The Haunted Airman

I purchased this dvd being a huge fan of Dennis Wheatley and especially his book the Haunting of Toby Jugg. How they can even claim that it was based on this book is beyond belief. Other than a few of the names of the characters being taken from the book it is totally different.

Take away the claim and look at the film without knowing the book and it becomes a pretty average horror movie. Robert Patterson was just okay, a little on the dull side although playing the part of a crippled airman I suppose there was not too much more that he could do. It would of helped if they would of made the film a little longer to include the correct ending to the story. Once I had seen that it was only just over one hour I had the feeling that I would be disappointed. I'm sure that Wheatley fans feel the same way.

What an awful movie!! I could barely manage to watch it for the hour it lasted — any longer and it would've been off.

Low-budget I can handle. Weak supporting performances, poor special effects, bad editing… OK, fine. But there is no way to get past a film that is painstakingly slow, boring, and completely lacking a plot (or even an explanation)! Nothing happened! I watched the whole thing and still couldn't really say what it was about. Basically it's a guy who's scared of the shadows. Is he crazy? Why is he in a mental hospital? Is he imagining the spiders and the moving shadows? Who knows — or, more importantly, who cares? Sorry, but a slightly moving shadow on the floor in the middle of the night means nothing, especially when the curtains are open; it's probably just a branch moving outside the window.

Robert Pattinson is attractive as ever and turns in a pretty good performance, but there was no way he could salvage this piece of crap.

My response in a nutshell: yeah, it was only an hour lost…but I can think of so many better and more interesting things I could have done in that hour. Like, the dishes.

As a fan of the late prolific Dennis Wheatley who found "The Haunting of Toby Jugg" to be one of his most gripping thrillers, I was confused to find that this tedious mess was supposed to be inspired by that work. What there is of plot is undercut by uncertainty whether Jugg, from whose POV the story is seen, is a reliable narrator or a nutcase. Playing Jugg, Robert Pattinson mostly gives the perfect Goth fashion model note of cool emotionlessness, which presumably serves him well in the hunky teen vampire stories to which he owes his fame. For this story I would have preferred an actor.

Just for fun, the script includes a bit of interracial flirting which is perfectly appropriate to the 21st Century and perfectly inappropriate to World War II, during which the story is set. Casting a black woman as nurse in a British countryside rest home was inane altogether considering the era.

Don't waste your time. Read the book if you can find it.

I have not read the book, so I saw this film with no expectations what so ever. Honestly, the only reason I did see it, was sheer curiosity with Robert Pattinson. I'd only ever seen him in Harry Potter and the atrocious attempt at a movie adaption of my most beloved book Twilight, and apart from a beautiful face I thought he showed talent.

I think he does very much so in this film too. As I found most of the storyline quite confusing, his acting was the only thing that kept me watching; I understand that the story in general is about a RAF pilot who gets injured during a bomb raid, and later is tormented by the memories of war, but then it gets a bit... thin. My guess is that the director had an at least semi-clear vision of what he wanted this film to be, but no solid idea of how to get there.

I think this was a good and solid made for TV feature, however, it had not much at all to do with the Dennis Wheatley novel. It is only very loosely based on the book and die-hard Wheatley fans will therefore be rightly disappointed by it. If you watch it as a stand-alone movie it quite well portrays the story it is supposed to tell. I knew already when I saw the length, that it couldn't be close to the book, so I decided to NOT compare and therefore liked the movie, regardless.

One thing is for certain - Robert Pattinson shows an excellent range! This role is quite a departure from Cedric in GoF and therefore quite nicely shows the capabilities of this up and coming young actor!