The Stone Tape

Please, for the love of God, please quit screaming. Please!

This would easily be a genre specific 9. But for the god damned yelling. 15 middle aged seventies British men in a small room screaming as loud as they can most of the time. For fun. Bro style. Not scared. Just yelling.

Ok. This is is a classic. The story is great. It's all great. Yadda yadda yadda.

If you can stand being yelled at for ninety minutes and want to know more about seventies British horror then this is a must watch.

Nigel Kneale of QUATERMASS fame wrote this intriguing tale of an electronics crew striving to create an alternative recording medium to magnetic tape and inadvertently discovering that a haunted room might provide the solution to their quest. Capably directed by Hammer Films veteran Peter Sasdy, though fairly slow through the first half of the feature and a bit heavy on exposition (and thick British accents). The chilling climax makes up for any initial shortcomings. A must-see for fans of intelligent ghost stories...

An electronics firm sets up shop in an old country mansion, only to discover that one chamber is haunted. Company manager Peter Brock (Michael Bryant) decides to use all of their cutting-edge equipment to record the ghostly visitations, but computer programmer Jill Greeley (Jane Asher), who seems to be the most psychically attuned person there, thinks that they are meddling in something that they should not.

I've read that this ranks among the most well-liked British TV fright films. I always enjoy when a story brings together the worlds of hard science and the supernatural, and Kneale, the noted creator of the Quatermass stories, is one of the best at it. This is no exception, and the film's title has become shorthand for a certain type of haunting in parapsychology circles. However, the movie loses a lot of appeal whenever it deviates from the main plot and tries to throw in some corporate maneuvering. I also wasn't crazy about most of the performances, which were often played too big and on the verge of hysteria. Lead actor Bryant seems to shout 90% of his dialogue for no good reason. Still, haunted house fans should probably give this one a watch if it comes there way.

BBC four showed a tribute to the great Nigel Kneale entitled THE KNEALE TAPES and followed it with a screening of the 1972 teleplay THE STONE TAPE . I enjoyed the profile but couldn`t help thinking I would have preferred seeing the groundbreaking 1984 or even QUATERMASS 2 but never look a gift horse in the mouth

I enjoyed THE STONE TAPE far more than I expected but there is a slight flaw to it - It`s highly derivative of Kneale`s other scripts from the past , especially his masterwork QUATERMASS AND THE PIT . Without giving too much away I was instantly reminded of the events of Hobs Lane with a terrified character running away and a minister turning up with a bell , book and candle

THE STONE TAPE does thankfully manage to stand on its own legs and works as a haunted house story . It`s also very clever even if it`s not amongst Kneale`s greatest work though some viewers may be put off with the unsympathetic characters especially Peter Brock , but remember Kneale`s not the sort of guy who paints people black and white . Director Peter Sasdy`s direction may be a little flat but that`s not really a criticism and he does bring a certain amount of atmosphere to the play , check out the scary title and end credits . My only criticism of Sasdy is that the acting is a little over emphatic , which strangely seems to be a problem with some of Nigel Kneale teleplays no matter who the director is .

But it`s still pretty good stuff from a time when watching television was a great experience ,and I`d be very interested in what people who have never seen QUATERMASS AND THE PIT thought of it .

And if you`re reading this Mister Kneale I`d like to say thanks for all the outstanding drama you`ve given us over the decades

Intriguing idea, but would have been better compacted into a one hour format.

As it is, a significant amount of screen time is taken up by conversations involving the main male protagonists patronizing and condescending to the main female protagonist by virtue of a painfully sexist dimension to the plot. Additional screen time is taken up with another minor but still pointless and sexist subplot involving the main male protagonist's philandering.

These distractions detract from the suspense and the atmosphere, which are sometimes quite good. Furthermore, the movie suffers considerably from the kind of melodramatic overacting peculiar to some British television of the 50s through the 70s.

However, the intriguing main plot line, plus a conclusion that packs a punch, make this movie worth watching for fans of ghost stories, particularly made-for-tv horror.