The Last Light: An Irish Ghost Story

The Last Light: An Irish Ghost Story
Starring Robert Render, Jo Lamont-Crawford, and Vivian Jamison
Directed, Written and Produced by George Clarke
2011
Unrated
85 minutes

Saint Patrick's Day is nearly here and what better way to get ready for it than with an Irish ghost story?!

I found this movie on my Amazon Prime list of horror films. It got terrible ratings by ordinary viewers, but I don't always believe those since I like books and movies that are not mainstream, and it takes place in Ireland. So I decided to give it a chance and see what I thought after the first 20-30 minutes. It was a cold, winter evening anyway, so why not?

In this story, we follow along on the last job of Rob Walker, maintenance man, who has been hired to secure and close up an old house that had been used as an old folks' home. Supposedly teenagers are getting in and trashing the place, and it really is unsafe.

Rob says goodbye to his wife, Jo, and promises that it won't take long and he will be back in plenty of time to get ready for their planned trip on the next day. They think of this as a simple job, with only a few windows to board up, and then off they go for their holiday.

One of the best parts, cinematographically, is the drive Rob takes to his home and to the old house, which is located in a Irish coastal town. The gorgeous, winding drive along Ireland's coast is both beautiful to watch for the scenery, and also reminiscent of another familiar drive through gorgeous scenery, that of Jack Torrance through the mountains in The Shining. 

Finally Rob gets to the house. There is a big chain link fence around the property with a locked gate. A sign says, "Danger. Derelict Building. KEEP OUT."

Once he is near the house, we finally get a good look at it. It is a monster of a building--big, sprawling, dilapidated, sadly worn out from better, more affluent days. There are windows, lots of them, some boarded up but many not. Rob will have some work to do.

Right away we get a sense of the tension in the story, as Rob makes his way around the building, examining it for entrances or broken windows. The background music as Rob walks around the place is lovely, a lone violin with a mournful drone. One of the best things about this movie is the music since it is fairly simple instrumentally and sets the mood quite well.

We are introduced to the noises in the house as soon as Rob unlocks the massive deadbolt on the main door and surveys the scene with the greenish light from his torch. Upon trying to light his second cigarette and already not finding his lighter, he hears a bang from within the house and rushes off inside the dark maze of corridors to find the culprits, those kids trashing the house. Crazy eerie laughter is heard as they lead Rob on a merry chase of cat and mouse deeper and deeper into the darkness.

One of my favourite moments occurs early in Rob's exploration of the house. There is a bit of comic relief as he takes the time to make shadow animals on the wall in the green glow from his flashlight.

Fortunately, he has a flashlight. Oh, wait, he loses it too! What will he do now?

Okay, this movie is somewhat predictable with Rob chasing mysterious figures in white only half seen in the darkness  but who then attack him. I liked the close up effect of the ghosts attacking and Rob fighting them off, only to have the camera pull back so that we can see Rob is struggling by himself. The ghost has vanished. Lots of dripping water sounds and crumbling walls add to the effect of dereliction. 

When Rob doesn't return in time, who comes to the rescue? His wife and friend who, when she hears where Rob has gone, tells Jo, "That place is known for paranormal activity, violent paranormal activity."

"We all have guides, spirit guides. They're with us at all times.... If I can connect with my spirit guide I can find out if Rob's okay."

And in typical horror movie fashion, all does not go well with any of these people.

The title, The Last Light, comes from the ending of the movie. Rob has lost his torch, his cigarette lighter, and then used all of his matches in his attempt to get out of the house before the violent spirits get him. He does not see the hand of his now-deceased wife, holding a rosary, emerging out of the rubble of a wall that collapsed on her. Rob finds one more match, lights it, and sees his last ghost. The movie ends here with us supposing that Rob never does get out.

This movie is filmed in a fairly "realistic" style, very low budget (only £200), no fancy cinematography or effects. If you have seen The Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity, you will understand how this one looks. The filter on the camera is set to a blue/green tint to give a washed-out, colourless look to to everything, stressing the oldness and greyness of the big house we are about to enter. The last only real burst of colour we see in the film is at Rob and Jo's house with the red-orange walls and her bright clothing. Supposedly the lighting was zippo lighters and matches, an ipad light, and a maglite torch covered with a sandwich baggy.

There are major things that are never explained to us in the film. Who are the ghosts and what are they doing there? Who is Michael, the strange young man Rob finds in the attic under a plaid blanket? Why was Rob able to work at the house for several days previously with no difficulties but is now terrorized out of his wits? Who hired him for this job anyway? I guess I will never know the answers.

Cairndhu House, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

I do want to say something about the house used in this movie, Cairndhu House, located near Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was built for Stewart Clark, a wealthy Scottish textile industrialist in 1878 and was extended over the years, which explains its warren of hallways and rooms off of rooms.

Sir Thomas and
Lady Edith Dixon

In 1918, Edith Clark, daughter of Mr. Stewart Clark, came to live at the house with her husband, Sir Thomas Dixon. This was one of many of their homes and they further enlarged the home and estate, enjoying house and garden parties there.

In 1947, the house was donated to the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority. It had become too big for the elderly Dixons and they hoped it would be used as a convalescent home and hospital. It opened as a convalescent home in 1950, but finding funds to run such a large building was difficult, so it was eventually closed in 1986. It has been left derelict for many years and is now reputed to be "one of the most haunted houses in Northern Ireland."

Who haunts Cairndhu House? I'm not sure, although now we can add Rob, Jo, and friend Viv to the list of ghosts.

Thorn Abbey

Thorn Abbey
by Nancy Ohlin
New York: Simon Pulse
2013
295 pages


The title of this new teen horror book reminded me of Gothic horror favorites, alluding to Thornfield in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. But the story is essentially a remake of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, one of my all-time favorite books. Could this book live up to it? Well, not really because the goal is too high, but it is an entertaining story nevertheless.

Tess is a shy, insecure, mousey, and very ordinary girl who transfers to Thorn Abbey, a prestigious boarding school. Her new roommate, Devon,  seems friendly at first, until the mention of Max de Villiers comes up. Max was her former roommate, Becca Winters', boyfriend, but Becca died tragically and Max is heartbroken so leave him alone.

Of course, there is an instant connection between Max and Tess and despite Devon's dire warnings, they begin to date. But weird things start to happen to Tess. She hears crying in her dorm room when no one is crying. Someone tries to burn her at the bonfire. The girls' lounge is vandalized. And Max is moody and won't talk about Becca. Tess feels uncertain about his feelings and thinks he is broken up about Becca, who was seemingly perfect in every way.

Thorn Abbey might be like Fettes College,
a prestigious boarding school in Edinburgh, Scotland

The original Rebecca in the Daphne Du Maurier haunts Manderly more figuratively and "gets her revenge" on Max from beyond the grave through a set of circumstances and the mind of a crazy housekeeper. But I she is not an actual spirit walking the halls. Becca Winter, however, is portrayed here as a real ghost with revenge in mind on Max and the school, possessing her former roommate, Devon, and causing her to carry out her deadly schemes from the afterlife.

I think I found the original story far more disturbing. We can easily imagine the young Mrs. de Winter -- young, naive, happy to leave a life of servitude but frightened of the grandiose life she now finds herself thrown into. Everywhere she goes she hears about the perfect Rebecca, the dead wife of her new husband who won't talk about her. How could anyone live up to that? Rebecca doesn't have to do anything at all to be disturbing to us, but having Mrs. Danvers around to emphasize the new wife's inadequacies compared to her beloved Rebecca makes the story even creepier.

Thorn Abbey is a readable story that hangs together well enough, although I found the ending rather silly, like a B horror movie ending. One possession was enough for me. I think teens 14-16 will enjoy the boarding school premise, as well as the ghostly occurrences, even if they haven't read the original classic.

The Shining

The Shining
by Stephen King
Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books
2005
Read by Campbell Scott
14 sound discs (16 hours)


Every winter, I listen to the audiobook of The Shining on my long drive back and forth to work. It has become a ritual of mine, as has listening to Duma Key, also by Stephen King, in the summer.  I really hate winter and especially driving in it, and you would think that listening to a story about a family at a secluded and hauntingly evil hotel in the winter is pretty weird for a person who doesn't like snow, winter, and being cold. Actually, listening to the description of the howling winds around the Overlook Hotel, and about Mr. Hallorann's terrible drive up the canyon on that last day, makes my drive seem less onerous, and I find both a sense of sympathy and understanding for the Torrance family and also a sense of relief that I don't have to face what they do in the story. Besides, I also really like haunted house stories and this one is probably the ultimate!

In this year's listening, I was struck by the descriptions of the wasps' nest and the images of destroying it. We encounter the wasps several times:

1. Jack finds a wasps' nest in the roof of the Overlook when he is re-shingling. The wasps are sluggish and he is able to kill them and remove the nest for Danny to see.
2. The wasps somehow return to the nest and life when the nest is in Danny's room. They come out to sting Danny while he is vulnerable in sleep, and this is the first stage in driving doubt into the relationship Jack has with his wife and son.
3. Jack recalls the occasion when he and his brothers watched his father burn a wasps' nest with gasoline. The event seems like it could have been dangerous, not just to the wasps, but to the young boys, and shows the cruelty of Jack's father as he obviously enjoys the destruction.
4. Danny tries to read the mind of the Woman in Room 217 but finds out it is like "sticking your hand in a wasps' nest". She only has thoughts to sting and hurt, like the wasps he encountered earlier.
5. The descriptions of the snowmobile in the tool shed compare it to a wasp. Its colors and sounds resemble a wasp, and Jack's reaction is a desire to destroy it so that it can't hurt him and his plans to leave the Overlook.
6. The black cloud of evil spirits leaving the Overlook as it is burning is likened to wasps swarming from a nest.
7. Mr. Hallorann also has an experience as a youth with a wasps' nest when he was a boy and recalls the he experience, which is quite similar to Jack's.

What is the best way to remove a wasps' nest anyway? Besides calling an exterminator, that is. Is dousing the nest with gasoline and burning it up really a good idea? 

Several websites advise no, burning the actual nest can only cause the wasps to leave quickly and angrily. Using  smoke can be effective, however, because it makes them sluggish when they fly away and then you can remove the nest.Several websites mention insecticides like Jack's bug bomb, but they also say there are better, more natural ways of removing them. Water, dish soap, or a shop vac are also mentioned as methods. Waiting until evening to use any method is also a good idea because the wasps will also be more lethargic. And always wear your protective gear!

The explosive burning of the Overlook at the end, like dousing the wasps' nest by Jack's father, causes the ghosts there to leave hurriedly, but they are not obviously harmed. Mr. Hallorann encounters them in the tool shed where they desperately attempt to make him complete their mission, but Dick gets away and the shed burns, too. We are then supposing that this might be the end of the ghosts as they have no home to fasten on to, but for those of you who go on to read Doctor Sleep, we find out that the ghosts of the Overlook are far-reaching and still very much a danger to Danny and others as they search for new places to build nests.

Most people have an instinctive fear of flying insects that sting. Our natural reaction is to run and swat. As we see with the ghosts at the Overlook, running and swatting doesn't work either. Danny, despite his young age, has to use his intelligence and insightful powers to out-think the Hotel mastermind, employing patience in the face of fear if he and his mother are going to have a chance to survive.

One last word about the audio version, Campbell Scott. Campbell Scott is the son of famous actors, George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst. He also is the reader/performer for another classic Stephen King book, The Cell. I find his voice clear, soothing but not soporific, engaging, and one of the main reasons I listen to the audiobook version rather than reading the book myself. 

Doctor Sleep

Doctor Sleep
by Stephen King
New York: Audioworks
2013
Performed by Will Patton
15 sound discs (18 hours)

I imagine that everyone who likes horror fiction has read The Shining by Stephen King. It is a horror classic, the ultimate "haunted house" book. The story of Danny, his parents, Mr. Hallorann, and the ghouls of the Overlook has given many people nightmares for years, and the movies haven't helped. I have heard that one of the iconic and scariest movie moments is Shelley Duvall's portrayal of Wendy behind the bathroom door, screaming for dear life while her husband, Jack, chops down the door with an ax.

 For me, the scariest horror book moment is the vision of the dead woman in the bathtub in Room 217. This is the book I listen to every winter on my long drive home from my job at the library, the snow swirling around me. The story makes my drive seem like a walk in the park compared to what the Torrances are going through.

Needless to say, we have all been wondering and waiting and hoping for a sequel to tell us how Danny turned out after his experiences in the Hotel of Horror. Would Danny ever have the chance of a normal life after seeing the Woman in Room 217, the ghost of Mr. Derwent, and those hedge animals, all at the age of 5? I don't know if anyone of any age would be left unscathed.

What excitement I felt when I heard that Stephen King was writing a sequel to his most famous story! I was one of the first on the library list for the audio book and waited several months for it to be ready. And now that I have finished, the wait was worth it!

Danny is much older. He still has "the shining" but he has been trying to drown it in the bottle, becoming an alcoholic like his father. I was really sadly disappointed that Dan gave in to alcohol, especially having seen what drinking did to his father and mother. But, thinking about it, the problems that he faced then and after were so overwhelming that perhaps it isn't surprising that he would turn to anything that would help him forget. But what sadness for me that he hasn't turned out okay after all!

Danny finds AA meetings and a job as an orderly at a hospice in a small town in New Hampshire. We see that he is lucky in his choice of new homes, since his support system is very strong, and Dan changes his life dramatically. Through his work at the hospital, he becomes known as "Doctor Sleep," invoking the childhood nickname and his use of the shining to help the dying pass on.

Then we meet Abra Stone, a young girl born with a phenomenal shine. She lives nearby and has somehow connected with her mind from a very young age with Dan, even before the two met. Abra becomes the key to Dan's further adventures with horror.

Enter the True Knot, a group of "steam" sucking vampire-like near-immortals. Steam is their term for "the shining" and they travel the country in motor homes, posing as ordinary retired people, seeking children rich in "steam". Once they find these children, they hypnotize them, take them to secluded places, torture them to increase the potency of the steam, and suck it out, killing the child in the end. The children are usually never found again.

This works very well for a long time for the True Knot, until one day when Abra and her incredible "steam" witnesses what they are doing to one of the children, the "baseball boy". To make a long story short and not give away too much, the True Knot discover that she is on to them and also that her steam would be an absolute feast. Abra must outwit characters who have been outwitting humans for centuries, and Dan is called upon to help her.

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado--
the inspiration for the Overlook Hotel

Of course, the Overlook Hotel is present in this new book, too. We return through Danny's flashbacks, but coincidentally (or not), the True Knot own a campground and lodge on the site of the Overlook. This is the location of the final showdown between their leader, Rose the Hat, and Danny and Abra. The place has not lost its horrifying ambience for readers, and the spirits that haunt it are still there, but this time Dan is in control.

The reader of the audiobook was excellent and made the 18-hour listen was worth it.

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh
starring Aaron Poole, Vanessa Redgrave 
Directed by Rodrigo Gudiño
2012
84 minutes
Unrated

Here is a very unique ghost story by Canadian director, Rodrigo Gudiño, making his debut into horror movies with The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh. This movie has one actor on the screen for the entire film, a man named Leon Leigh (Aaron Poole), the estranged son of Rosalind who has just died. Rosalind is still present in the house and we hear her story told by Vanessa Redgrave who tries to explain her situation to her son.  Besides the physical presence of Leon and the voice presence of Rosalind, we have a third major character, the atmospheric presence of Rosalind's astonishing and eerie house.

Rosalind Leigh, a member of a strange angel cult called God's Messengers, has just died in mysterious circumstances. Her son, Leon, an antiques dealer comes to her home, a house he has never visited while she lived there as Rosalind's voice informs us, to tidy up her estate. When he arrives he finds a house overwhelmingly full of antiques, many of them religious in nature. We also learn through a phone call that Rosalind has been buying up antiques that Leon has sold through his business agent, and Leon is naturally unhappy to find out that his mother has purchased these items, supporting him without his knowledge.

"Do you believe in angels?"

Through the course of the movie, we learn more about why Leon left home and refused to see his mother. Leon's father, another cult member, committed suicide, but the cult leaders were exonerated. His mother continued in the cult, trying to indoctrinate her son, her own "angel", into the cult beliefs. She had a ritual "game of candles" that she would use to try to get Leon to say he believed or else the angels among us would turn his back on him and he would lose their protection. It didn't work and he rejected her beliefs and eventually ran away never to return.

We follow Leon's exploration of the house. The camera shots are very interesting throughout the movie, not only following Leon's action, but panning the rooms showing all of artifacts of Rosalind's life. The set designer was very good at designing a house that is crowded without being absolutely cluttered, and also creating a very gothic atmosphere. Here and there are more personal touches left by Rosalind, including her photograph and several wall samplers with mysterious adages placed around the house that add to the ominous feeling.

"If a fork, it will be neither a man nor woman."

You might think this would be a boring movie, just following this guy around an old creepy house, looking at old stuff. But then things happen that are unexplained. Leon takes some items down to the basement and finds an angel figurine that brings back unpleasant memories of the "game of candles". When he heads back upstairs, the lights go out, so he heads back to look for the fuse box. Then the lights go back on. We see the angel figurine again on the television in the living room and Leon panics and calls his former girlfriend/psychiatrist. She talks him down from the panic, but things are not the same for Leon in the house. He has an visitor at the door (after dropping a fork during dinner), a neighbor who is also a cult member who tries to get Leon to come to a meeting. We see Rosalind's video on television of a meeting that shows evidence that she was still heavily involved in the mysterious cult. Watch out for the large angel statue, though.

Inside Rosalind Leigh's bedroom shrine

Leon finds the key to his mother's bedroom inside the angel figurine and unlocks the door. It is an odd room with a stairway down into darkness. Of course Leon goes down the stairs and we must follow. There we find the scene of the video, full of angel figures and other religious symbols. What was this room really used for?

The scariest part of the movie is the monster that comes from the back garden. It looks dog like and ferocious, and we think that Leon has managed to lock it out, but it somehow gets into the house, terrorizing him in his sleep. What unearthly creature is it? Maybe it is the loneliness that Rosalind hints at that "ate" her alive, waiting for her son to come back to her.

The ending of this movie was a surprise for me. I won't give it away, but part of the horror is that we are left wondering who really is the ghost here. Is it Rosalind, the dead woman who has been talking to us and her son after her death? Is it Leon, who may or may not have really been in the house at all? Or is it the house itself? Maybe it's all three. Watch and decide for yourself.

The Innkeepers

The Innkeepers

starring Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, and Kelly McGillis

Written and directed by Ti West

2011

101 minutes

Rated R

Here is another "haunted hotel" movie for you fans of The Shining. There are a few elements that seem similar to the Stephen King story: empty hotel (it is closing after one last weekend), few main characters, and of course, ghosts covered in blood, but there are plenty of differences to make this an entertainingly spooky ghost story in its own right.

This movie takes place at a real inn in Torrington, Connecticut called the Yankee Pedlar Inn. It was built by Frank and Alice Conley and opened in 1891. There are 55 individual rooms and 5 suites. The inn boasts period furnishings and a tavern. Here is a link to their History page.

The Yankee Pedlar Inn Today

Alice and Frank Conley

Because the Inn is old, many people believe or assume that paranormal activity has occurred there. The most "haunted" room is Room 353 where Alice Conley died, and Alice supposedly still roams the halls, checking on guests. She sounds like a nice comforting ghost, one that the hotel guests wouldn't mind seeing, doesn't she? Despite investigations by the Northwest Connecticut Paranormal Society, however, there have been no confirmed manifestations of Alice, Frank, or anyone else at the Yankee Pedlar.

But just because there have been no positive sightings doesn't mean that the Yankee Pedlar Inn can't make a good backdrop for a paranormal horror movie.

Our story takes place at the Yankee Pedlar Inn, a once-grand hotel that is about to close (this part is fictional and the Inn is still open today). We meet the two remaining employees, Luke (Pat Healy) and Claire (Sara Paxton). There are few guests this weekend, a mother and son who leave during the beginning part of the movie; Leanne Rease-Jones (Kellie McGillis), a movie star turned new age counselor who is attending a convention; and an older man who wants to stay in the room in which he spent his honeymoon.

Madeline O'Malley

Luke dabbles in ghost hunting and runs a website about the Inn's supposed hauntings. He has been conducting investigations on his own and has equipment to record EVPs, but he hasn't really found much. Claire, who has just left college, has become Luke's ghost-hunting acolyte. She is fascinated with Luke's stories, especially the one about Madeline O'Malley, the bride who hanged herself after her fiance abandoned her on her wedding day. Madeline is said to be buried in the basement of the Yankee Pedlar, hidden there by the owners who didn't want the bad publicity her death would bring, I suppose. Claire really is impressed with Luke's website and wants to help him with the research.

Claire's naive intrigue with the ghost hunting process is the best part of the movie, and Sara Paxton's character and acting is the most convincing to me. Claire uses Luke's equipment to try EVP sessions around the hotel, searching for any response from Madeline O'Malley. Tension builds as Claire hears music coming from the unattended piano, sees Madeline's bloody face around the hotel, and other disembodied voices speak to her in the basement. Luke cannot handle this activity and freaks out, confessing that he has never actually experienced any paranormal occurrences at the Inn before, and leaves Claire in the hotel to deal with the situation herself.

By the end of the movie, though, I was not sure how much of the paranormal activity was really happening or if it were actually only in Claire's impressionable and receptive mind. Although we see all of the characters in action, I think this story takes place through Claire's point of view and we "see" what Claire sees without looking through her eyes via the camera. I don't think Luke really sees or hears anything in the basement but only reacts to Claire's seeing and hearing--"She's right behind you!" Leanne tries to help Claire with her crystal pendulum but urges Claire to leave the hotel because it isn't safe for her, but Leanne doesn't specify the source of the danger. Nobody else sees the ghosts of Madeline or the old man, who has committed suicide in his former honeymoon suite and is discovered by Claire in all of the bloody horror.

With Luke's interview by the police at the end come more doubts about the hauntings. Luke has come back after Claire discovered the old man's death. He agrees to find Leanne to tell her to leave the hotel with them, but Claire, left alone, hears noises in the basement. Thinking it might be Leanne, Claire goes down the stairs to check it out (we are all shouting, NO! DON'T GO DOWN THERE! at this point). She falls, hits her head, and starts seeing the ghosts everywhere. She locks herself in a room at the end of the basement hallway and cannot escape. The ghosts bang on the door, over and over. Already having established previously that Claire is asthmatic, we know what is going to happen and it does. But after the fact, Luke tells the police that it is he banging on the door and calling Claire to let him in. Where were the ghosts? Did he not see them?!

This movie is appealing for many reasons. I like the location of the empty, shabby chic hotel. The minimal cast also brings strength to the tightness of the story--not too many characters to confuse things. The ghost hunting by amateurs is also very believable to me and appealing, and yes, it can be dangerous. The bloodiest scene, the discovery of the old gentleman in the bathroom, is gory but we don't see it happen to him. The tension is built slowly with small noises, shadows, glimpses out of the corner of our eye. Then we feel all of the terror that Claire is feeling, from the panic of being left by Luke to finding the dead body and finally, the hysterical panicked run through the labyrinthine basement.

This movie is Rated R for bloody images and language. Here is the trailer for you. Don't get too scared!

The Awakening

The Awakening
starring Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, 
and Imelda Staunton
2011
107 minutes
Rated R

This weekend was a good movie-watching one for me. Besides The Picture of Dorian Gray, a classic movie based on a classic book, I watched a "haunted house" film, my favorite type of horror movie. This one, called The Awakening, was filmed at Lyme Park, a beautiful yet eerie National Trust house in the Peak District in England. There are very few satisfying haunted house movies, especially recently, and the English seem to do it so much better than anyone else. This movie is no exception. It may have its flaws, but I found it quite satisfying and suitably spine-tingling.

The time is 1921. England is still recovering from the massive loss of life in World War I, and everywhere people are searching for comfort from spiritualists. Rebecca Hall plays Florence Cathcart, a ghost hunter who specializes in exposing phony mediums. She has written a book on the subject and is known for her expertise and intelligence.

Directly after a successful and exhausting hunt, Florence is visited by Robert Mallory (Dominic West), a teacher at a boys' boarding school where a child ghost has been seen by many of the boys. The ghost has appeared in the class photographs over the years, and the headmistress of the school (Imelda Staunton), a devotee of Cathcart's book, would like her to come and investigate.The catalyst of the request, however, is a recent death of student and the other boys are convinced that the ghost had something to do with it. Despite Florence's exhaustion from her last hunt, she is intrigued by the case and agrees to go with Mallory to the boarding house.

Once at the boarding house, we learn that it used to be a private home and a young boy had died there. Using the latest ghost-hunting apparatus, Florence quickly discovers the non-ghostly cause of the student's death. The case is closed and she packs up and prepares to leave. The school is shut down for half-term and all of the boys depart, all but one. 

Strange things begin to happen directly to Florence. She sees someone in the lake and falls in. She sees scary little dolls in a dollhouse version of the boarding school that look like people in the school, set in scenes from her activities.She sees a boy where none should be, and flashes of other people appear. Things like this aren't supposed to be happening to a realist like Florence. Add a budding romance between Florence and Robert Mallory, a rather odd headmistress, and a psychotic groundskeeper and you have the makings of a really satisfying old-fashioned ghost story.

Here is a trailer for the movie. The R rating is for scariness, nudity and sexual content.

After watching movie, I was interested to learn more about the location of the boarding school. Lyme Park is a National Trust home and you can visit. Here is a website to learn more. Fans of Jane Austen movies will recognize it as Pemberly, the estate of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (1995, Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle).

Lyme Park, Disley, Cheshire, England

Since I am also interested in art, I was interested to see another spooky painting in this movie. "It came with the building, it's the boys' favorite." Mallory thinks it is a painting of the beheading of John the Baptist, but erudite Florence corrects him and identifies it as Judith Slaying Holofernes, taken from the biblical story of Judith in which she kills the Assyrian general after he has fallen asleep drunk, thus delivering the Kingdom of Israel. Many painters have dealt with this bloodthirsty topic, including Titian, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Donatello, and others but the painting shown in the movie is by the Italian early Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1611-12) and is especially gory with blood. It doesn't refer to any other part of the movie's story but is just another interesting fact, perhaps to illustrate Florence's intelligence.

You might also be interested in listening to the entire hymn,  Be Still My Soul, which is sung in the movie and uses the beautiful theme from Finlandia by Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius.

The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
New York: Harper Children's Audio
2008
7 sound discs (ca. 7.5 hours)



First of all, let me tell you that I think I have given up reading Neil Gaiman books myself. If I can find a sound recording with Neil Gaiman reading his own story, I will choose that EVERY time! What a great reader! I always love a good audiobook for my long car rides back and forth to work, but when the author himself (or herself) performs it so well, that is better than anything! We could go into how pleasing the deeper male voice (with British accent) is to female ears, but that doesn't matter here. Others I know who are male also think Neil Gaiman is just a great teller of his own stories. It is definitely worth hearing them in his own voice, if you want to try one of his books.

Spookily titled The Graveyard Book, this is not the scariest book you will ever read. It is, after all, for ages 10 and up and has received the Newbery Award for good reason. It is well-written, interesting, sometimes funny, with interesting characters, both alive and dead, and just plain entertaining. I like it for all of those reasons. It also has some horror elements which I want to discuss here in this blog, since we are talking about scary books. This author is very adept at adding the scary factor to children's books without getting too heavy handed, yet as an older reader (or listener), I can appreciate that there is more to make us afraid than the children might know.

This story, which Gaiman admits is loosely based on The Jungle Book, is about a small boy. One evening a stranger enters his home and killed--yes, in a children's book--the mother, father, and older sister of this small boy. The boy, who is only about two or three at the time, somehow manages to climb out of his crib, go down the long flight of stairs, out the open door, up the street, and into the old graveyard at the top of the hill. This small boy is then taken in and protected by the inhabitants of the graveyard, especially Mister and Mistress Owens who become his parents, and also a gentleman named Silas, about whom we learn more later. The toddler is named "Nobody Owens," and has the run of the graveyard  and he is safe from the man who is still looking for him.

Highgate Cemetery, London (wikimedia commons)

Most of the story is a bildungsroman about the boy Nobody, or Bod for short, and his growing up as the only living boy in the graveyard. His life isn't unhappy, just different. He has friends, tutors, and skills that most living people never learn such as fading, haunting, passing through solid objects, etc. Silas, his guardian and only person who can leave the graveyard, finds food and clothing in the outside world for him. We watch him grow and learn and change as time passes.

One day, Nobody finds a living friend, a little girl named Scarlett who visits the graveyard. Her parents think she is playing with an imaginary friend, and Scarlet isn't sure herself if Nobody is real. Scarlett eventually moves away and Bod is left without another living friend for a time. Scarlett is Bod's only live friend throughout this story, but even she cannot really understand him and his situation.

Behind all that happens is the knowledge that we haven't seen the last of Jack, the man who assassinated Bod's family. We don't know why he did it either, but since Silas and the ghosts are so adamant that Bod never leave the graveyard because this man is still after him, we are on edge, too. There is a close call concerning Jack, when 8-year-old Bod sneaks out of the graveyard to go into the town to sell an ancient brooch recovered from a barrow for a headstone for his witch friend, Lizzie Hempstock, buried outside of the graveyard in unconsecrated ground. The shopkeeper locks up the strange boy in his storeroom, and remembers someone who was looking for a boy like that, a man named Jack. Luckily for Bod and us, Lizzie came to the rescue and Bod gets away.

The true horror of the book takes place near the end of the story. Scarlett returns to the town and discovers that her friend, Nobody, isn't imaginary after all. She encounters him again while assisting another new friend, a Mr. Frost, with some grave rubbings. The two friends are glad to see each other, and Bod is happy to tell somebody his story. Scarlett takes it upon herself to find out more about the murder of his family and asks her friend Mr. Frost for help. Well, it just so happens that Mr. Frost is actually living in the house where this took place! Coincidence, you might ask? Probably not!

The Egyptian Avenue at Highgate Cemetery, London
taken by John Armagh, 12 August 2007 (wikimedia commons)

I don't want to give away all of the story because I really hope you will read this book. Let me just say that Bod is very fortunate to have the friends he does who have taught him the unusual skills he uses to defeat the bad guys in the end. We also learn about other strange and scary creatures in this book, including ghouls, sleers, Hounds of God (otherwise known as werewolves), and vampires. The ghosts are actually the least scary creatures in the story, since the living people Nobody encounters are, for the most part, rather terrifying.

I know the ending is meant to be happy when Bod is finally able to leave the cemetery (you have to read how that comes about), but he is only 15. He hasn't been to a modern school for more than a month or two, and lacks any live family or connections. He hasn't spent any significant time with living people and lacks social skills from modern times, since most of those skills were formed by the long-dead graveyard inhabitants. Silas has given him money, but will he know how to get on? As a mother myself, I'm as worried about him as Mistress Owens now. But Nobody Owens has proven himself to be resourceful, so we can only hope that he will be okay.

Another wonderful part about listening to this story rather than just reading it are the musical interludes on each cd. Béla Fleck, "banjo renegade," has contributed a marvelous rendition of Camille Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre, with Ben Sollee on cello. The banjo is actually a very nice choice for this, duplicating some of the traditional violin sounds, but it also capable of sounding like the "bones," usually played by a xylophone or marimba. Below is a link to part of this recording, which is available on itunes. If you would like to hear the original orchestral Danse Macabre, try this recording. Any afficionado of horror should be familiar with this musical story of Death playing for skeletons in a graveyard until cock crow. It's a magnificent piece of music that is perfect for this story, made even more perfect with Fleck's unusual instrumentation.