I love the VN, but the quality of the show brings it down.

Higurashi is a violent, gory horror series with a lot of genuinely disturbing situations. But its violence isn't gratuitous or for shock alone; there are real and meaningful themes being served. An ontological mystery unfolds, and it slowly becomes clear that the real horror isn't mystical curses, but generational abuse and the unwillingness of communities to face the horrors being wrought on their own people - until we get a glimpse of hope that we can break the cycles of abuse.