makes Sense... Until It Doesn't

[Gislef · 6/10 · 23 November 2020]

"Iron River" is a sordid little tale of a woman, Lauren, whose best friend Elena dies in the White Woods when they're teenagers. Lauren "takes over" Elena's life, becomes like a second daughter to the deceased's mother, and gets married to Elena's high school boyfriend. But on the wedding day, the past comes back to confront Lauren. Elena's remains turn up, and one of Elena's friends has her suspicions and pays Lauren's mother Faye to confront Lauren.

It all makes sense up to the 36 minute mark. But of course it wouldn't be a 'Monsterland' episode if there was no monster , and things made sense. So Lauren hallucinates being in the Woods, and an old Hag shows up. And are we in real life, or Lauren's dream, or another of the production staff's metaphors? Heck if I know. It turns out the Hag had a bad life, like Lauren supposedly had (although we never see it), and has been holding Elena as a teenager as the daughter she never had.

The Hag offers to trade Elena for Lauren. And Lauren... walks out of the cabin and away. Who knows what it all means? You could come up with a theory. Did it really happen? Did Lauren go back to her stolen life? Did she abandon Elena? Was it a dweam of extrawordinary magnitude? Who knows? Who cares? I can come up with a half dozen theories, but... get your own. Presumably TV writers get paid to tell me my theories. One episode I could accept, but an entire series? Nuh-uh.

I don't mind 'Monsterland' using horror as a metaphor. But that's all it does in seven episodes, and it doesn't look like the season (and series?) finale is going to be any better. And like most of the preceding episode, "Iron River" seems to be trying to cram too much in. There's a lesbian kiss, and what you'll do to get out of poverty, and parental issues, and lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

You can theorize about what it all means. 'Monsterland' is great on giving you stuff to theorize about. But I've got plenty of that in my life. I want to see stories I can't experience on my own. Told by storytellers. Not episodes where the production staff asks me to tell what I see. I can do that on my own. It's not escapism, and the stories are both too scattershot and too specific to apply to the human condition in general the way that Rod Serling, or Joseph Stefano, or Stephen King have done in the past.

I can kind of dig that all of them are Rashomon-type versions of "the truth" and we never find out what the truth is. But we _never_ seem to find out the truth in an episode of 'Monsterland'. I don't mind the occasional story where we don't find out the truth. But I'm not looking for an entire series where we don't find out the truth, or get an ending (which is "the truth").

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?

It builds, then it falls.........

[jbathie · 3/10 · 25 December 2020]

I enjoyed all of the episodes so far. That is until I watch this one.

The plot builds to a climax then falls as flat as a story could.

The protagonist takes over the life of a girl she left in the forest a decade prior. She's seemingly caught in her what must be a very elaborate set of lies on her wedding day and all seems lost.

Then she runs into the forest only to find the friend she left behind, and after this long-lost friend ask her to "help please", with a smirk she walks away. And that's it, no close, no wrap up, no villain gets their due punishment, just a walk out of the forest.

Not impressed at all to be honest.

noidea what i just watched

[Harry_Cany0n · 1/10 · 2 July 2021]

This was literally the most useless 40 minutes ever. No idea what it was about. What?

A bride to be has haunting flashbacks with an old cursed wicked legend!

[blanbrn · 8/10 · 27 October 2020]

This episode 7 of "Hulu's", "Monsterland" called "Iron River, Michigan" is one that's interesting and well written with a story of drama and a haunting past as the episode twist at the end. It spans over a 10 year period and it involves a young girl Lauren(Kelly Marie Tran) who's neglected and treated bad during youth. And as only after an event happens with her best friend in the nearby woods things change. Now flash ahead 10 years later Lauren seems fine and ready to marry only the events and secrets of her tragic night in the woods is revealed. However it is not at first what it appears as this also is all connected to a curse and like an old grim fairy tale that involves a wicked old witch woman who brings out truth and guilt. Overall good episode one of the series better ones!

Intriguing story!

[jengenaro · 8/10 · 23 June 2021]

This episode has an interesting way of telling its story. The elements of the story are compelling, and although the theme is scary, the episode itself has a dark theme.

Well worth the watch.