The Stone Tape (DVD)

...a suspense-cum-horror tale shown by the BBC at Christmas in 1972. It is often cited as being the pinnacle of "Quatermass" author Nigel Kneale's output (tackling as it does one of his favourite themes; science meeting the paranormal or fantastic), and similarly regarded as possibly the very best ghost story ever made for television.

Plot (spoilers included throughout this, and the rest of the review)
===================================================
...their work, and learn from the site foreman (Iain Cuthbertson) that there is a room within the building that the workmen refuse to enter because it is haunted. The team's curiosity gets the better of them, and their probings reveal a set of stone steps seemingly leading nowhere.

A particularly sensitive member of the team, a computer programmer named Jill (Jane Asher) finds herself alone in the room, and feels a sudden drop in temperature; ... more

"The Stone Tape" is a suspense-cum-horror tale shown by the BBC at Christmas in 1972. It is often cited as being the pinnacle of "Quatermass" author Nigel Kneale's output (tackling as it does one of his favourite themes; science meeting the paranormal or fantastic), and similarly regarded as possibly the very best ghost story ever made for television.

Plot (spoilers included throughout this, and the rest of the review)
===================================================

Ryan Electrics are a company working in direct competition with Japanese firms, and are desperate to come up with a new form of recording medium. Their research team are moved into a renovated Gothic mansion to continue their work, and learn from the site foreman (Iain Cuthbertson) that there is a room within the building that the workmen refuse to enter because it is haunted. The team's curiosity gets the better of them, and their probings reveal a set of stone steps seemingly leading nowhere.

A particularly sensitive member of the team, a computer programmer named Jill (Jane Asher) finds herself alone in the room, and feels a sudden drop in temperature; fleeing, she looks back to see a figure in Victorian garb at the top of the steps, screaming at something else unseen. This ties in with later investigations that reveal a maid was
found dead at the foot of the steps.

Encouraged by their leader, Peter (Michael Bryant), the research team decide to analyse the phenomenon; postulating that the stone fabric of the room has somehow "recorded" the extreme emotions of the maid, they believe that they may have hit upon their new recording medium. But despite several team members witnessing the supernatural phenomena in the room, they remain unable to capture any of them on their own recording equipment. Under increasing pressure from a competing corporate project, their attempts to unlock the secret of the fabric of the room are fruitless, and a final experiment apparently erases the "stone tape" for good.

This failure to come up with anything viable causes Peter's team to lose control of the research space in the facility, but Jill has discovered that the recording of the screaming maid was simply masking the traces of something far more ancient and malevolent; just how malevolent is something Jill discovers to her cost as she
replaces the Victorian maid as the subject of a recording on the stone tape.

"The Stone Tape" was rarely repeated after its original broadcast (which occured when I was 16 months old!) so I knew of it by reputation rather than actual experience; therefore, based on the rave reviews I'd come across and Nigel Kneale's other work, I took a chance on the BFI DVD of it.

I wasn't disappointed; if one ignores the aspects that cannot help to have dated (the sets, the "special effects", the hairdos, and a certain amount of grandstanding acting from a section of the male cast (think "Life On Mars"' 70s police officers)). But the concept is intriguing; I don't know if the theory originated here, but the idea that
hauntings are recorded memories repeatedly played out to sensitive onlookers by a particular environment certainly gained a lot of momentum from Kneale's exploration of it.

The acting is mostly good, especially Jane Asher, whose fragility (playing a character obviously teetering on the brink of a breakdown) renders you a lot more sympathetic towards her than many other characters in similar predicaments; in particular, when she takes her fateful walk, when you KNOW that no amount of cake-making skills can help her, your reaction isn't the usual "well, if you're going to be THAT daft.....". But it's the atmosphere that seeps from the stone seemingly out through the screen that gets you; I can think of no finer fusion of technology with gothic. Credit for that must go to the director, Peter Sasdy (a Hammer alumni) and to Kneale's superb script. Scares are garnered by suggestion rather than display; a knack almost totally lost by contemporary film and television.

As a last example of the power of the play for those prepared to buy into it.... my first viewing was deliberately a) by myself b) late at night c) with all the lights off. 80 odd minutes of gradually ratcheted tension was gathering itself to terrifying denouement, and just as I was about to discover Jane Asher's fate.... there was a power cut.

I pretty much had to scrape myself off the ceiling, having been comfy (but tense) on the sofa a moment before. The views of the cat (who'd been sitting on my lap at the time) remain unknown. Maybe the stone of my living room walls doesn't record very well.

The DVD (if you can find it; seems to be out of print now, alas; "The Stone Tape" does crop up sometimes on BBC4, though) comes with a fine Kim Newman and Nigel Kneale commentary, some filmographies, and DVD-ROM content including Kneale's original script for this and for "The Road", a Kneale play that has been unfortunately lost from the BBC archives.

Main Cast/Credits:

Michael Bryant Peter Brock
Jane Asher Jill
Iain Cuthbertson Collinson
Michael Bates Eddie
Reginald Marsh Crawshaw
Tom Chadbon Hargrave
John Forgeham Maudsley
Philip Trewinard Stewart
James Cosmo Dow
Neil Wilson Sergeant
Christopher Banks Vicar
Michael Graham Cox Alan
Hilda Fenemore Bar Helper
Peggy Marshall Bar Lady

Directed by Peter Sasdy
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Written by Nigel Kneale

A little gem from the mists of time; difficult to get hold of, but well worth checking out if it's broadcast again, or re-released. 

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