[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Ghosts of Borley Rectory (2021)

The film recounts one of the most famous cases of alleged supernatural activity at Borley Rectory, Essex, allegedly the most haunted house in England.

A very low budget film which is surprisingly high on 'star power' (Julian Sands, Toyah, Colin Baker, Chris Ellison) parts of this are pretty good. Unfortunately the main thing Baker and Sands do is have a lot of discussion round a table with other characters, luckily said discussion is well written so isn't as tedious as it could be but it has to be said that The Ghosts of Borley Rectory is a very talky film.

It's a production that's certainly influenced by the recent spate of supernatural films especially The Nun but this is no bad thing as the ghostly nun's appearances are nicely constructed and at times quite eerie. The nun herself is pretty awesome. All sunken hollowed out eyes and a putrefying complexion, she's very effective and nicely creepy and appears throughout the film. The less said about the Halloween masked horned demon that appears at the finale the better though.

There's a lot of well used tropes to be found here. From seances that go wrong to superstitious locals (Not enough budget for flame wielding villagers i'm afraid) to things that go bump in the night. Happily the majority of the jump scares work especially the ones where you aren't sure what you might have just seen from the corner of your eye, but the film lacks a bit in the atmosphere department - I'm blaming Raine McCormack for using the entire countries dry ice supplies for 2019's The Village in the Woods.

Once you get into the second half of the film The Ghosts of Borley Rectory is a reasonable film and certainly entertained me with it's sheer cheapness and balls to get some star names involved.

The Old Dark House (1932)

Following Frankenstein (1931) director James Whale turned to JB Priestley's novel Benighted for this er' old dark house terror satire which is as much a (black) comedy of manners as it is horror film.

The plot is slight. During an atrocious storm a three people are forced to call at an old Welsh mansion inhabited by stranger than strange butler Boris Karloff, an 102 year old lunatic, a fire loving brother and a God-fearing sister who all suffer from at least one type of 'chosis and neurosis. Then when things can't get any odder Charles Laughton turns up with his hooker mistress.

The whole thing is bathed in an atmosphere of musky decay and the less than pristine picture quality i've always been used to added to the general all round weirdness of proceedings but is now missing from the newly restored Blu-ray release, however now we can at least see all that is going on with the beautifully restored print.

I've always loved this film from the first time i saw it and it simply improves with each viewing. Classic stuff!