Out of the Darkness

A last hurrah for the Children's Film Foundation stable and a Derbyshire-set ghost story with a backdrop of plague and community secrets. Slight shades of HIGH NOON here but it's never quite as atmospheric or enthralling as I was hoping it to be. I loved the plague story and the Eyam references, but this time around the kids are pretty bland - the adults are better, for a change - and the story takes an age to get going and ends up rushed at the climax. HAUNTERS OF THE DEEP did it better.

Saw this film when I was about 14 (now 25), and it's never left my memory.

Excellent movie and adaptation of the true story about the Village of Eyam in Derbyshire which was hit by the plague.

The way the film was made, was of a typical English village where you can really feel the film coming alive.

At times it felt quite scary, when the ghost is first seen, and when one of the 3 kids gets lost in the woods and has to run through the graveyard.

I'd love to watch this film again, but i'm having difficulty finding it. That's how great I thought it was.

Highly recommended to anyone

Stumbled across Out of the Darkness on BFI and it was just great!

Out of the Darkness is one of those films that if you catch it as a kid it will likely stick with you for the rest of your life. Alas, I'm well past that stage, yet I still found it tremendously enjoyable.

The story tells about three young kids - a brother, a sister and the brother's friend - who go with the siblings mum to check out a weekend cottage they just inherited in the Derbyshire country. They come to find out the cottage once housed a family four that were killed by the Black Death. The plague was carried over from the next village of Eyam by a boy trying to save himself (And apparently Eyam really was devastated by the plague.) What ensues is a haunting that is more poignant than scary yet leads to a gripping finale. I don't want to give too much away, so definitely see this gem of a British production to get a cozy scare.

The Children's Film (and Television) Foundation were famed for their second-rate B-movies made for screening at kids' matinées in the UK from the 1950s-80s. They were low budget efforts, despite featuring many A-list actors who participated for standard Equity rates (presumably just for the fun of it).

Out of the Darkness was one of their last productions and truly broke the mold. Based on John Hoyland's novel "The Ivy Garland" (a favourite of mine as a kid) it features good cinematography and strong performances all round. It's also pretty scary in places and steeped in real-life history. I saw it as a tween on TV in the late 90s/early 2000s and never forgot it; now I am delighted to find that it's been made available as part of the CFFs re-releases on DVD.

Educational and entertaining. Recommended for viewers of all ages (though a bit too scary for younger children).