In December 2008, BBC's annual seasonal supernatural offering was not an episode of A Ghost Story for Christmas, but instead a three-part original horror serial written by Mark Gatiss. Entitled Crooked House, it was released on home media as a single one-and-a-hour play, which makes it all the more obvious how much homage it paid to Amicus' portmanteau horror films. And it's really rather good.
Crooked House sees young school teacher Ben discovering a mysterious door knocker and seeking information as to its origins from the curator of the local museum. The Curator reveals that it came from the demolished Geap Manor, a house with a dark and sinister past. The first two parts of the story are flashbacks to different periods in the house's chilling history, whilst the third sees Ben taking the door knocker home and attaching it the door of his own house, with terrifying consequences...
Crooked House has plenty of scares, but with Gatiss - co-creator of The League of Gentlemen - at the helm, it also has a gleefully twisted sense of humour. The first story ('The Wainscoting') stars Philip Jackson as Joseph Bloxham, who has Geap Manor restored. He soon comes to regret this, when it turns out the carpenter - unwilling to let good timber go to waste - decided to fashion the wainscoting out of wood from the local gallows. Of the three stories in Crooked House, it's the least scary, perhaps because it is the silliest, but it is nevertheless great fun, with Jackson giving a brilliant performance and managing not to be upstaged by Julian Rhind-Tutt.
The second story ('Something Old') is the most chilling, as an engagement at Geap Manor in 1927 invokes a terribly curse that unleashes the ghost of a bride who poked her own eyes out after she saw her fiancé cheating on her. It's very creepy as glimpses of the bride start to be seen, and terrifying when we finally see her without her vale. Director Damon Thomas again assembles a fine cast, which includes Jean Marsh as the ghost's aging sister and Samuel Barnett in a supporting role as a camp sailor. The final story ('The Knocker') is the most wickedly clever, as the Curator - played to perfection by Mark Gatiss - turns out not to be all that he seems, and Lee Ingleby's likeable Ben find himself the latest victim of the curse of Geap Manor, which eventually culminates in a wonderfully absurd final scene. The instalment channels Rosemary's Baby to memorably nasty effect, the revelation that the museum has been closed for several years is genuinely surprising on a first time viewing, and last five minutes are chilling.
Thomas' direction milks the atmosphere of the script for all that's worth and he seems to really understand Gatiss' inspirations, managing to make the play feel like the tribute to Hammer Horror and Amicus that it clearly wants to be. Whilst much of the play's creepiness is due to the gradually building sense of impending doom, some moments are simply terrifying, namely the bride removing her veil and the abomination entering Ben's house. And the casting of illusionist Derren Brown in the small but significant role of Sir Roger Widdowson is knowingly ironic, as the character proves to have pulled off the greatest trick of all. Whilst the BBC's Christmas ghost stories are more often than not serious adaptations of literary works, Crooked House sees Gatiss proves that it is equally possible to offer a more tongue-in-cheek tale that is still capable of providing plenty of festive fear.
Crooked House sees young school teacher Ben discovering a mysterious door knocker and seeking information as to its origins from the curator of the local museum. The Curator reveals that it came from the demolished Geap Manor, a house with a dark and sinister past. The first two parts of the story are flashbacks to different periods in the house's chilling history, whilst the third sees Ben taking the door knocker home and attaching it the door of his own house, with terrifying consequences...
Crooked House has plenty of scares, but with Gatiss - co-creator of The League of Gentlemen - at the helm, it also has a gleefully twisted sense of humour. The first story ('The Wainscoting') stars Philip Jackson as Joseph Bloxham, who has Geap Manor restored. He soon comes to regret this, when it turns out the carpenter - unwilling to let good timber go to waste - decided to fashion the wainscoting out of wood from the local gallows. Of the three stories in Crooked House, it's the least scary, perhaps because it is the silliest, but it is nevertheless great fun, with Jackson giving a brilliant performance and managing not to be upstaged by Julian Rhind-Tutt.
The second story ('Something Old') is the most chilling, as an engagement at Geap Manor in 1927 invokes a terribly curse that unleashes the ghost of a bride who poked her own eyes out after she saw her fiancé cheating on her. It's very creepy as glimpses of the bride start to be seen, and terrifying when we finally see her without her vale. Director Damon Thomas again assembles a fine cast, which includes Jean Marsh as the ghost's aging sister and Samuel Barnett in a supporting role as a camp sailor. The final story ('The Knocker') is the most wickedly clever, as the Curator - played to perfection by Mark Gatiss - turns out not to be all that he seems, and Lee Ingleby's likeable Ben find himself the latest victim of the curse of Geap Manor, which eventually culminates in a wonderfully absurd final scene. The instalment channels Rosemary's Baby to memorably nasty effect, the revelation that the museum has been closed for several years is genuinely surprising on a first time viewing, and last five minutes are chilling.
Thomas' direction milks the atmosphere of the script for all that's worth and he seems to really understand Gatiss' inspirations, managing to make the play feel like the tribute to Hammer Horror and Amicus that it clearly wants to be. Whilst much of the play's creepiness is due to the gradually building sense of impending doom, some moments are simply terrifying, namely the bride removing her veil and the abomination entering Ben's house. And the casting of illusionist Derren Brown in the small but significant role of Sir Roger Widdowson is knowingly ironic, as the character proves to have pulled off the greatest trick of all. Whilst the BBC's Christmas ghost stories are more often than not serious adaptations of literary works, Crooked House sees Gatiss proves that it is equally possible to offer a more tongue-in-cheek tale that is still capable of providing plenty of festive fear.