I’m a day behind 🙁 We may have a final movie on Friday to round out the 31 days of horror.
Creepy kids are always a good time!
Both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB gave this one pretty low scores and I’m not entirely sure why. It wasn’t breathtaking or mind blowing, it wasn’t the scariest thing I’ve seen this month, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the film.
Obligatory scary bathtub scene. (Can't beat Nightmare on Elm St's)
The year is 1921 and England is reeling from the 1-2 punch of the Spanish flu and WWI. Florence has made a name for herself debunking hoaxes, and she is called to a boys’ school where a kiddo died—scared to death by a ghost. Is the school haunted? Is Flo going nuts? Is someone out to get her? Florence is an interesting character because she begins the movie so focused and so adamant in her beliefs. It’s fascinating to watch her beliefs change, and watch her cope with the changes. Also–Bran Stark is in it.
Lots of period ghost hunting apparatus. What fun.
The dramatic conclusion isn’t ground breaking or particularly unique, and it wasn’t as clean as one might like, but its heart is in the right place. This is a BBC film, and is handled with great dignity. The setting, the time and the place, reminded me of Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others and Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone. No matter what’s going on on screen, war is the real villain, and its weight is present in every scene.
I'm a sucker for Gothic horror stories set in places like this one. Filmed on location at the Manderston House. (Last night I dreamed I went to Manderly again.)
