(1973)
Dir - Jeff Grant
Overall: GOOD
This famous Public Information short commissioned by the UK's COI, (Central Office of Information), was played frequently during children's programing over a number of years,, and it took a strikingly darker tone to such material which was usually more humorous and kid friendly. Serious this time about scaring kids away from the dangers of playing near bodies of water, The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water, (sometimes just referenced as Lonely Water), was narrated by none other than Donald Pleasence and shot outside in broad daylight over two days. Running less than two minutes in length, it still manages to come off as chilling due to the calm and effectively eerie voice-over, as well as the hooded grim reaper-like black figure that slowly walks or stands still while children play carelessly around him. For a genuinely spooky commercial, (which there are few if any of), it gets the job done.
(1975)
Dir - Tony Scull
Overall: MEH
Done as an installment of the Yorkshire Television ITV schools' program strand Music Scene, "Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance" adapts M.R. James' 1911 short story of the same name and is one of the few surviving installments to the obscure show. Though it runs less than seventeen minutes, it stays faithful enough to the source material which hardly required a hefty run time to pack in its plot points, which are sparse to begin with. As the title would suggest, a man called Humphreys inherits his uncle's house, a house that happens to come equipped with a hedge maze that has some curious occurrences attributed to it. It wraps up after presenting a lone supernatural moment, one that is creepy enough visually yet is ruined, (as is the entire episode), by a jaunty musical score that never shuts the hell up.
(1978)
Dir - Lindsey C. Vickers
Overall: GOOD
One of two directorial works for Lindsey C. Vickers, (the other being 1981's outstanding and similarly structured The Appointment), The Lake may be too slow moving for most viewers since it essentially amounts to one thirty minute build up to convince us that our two person cast is doomed, but it is an expertly staged build up. A dread-fueled mood is established straight away as we get several still establishing shots of a barn and its surrounding area, all filmed deadly quiet and in broad daylight. The entire film plays in such a setting, putting us in the fly on the wall seat where Julie Peasgood and Gene Foad have a picnic, relieve their old childhood stomping ground, and get to some hanky panky before their dog becomes the first to sense that something is amiss in this isolated and seemingly tranquil locale. Little happens until a lot happens all at once, with no explanation given to slam home the encroaching fear of the unknown. Both we and our hapless protagonists begin to feel that something is wrong, but we are left with no answers, only questions.
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