Thursday 23 November 2017

'The Haunting of Borley Rectory'


A few days ago, I noticed an Indiegogo fundraising campaign for a film about Borley Rectory.  I was surprised because we have just had one by Ashley Thorpe called Borley Rectory, released by his Carrion Films (yes, very good) in June this year.  I haven’t seen it yet but I know it is receiving very positive publicity, and considerable acclamation at festivals. Thorpe also sought finance via Indiegogo and managed to raise 330% of his original requirement.

The Haunting of Borley Rectory on the other hand is being produced by Steven M Smith, an Essex lad who seems best known for cheaply-made films, mostly horror.  According to his Internet Movie Database (IMDB) page, “He grew up in Wickford, Essex attending Beauchamps Comprehensive school where is (sic) wrote, produced and directed his first film a media project entitled "Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide". It was a cheap-looking horror flick and never (sic) been released. His first film debut (sic) was "Time Of Her Life" and was shown at the Cannes film festival in 2005. He is currently working on several new projects and his wife is expecting their first child. He still lives in Wickford, Essex today.”  This is not inspiring confidence.

Smith’s Indiegogo fundraising goal is a very modest $5,000, which at the time of writing had reached less than a tenth of the required total.  Amusingly, the headings for the explanation of the film’s aims are done in a style reminiscent of the wall writings at Borley.  Presumably he is unaware Thorpe has beaten him to the punch because the page claims:

“This infamous and chilling location in Essex, has fascinated me since childhood. I want to be the first to bring this story of mystery, intrigue and seduction to life on screen in my own unique storyline that will cross timelines … Located in a remote part of Victorian England and isolated from any nearby community [actually Borley is about a mile from Long Melford and less than four miles from Sudbury], Borley Rectory was a Gothic-style mansion with a long history of death, murder and the supernatural.  Though famed as the most haunted house in England, this is a tale that – incredibly – has never before been told on film in its true account.”

Too late to be first I’m afraid, though perhaps Smith considers Thorpe’s effort to be untruthful compared to his own attempts to achieve stringent accuracy as he sees it.  Perhaps he was writing before Thorpe’s effort appeared and just hasn’t got round to updating his pitch.  Despite the impression given on the Indiegogo page, this is not a new project.  Smith posted a call for unpaid actors on Stage 32 (a website for those working in film, television and theatre) job board in 2012, though at that point the title was a simple Borley.

Smith runs Greenway Entertainment, registered in Wickford, but the Borley film, while listed on the Greenway website among dire-sounding horror titles, is being made by Divinity Pictures,

“created to produce unique and powerful stories that have never been told before. The story of Borley is well known by many, and we are committed to telling it as accurately and truthfully as possible, but with a approach (sic) that is budget restrictive” (a euphemism for ultra-cheap).

I don’t think Divinity Pictures has any footprint apart from this reference, and strongly suspect this is not going to be a film on the scale of Thorpe’s labour of love.  The Indiegogo page claims that 80% of the required funding has already been achieved (and further that distribution deals are already in place), despite the small sum so far pledged; the appeal is more to “to support the film and give opportunities for fans to get involved”, a kind gesture by the filmmakers.  Naturally there are a number of perks on offer depending on the size of the donation, none of which at the time of writing had been taken up.

The list of items requiring extra funding makes startling reading, and makes one wonder what the 80% already raised is being spent on:

Locations.

Costumes.

Consumables.

Extra Lighting.

Props.

Stills Photographer.

Gore Effects.

Creature Design.

Creature Make Up.

Location Catering.

Contingency Cashflow.

Marketing.

Gore?  Creature design and make-up?  Other items are so basic you wonder what the film will look like if the Indiegogo fundraising fails.  Contingency cashflow for example doesn’t sound like an optional extra, however small your budget.  There may not be much money for locations and costumes but there is already a basic poster, a procedure of which Roger Corman would approve.

Also in exploitation movie fashion, Smith has taken advantage of two hooks, each attractive to punters but which together he might expect to achieve synergy and thereby do even better box office: as well as Borley, he refers to Ed and Lorraine Warren.  Here is what the Indiegogo page says:

“The Haunting Of Borley Rectory is one of the best known Ghost (random caps in original) stories of the United Kingdom. Ed and Lorraine Warren (The Conjuring) visited Borley on many occasions fascinated by the story. Our film will be a fresh and original take on the ghost story.”

The Warrens?  Ye gods.  The page includes part of an old interview the Warrens gave about Borley, which they claimed to have visited over two dozen times.  It’s a curious affair, with Lorraine doing most of the talking but not saying much of substance.  She refers to the church but not the rectory, so it is unclear how the Warrens will fit into a story which according to the film’s title involves the rectory.  The ghost hunting duo may well disappear from the script (assuming they are in it), partly because otherwise Smith will likely find himself involved in litigation with Lorraine, and partly because it will be hard to place them at the rectory when they visited Borley decades after its destruction, unless he intends to go in for some radical timeline crossing.

Despite the lack of enthusiasm by potential backers it’s full steam ahead on pre-production.  The Indiegogo page claims “We are currently in talks with an array of exciting, A-list talent to bring this story to life.”  So far the page lists Smith as writer/producer/director (the film’s Facebook page currently shows Anthony Hickox as director, but then it has a release date of 2016, so presumably is out of date); Jon-Paul Gates as actor/producer; Elizabeth Saint (in real life a paranormal investigator among other things) as actor; and Hans Hernke as actor/executive producer.  The film’s IMDB page has a busy Mark Behar as co-writer/contributing producer/actor/production manager/second unit director (they have a second unit?) and ‘deadly weapons props handler’; Smith himself as actor, and Matthew Fitzthomas Rogers as Lionel Foyster. The IMDB page has a different poster: a bloody hand sticking out of the ground in front of a burning Borley Rectory, and a note that filming begins in September, presumably 2017 as the page was last updated in May this year.

I can’t see any exciting A-list talent among that lot but I expect those so far involved will be supplemented by the A-listers when they have been signed up.  Intriguingly, a brochure published for the 2014 Cannes film festival by UK Film lists Smith’s Borley project with Julian Sands and Dan McSherry in the cast.  Presumably Sands, who if not an A-lister is at least someone you’ve heard of, jumped ship when Thorpe’s Borley film came along as he is not now associated with Smith’s version, having acted in Thorpe’s.  McSherry (a University of Cambridge graduate I see) seems to have left as well, and the film is not listed in his IMDB filmography, though he is credited as associate producer on Smith’s Haunted 2: Apparitions, scheduled for release next year.

As far as The Haunting of Borley Rectory is concerned, according to the Indiegogo page there will be filming next year, with a release date of November 2018.  I’ll be keeping an eye on developments, hoping it is better than it sounds, but will certainly be giving the opportunity to invest in the project a miss.  Whatever form it eventually takes, it is doubtful Ashley Thorpe will be losing sleep over the competition, and to be fair I suspect Smith couldn’t care less.

 

Update 13 March 2021:

Having finally seen the film, which was released in 2019, I can say my reservations were amply justified.  The pacing is incredibly slow to the point of tedium, there is little atmosphere, editing is amateurishly haphazard, props are often clearly modern (a duvet?), and while the actors keep a straight face, albeit with a tendency to woodenness in delivery, they are let down by a chaotic script which attempts to be enigmatic but is confusing.  On the bright side, there is no reference to Ed and Lorraine Warren.  We are also spared Fitzthomas Rogers’s portrayal of Rev. Lionel Foyster.  So what is it actually about?

In 1944, Lieutenant Robert O’Neill, an American serviceman injured at Monte Cassino who has become an alcoholic to deaden the effects of shell shock, is sent to an isolated cottage in Liston, Essex, down the road from Borley.  Fortunately being an excellent German speaker, his orders are to listen to carelessly unencrypted German comms traffic.  He then radios his reports to HQ, this apparently being a much more reliable system – even though anyone can walk in and see his radio, especially when he is comatose – than sitting in a secure central site like, say, Bletchley.

But before we get to that we have a peculiar meeting at the ruin of Borley Rectory as it awaits demolition in the summer of 1944.  Harry Price is standing gazing at the structure when Marianne Foyster walks up.  Price asks her about her unwell husband (the ailing Lionel) and promises to visit him.  Marianne talks about love at first sight and seeing a mysterious man in visions ten year before who disappears when they are about to touch each other.  She has returned to Borley because she sensed he was close by.  We learn the identity of the mysterious man later (no prizes) but we never discover why she had experienced visions of him a full decade earlier.

Robert settles in and fights a losing battle with the bottle.  After visiting the rectory ruins he is haunted by a terrifying nun with glowing eyes who is able to materialise a bloody hand to attract poor old Robert’s attention by touching him and leaving streaks, repeated PTSD flashbacks from battle, and visions of a strange woman screaming, whom we know is Marianne, though when they are about to touch he always wakes up in odd places, often out in the open.  There is clearly a psychic link between Marianne and Robert for some unspecified reason.  Naturally the isolation and the weird events cause Robert to unravel, a little embarrassing when a British army officer badly in need of a shave turns up and finds him passed out on the sofa.

Robert learns his delivery girl has seen the horrible nun too, which makes her terrified of the cottage he is living in.  She gives Robert some publications about the Borley haunting, including Harry Price’s 1940 The Most Haunted House in England, and Robert calls in Price to help.  Price waves his pipe a lot and pontificates but isn’t able to offer much practical advice, though he does bring along Austrian medium Rudi Schneider who did not seem to have had much of a problem entering England despite being an enemy alien.  Rudi must have forgiven Price over his damaging accusation of fraud back in 1932.

When Marianne and Robert eventually meet they somehow realise the nun became pregnant and was murdered.  Fortunately, she drops the horror trappings and turns into a much more attractive non-special effects nun just as Robert and Marianne, putting their heads together, realise her intention is not to terrify anyone but to appeal for help to find peace.  She leads Marianne and Robert to the spot in a wood where she is buried.  They are able to accommodate her wish by banging in a wooden cross, when one might have thought she would prefer a proper Christian burial in consecrated soil.

An end title states Marianne and Robert married in 1945, so she didn’t hang about after Lionel’s death (though from what we know of the real Marianne she may not have waited).  Another title notes that human remains, possibly of the nun Marie Lairre, were discovered in 1975, which is odd if Robert and Marianne had already pinpointed them, and they never learned her name.  I think that about covers the plot, but it is less coherently presented than this synopsis suggests.

The production’s bright spots are the Essex and Devon locations, attractively photographed by Peter Panoa, though he must have been frustrated at seeing what was done with his work in the cutting room, and some decent hair styling (though Marianne is sporting most un-1940s multiple earring holes down her lobes).  The amusing end credits are worth sitting through as well.  The film’s title is a misnomer because while the plot is loosely linked to the Borley phenomena (and we have a nun), the rectory is certainly not the focus, and is only in there because The Haunting of a Cottage at Liston would not sell nearly as well; I wouldn’t be discussing it certainly.

The downside to the wheeze is that it is going to attract Borley and Harry Price aficionados who will feel very short-changed on discovering the famous paranormal case has been used as a shameless marketing peg on which to hang an unoriginal and poorly executed ghost story.  Falling loosely into the afficionado category myself, fortunately for me I was given a copy of the DVD so I didn’t have to shell out to see the film.  The most remarkable thing about it is to discover it lasts 90 minutes: it feels much longer, so languid is the pace.  It has also been released as The Haunting of Borley Manor, but giving it a slightly different name is not going to improve the viewing experience.