Sent to stay at the Borley Rectory, a wounded American soldier arrives to perform spy operations for the allies while he heals, but the longer he stays there he becomes convinced of the haunted nature of the building which houses a terrifying paranormal entity and tries to save himself and his friends from its clutches.
This was a pretty satisfying and enjoyable effort. One of the films' better elements is the engaging atmosphere and feel throughout here which manages to get quite a lot to like. The idea of the house being out in the countryside away from everything sets a rather normal and unexpected setup for a haunted house tale yet the sunny nature proves quite adept at hiding the darkness within. The backstory involving the history of the building and how the first world war affected its history causes even more to like here with the reasoning behind the haunting of the building and its ghostly inhabitant trying to get inside his head given plenty of space. As well, there's a lot to enjoy with the generally creepy and chilling ghost interacting with everyone. The few scenes of the ghost appearing and tempting inside the house playing sinister spook-games with him as it creeps up behind him and alerts its presence before disappearing is quite chilling with the demonic visage and creepy look playing a nice part to the hauntings. That these are shown to have a fine psychological impact on him throughout the course of the film and leads to a fine reveal about her fate that's quite heartbreaking which is in tune with the style of ghost story that's on display. These are what holds the film up for the most part. There isn't much to dislike here but it does have a few minor flaws. The main issue is the rather sedate and measured pacing that leaves this one somewhat sluggish at times. As the ghostly nun is only in a select few scenes for brief shock jumps, this strategy results in periods where it can feel rather dull, especially when it continually tries to hammer home what happened to him in the war that caused his condition. The numerous flashbacks are somewhat overdone, making for a somewhat irritating tactic of interrupting the story to focus on somewhat we already know when it could've just used a single all-encompassing version and moved on. The other troubling issue is the odd storyline in the second half that turns the film into a rushed and confused paranormal investigation. The conversation between them at his house which causes him to stay goes on way too long as it then moves into a montage of preparing for the nightly visit. As these include the lengthy conversations about the woman he sees in his dreams and the history behind it all, this segment comes off underwhelming and the complete opposite of what's supposed to occur in these kinds of films. Combined with a low-budget tone and feel that some might be put off by, these are the films' flaws.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.
This was a pretty satisfying and enjoyable effort. One of the films' better elements is the engaging atmosphere and feel throughout here which manages to get quite a lot to like. The idea of the house being out in the countryside away from everything sets a rather normal and unexpected setup for a haunted house tale yet the sunny nature proves quite adept at hiding the darkness within. The backstory involving the history of the building and how the first world war affected its history causes even more to like here with the reasoning behind the haunting of the building and its ghostly inhabitant trying to get inside his head given plenty of space. As well, there's a lot to enjoy with the generally creepy and chilling ghost interacting with everyone. The few scenes of the ghost appearing and tempting inside the house playing sinister spook-games with him as it creeps up behind him and alerts its presence before disappearing is quite chilling with the demonic visage and creepy look playing a nice part to the hauntings. That these are shown to have a fine psychological impact on him throughout the course of the film and leads to a fine reveal about her fate that's quite heartbreaking which is in tune with the style of ghost story that's on display. These are what holds the film up for the most part. There isn't much to dislike here but it does have a few minor flaws. The main issue is the rather sedate and measured pacing that leaves this one somewhat sluggish at times. As the ghostly nun is only in a select few scenes for brief shock jumps, this strategy results in periods where it can feel rather dull, especially when it continually tries to hammer home what happened to him in the war that caused his condition. The numerous flashbacks are somewhat overdone, making for a somewhat irritating tactic of interrupting the story to focus on somewhat we already know when it could've just used a single all-encompassing version and moved on. The other troubling issue is the odd storyline in the second half that turns the film into a rushed and confused paranormal investigation. The conversation between them at his house which causes him to stay goes on way too long as it then moves into a montage of preparing for the nightly visit. As these include the lengthy conversations about the woman he sees in his dreams and the history behind it all, this segment comes off underwhelming and the complete opposite of what's supposed to occur in these kinds of films. Combined with a low-budget tone and feel that some might be put off by, these are the films' flaws.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.