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The Stone Tape [DVD] [1972] starring: Michael Bryant|Jane Asher|Iain Cuthbertson

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Rating: - Remember when the BBC was good AND respected horror?

So, I may not have even been born when the show aired, and only knew about it for the past six months or so, making me a bit behind many of the afficianados, but there is one thing I can say after seeing it for the first time. It lives up to its reputation.

The main reason to state this is who wrote it (Nigel Kneale), who knows how to write a TV play that grabs and shakes you - 1984 and the Quatermass series show his pedigree. The way it unfolds shows this, playing more like an actual book in how it unfolds before reaching the dark core of what is happening, which is something you don't see too often. This also drags you in, wanting to see how it unfolds. Rather than regular shock tactics, the atmosphere of dread increases slowly, before unleashing at key moments as the ghost appears. In many ways, it is on the same level as the original version of The Haunting, which is a compliment if ever there was one.

The other aspect that works in The Stone Tape's favour is the acting, which is a cut above what you would expect, and also helps distract you from what you DO expect from an early 70's BBC show (plastic sets and the occasional ropey SFX). Jane Asher has to do a lot of acting for her character to work, and carries it off superbly. Michael Bryant and Ian Cuthbertson also carry themselves with aplomb, and even thge lesser characters are given a degree of gravitas with the performances (the late Michael Bates as Eddie the most notable).

Yet the reason The Stone Tape has remained in the consciousness of those who have seen it is the climax, which still packs a punch 30+ years after the show was broadcast. I'm not in the mood for spoilers, but suffice to say you'll remember it long after as well.

However, there is a shame after watching this. With the exception of the (even better) Ghostwatch in 1992, the BBC has never seen fit to give the horror genre due respect and attention, which it clearly deserves. Just watch this and remember one thing: Horror doesn't need to be blood & guts to scare you, neither does it need cliched scares. Watch and learn.

Rating: - Stone cold

I'm afraid that I disagree with the other reviews and found 'The Stone Tape' about as terrifying as the shipping forecast. It's an imaginative production and the effects are suprisingly good - especially at the end - but overall it hasn't aged well. Michael Bryant's character spends most of his time shouting 'Dammit Peter!' in a style of acting that recalls 'The Brothers' at its most melodramatic, whilst Jane Asher does her bit for women's liberation by sobbing hysterically at every available opportunity. However, it was a joy to see Iain Cutherbertson, who also appears in the infinitely superior 'Children of the Stones'.

Rating: - classic television.

I just want to get the negative bits over with first. Yes, this has inevitably dated. It is set-bound for one thing,(I can't help feeling how brilliant it would be to re-do this now, but filming it on location at some appropriately atmospheric spot), the special effects are distinctly Dr Who-style, and some of the acting is very 1970s television, i.e lots of up-the-nostrils close-up shots and actors bellowing at the tops of their voices as though microphones hadn't been invented yet! Having said all that though, it does hold up very well as a classic piece of television drama which is fondly remembered by many who were lucky enough to see it the first time round.

In it the mysterious death of a maid a 100 years ago has somehow got "recorded" in the very stonework of the building. There are also hints about mysterious happenings to American servicemen stationed there during WW2, rumours of black magic from long before that, and some vague, but unnerving suggestions as to what happened on the site thousands of years ago. A complex, intelligent script, and well-rounded characters definitely make this a bit of vintage television worth seeing. Michael Bryant, Ian Cuthbertson and Jane Asher are all very good indeed.

Rating: - From Tape to DVD

If this is representative of what the BFI can dust off and put out on DVD, let's hope they carry on raiding the archive. Billed as the BBC' s Christmas ghost story in 1972, it's an admittedly dated but brilliantly suspenseful thriller from the pen of Nigel "Quatermass" Kneale that works because of what it implies as much as what it actually shows. The story concerns a team of scientists, led by Michael Bryant, who relocate to a spacious Gothic mansion to research a breakthrough recording medium. The team's only woman, played by Jane Asher, triggers an apparition in the only room that has not been renovated, and the remainder of the thriller is occupied with their frenzied attempts to monitor and explain the phenomenon.
Full of enthusiastic acting that derives from the school of "Shout, shout and shout again" (stage star Bryant, great though he is, is perhaps most guilty of projecting to the gods), The Stone Tape has lost none of its power to chill, 30 years on.
Kneale expertly feeds the imagination, lights the blue touch-paper and retires. There's no wrap-up resolution and the grand climax (this was the era of Jon Pertwee's Doctor Who, remember) boasts a succession of effects that don't come with "special" on the box. But the atmosphere is the thing. The extremely noisy sound track, aided by some creepy radiophonic murmurings, makes you so hypersensitive that you'll have to keep fiddling with the volume.
Kneale's intriguing reminiscences on the commentary - he doesn't believe in the supernatural, you know - and a printable script complete a great package.
But just bear in mind - it'll stay with you.

Rating: - A Classic Television Ghost Story

I remember when this was first broadcast in 1972.
At the age of 14 this classic ghost story had just the right mix of the supernatural and science fiction to make a lasting impression. The horror does not come in the form of blood and gore but from the basic plot element which identifies that the stone of a building records events when they occur under the correct set of emotinal circumstances, which to me seemed to offer a perfect solution to the question 'are there such things as ghosts ?'

The intensity of the plot has lost nothing in 30 years and although a little dated in some areas such as it's lack of exterior scenes, this seems to add to it's status as a classic, in the same way as Quatermass.
I watched it recently with my 68 year old father and my 13 year old nephew in the knowledge that they would both enjoy and suffer only a limited number of sleepless nights !!

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