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.
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.
