Directed By: Peter Sasdy
Written By: Nigel Kneale
Editor: Geoff Higgs
Cast: Michael Bryant, Jane Asher, Iain Cuthbertson, Michael Bates, Reginald Marsh, Tom Chadbon, John Forgeham
A research team from an electronics company moves into an old Victorian house to start work on finding a new recording medium. When team member Jill Greeley witnesses a ghost, team director Peter Brock decides not only to analyze the apparition, which he believes is a psychic impression trapped in a stone wall (dubbed a "stone tape"), but also to exorcise it--with terrifying results.
This is one of those slow films that ends up being more scientific throughout in terms of research and results, displaying that on the search for something supernatural. Keep in mind that this was originally a British television movie.
It’s not at all not only by today's standards I can’t even imagine it being that scary back when it was made, but one was personally how the premises could be quite fearful.
We have seen this type of story before, but this was one of the earlier examples of that kind of film, which mainly focused on an investigation and the behind-the-scenes politics involved.
The editing and transitions in between scenes make one wonder if this was originally a TV movie.
By the end, it seems more effective as a story or book rather than a movie maybe because by now we have seen so many other films borrow elements and add to it to make it more entertaining or fill it out that it now feels more like a theatrical, dramatic interpretation or dramatization than anything else that seems like it would be more thrilling on the page rather than on the screen as the film presents there to be a great build-up for very little to happen.
For me, Jane Asher is barely recognizable from the Deep End to this film. In that film, she was the epitome of beauty and free love, but here, she seems more stodgy, quite a chameleon-like performance at least in my eyes.
Grade: C
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