The Haunting of Hewie Dowker

I saw The Haunting of Hewie Dowker during its first and only screening on Australian television back in 1976. I was just seven years old at the time and it scared the crap out of me. As with a lot of made for television productions, because these films lack the budget of theatrical releases the filmmakers must find alternative ways to represent images and it is the imaginative indirectness of TV movies (before the coming of CG which spoiled everything) that has made them so effective and engaging. It is specifically the dream sequences in Hewie Dowker that stand out in my memory with the haunting whisper of the ghost calling out to Hewie like Kathy's voice traveling on the wind calling out to Heathcliff. I also remember sequences that took place in a storm drain but much of this was watched through my eight-year-old fingers so I cannot be more helpful. I doubt this film will ever again see the light of day and should it do so it will have not aged well. For my part, it remains a moment of my childhood that contributed to my abiding fear of ghosts and ghost stories - I love 'em!