The Haunting of Borley Rectory: The Story of A Ghost Story. Book Review

 The first book on Borley that I've read, and held to be definitive by many.

Here, Sean O'Connor gives us an in-depth account of the  history; the lives of the people who lived there and various outsiders who visited what has long been labelled 'The most haunted house in England'. Certainly, the legend of Borley boasts quite a reputation - even to this very day - and appears to have split opinion as to the likelihood or not of the various manifestations claimed to have taken place there. Ghostly nuns; writing on the Rectory walls; strange noises emanating from unoccupied rooms; a phantom coach and a strange man in a top hat seen prowling servant's quarters are just a few of the alleged phenomena experienced in this undesirable property.

The part of this story involving famous ghost hunter the late Harry Price has given doubters plenty of ammunition in their quest to debunk claims that Borley really was haunted and Sean provides valuable research and commentary on darn near every aspect of the story. My own feelings contain a belief that the Rectory did play host to the supernatural. While I accept that Price almost certainly was guilty of faking 'evidence' and that other people helped to dishonestly add to the mix, for me there was still enough to make it unlikely that every supernatural occurrence was either faked or from the projection of wild imaginations. Do read this book, and make up your own mind. The exhaustive research and how it was all put together make this a five star read.

 

DVD Review: Dead Of Night (BBC TV Series)

For the BBC, 1972 would prove to be a classic year of small screen Horror gems. Fans of classic ghost stories thrilled to their adaptation of M.R.James' A Warning To The Curious and Peter Sasdy's Nigel Kneale penned The Stone Tape. Dead Of Night was originally seven 50 minute stories but, alas, four of the tales were wiped. Now, The BFI have released the three surviving episodes on one DVD, and kick off with one of the most unnerving slices of television drama ever transmitted.

First broadcast on 5th November 1972, Don Taylor's The Exorcism places two couples in a restored cottage, aiming to celebrate Christmas with an abundance of food and drink. Edmund and Rachel (Edward Petherbridge, Anna Cropper) welcome Dan and Margaret (Clive Swift, Sylvia Kay) to their home and the men's conversation soon turns to the subject of money and how they should not feel guilty about their wealth. So far, so middle-class, and this cosy gathering get a taste of things to come when Rachel plays a tune on her clavichord and becomes extremely nervous, claiming she's never heard this piece before. When dinner is served, events really take a nasty turn for the worse when Edmund declares the wine to taste of blood, and their first mouthfuls of food have a burning nauseous effect on all four members of this well-to-do group. Add to this a mysterious loss of power, Rachel's vision of a child's skeleton in the bedroom upstairs and doors that won't open, windows that refuse to break mean the quartet are stranded with no way out and can only wait to discover the awful truth that will soon come to the surface. Here, the land of plenty becomes a barren wasteland, as past events return to haunt the living with a terrible vengeance. I was lucky(?) enough to witness the small-screen debut of The Exorcism and the screening damn near ruined Xmas for me later that year, with an extraordinary turn from Anna Cropper (who also appears in Robin Redbreast) staying with me for many long months after, and leading to the most downbeat of endings. This Holy Grail of tv terror has stood the test of time so very well, and will now greatly disturb a whole new generation of viewers. It's interesting to note that Cropper took over the lead role in the West End play of The Exorcism when Mary Ure dies of an overdose the day after the opening night.

Return Flight is the next episode on offer, and concerns one Hamish Rolph (Peter Barkworth); a recently widowed pilot who is hauled in by his superiors to explain his sighting of an unidentified aircraft with no navigation lights. The problem is, air traffic control recorded no other plane within an eight mile radius. Although Return Flight is possibly the least of this trio of tales, it does leave its mark; especially when we learn the first husband of Rolph's wife was killed in a bombing mission. Rolph's wish to move on with his life, coupled with professional and personal insecurities are beautifully drawn with a strong performance from Barkworth, and the script - penned by Robert Holmes - leaves one with an awful lot to consider. Return Flight was first screened on 12th November 1972.

The final episode, A Woman Sobbing, was first broadcast on 17th December 1972 and stars Anna Massey as Jane - a housewife kept awake by the sound of a woman sobbing in her attic during the hours of darkness. Husband Frank (Ronald Hines) can hear nothing of these deeply unsettling nocturnal events, and Jane's sanity is called into question by her husband and his friend Sandy (Julian Holloway). With their meagre sex life bubbling away in the background (sometimes foreground), the couple are gradually drawn apart leaving Jane very much alone in her battle with a perceived supernatural entity. A Woman Sobbing is a wonderfully understated chiller, using sound rather than vision to install an overwhelming sense of dread that could well come from the mind or from another world. Paul Ciappessoni's direction is finely tuned to John Bowen's script, and their collaboration really gets under the skin to leave a lasting impression: do listen out for the line, "Where'd you get the holy water from, duckie?" - the malevolent voice uttering that line stayed with for years after.

It's a genuine cause for regret that over half of the Dead Of Night episodes are no longer available, but this BFI DVD does include a gallery of stills from two of the missing episodes and there's a PDF of downloadable scripts for the four episodes that were wiped. The DVD also includes a booklet featuring beautifully written overviews from Lisa Kerrigan.This DVD is released form the BFI on 28th October, and is an essential purchase for devotees of uneasy viewing.

DVD Review: The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill

Situated in the county of Bedfordshire, St Mary's church in Clophill has more than its fair share of supernatural legend.The church was said to have been built over a leper colony and dates back to 1350, while a newer church was built on the same ground around 1840. In the 1960s' and 70s', it was the victim of grave desecration and black magic rites, and its altar was constructed facing the west (which, according to legend, means it's facing The Devil). As well as satanic worship, the church is also reputed to be a site where unquiet spirits walk amongst the shadows - more than enough activity for a whole army of ghostbusters. So, Kevin Gates got together a film crew and a few psychic investigators to shoot The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill, aiming to record their findings on film to establish whether Clophill really is haunted. A three-day shoot was decided upon, and the result is a fascinating and decidedly spooky documentary that mixes fact and fiction.

The Paranormal Diaries runs for 88 minutes and is the product of editing many hours of footage to provide an absorbing account of the techniques employed by modern-day investigators. The opening minutes include establishing shots of packing for the trip and departing for and arriving in Clophill before we move onto several interviews with bona fide eyewitnesses who once ventured up to the church and were privy to possible psychic activity and the aftermath of devil worship. By the time darkness falls, the scene is set nicely as the church and surronding area assume a much more forbidding look, illuminated by the light of the full moon. Here, night vision cameras follow shadows mvoign quickly across line of sight, and sound recording equipment catches rustling in the trees and bushes and all manner of noises that could well point to company from beyond the grave.Add to this spine-tingling seances, and a 'Ghost Box' that works in a similar way to a ouija board (but with sound) and you have a quality production that's refreshingly bereft of all the hysteria and amateur dramatics that so often plague televised ghost hunts.

With several jump out of your seat moments and instances where the crew can see something that we can't, The Paranormal Diaries is certainly not for the faint-hearted and fully deserved its inclusion in the 2013 Frightfest film line-up. After watching this nerve-jangling, often quite disturbing film, you're sure to have many questions about its content and the whole filmmaking process, and Second Sight's DVD is well served by two audio commentary tracks. In the first, co-director Kevin Gates goes solo, confessing the film was "as much an experience as a filmmaking process", and going on to adopt a mostly scene-specific approach. Gates explains why the film took three years to make; tells a wonderful story about a local pub that's straight out of a Hammer film, and explains that a surprisingly high percentage of the footage was reality rather than digital manipulation. Refreshingly, Gates points out certain ideas that simply didn't work - and they are few - and neatly separates fact from fiction. The second commentary track sees Gates back at the wheel, joined by Craig Stovin (documentary co-ordinator) and Creselda Cabitac (interviewer). Inevitably, there is some overlap with the first commentary, but it's an absorbing experience and contains a few surprises. This DVD also includes 23 minutes of deleted scnes that didn't make the final cut. While there's nothing that really sceamed out for inclusion, there is a story about a black cat seen prowling around the grounds that would have linked in nicely with the heart-stopping finale.

The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill is out now on the Second Sight label, and just in time for Halloween. Don't watch it alone!