1972 Directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark
Paxton, an amateur archeologist, travels to the town of Seaburgh and inadvertently stumbles across one of the lost crowns of Anglia, which, according to legend, protect the county from invasion. On digging the crown up, Paxton is stalked by its supernatural guardian.
Ghost Story for Christmas: A Warning to the Curious
UK
UK
Action! - The Ghostly, Thrilling and Often Comedic Tales of Lawrence Gordon Clark
For his second work, Clark has the opportunity to go beyond the confines of one or two buildings with a slightly more ambitious adaptation where the horror comes less from cheap jump scares, but creating this fantastic sense of dread and spookiness that crawls under your psyche and watching it at almost midnight, in the dark, can create this feeling that the ghost in this story can be found in your home.
Another shining aspect is the cinematography, which even tops his debut. The glossy seascapes in these films turn an otherwise gorgeous scene into something to be afraid of. Again aiding the spectral theme are the…
"You can't tell where the beach ends and the sky begins." These M.R. James coastal towns act as metaphysical borders between the rational and the irrational. People always get into trouble when they go digging.
“And what a strange evening it is. You can’t see where the beach ends or the sky begins. It’s a real night for walking on the water.”
Whoa. Eerie. Excellent. Bit of The Vanishing dread mixed with Frodo and the ring. Perfect example of a movie deep-core frightening sans fanfare and fancy maneuvering. Two people having a conversation late at night who are in no apparent danger, but man, suddenly you gotta hit pause to make sure nobody’s at the door.
Don’t unbury what destroys you.
This is the second installment in the A Ghost Story for Christmas series of television movies that ran on the BBC in the 1970's, of which I had only seen the final entry. Like most in the series, Warning was directed by Lawrence Gordon Clarke and it is adapted from a story by M.R. James.
Here an archeologist (Peter Vaughan) travels to the town of Seaburgh to find one of the lost crowns of Anglia, which, according to legend, guards Great Britain from foreign invaders. Clive "Richard B̶o̶u̶q̶u̶e̶t̶ Bucket" Swift plays a doctor who aides him on his quest.
For a short(ish) film, this is able to build tension and atmosphere remarkably well. It is even more impressive when you…
The jewel in the crown (no pun intended, given Paxton's treasure) of the BBC's Ghost Stories, A Warning to the Curious is a truly unsettling experience that still chills to this day. Personally I put its success down to Lawrence Gordon Clark and sound man Dick Manton as much as M.R. James himself.
Manton's use of sound, indeed knowing when to use it and when not to use it is a key part of the discordant nature of these adaptations, and the ominous chord he uses to announce the arrival of the spectre-cum-guardian of the three lost crowns of Anglia is as effective as the way Gordon Clark chooses to shot this enigmatic and portentous figure - a manner which…
4th Lawrence Gordon Clark (after The Stalls of Barchester, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, Lost Hearts, before The Ash Tree)
Horror that strikes at the heart of the seaside experience, but a very specific off-season seaside experience, where all of the shops are shut and there's virtually no-one around. It's an experience of the seaside that I haven't really indulged in yet, that lovely graveyard loneliness. Solitude seems to be a friend of mine recently, what with the stresses of having to navigate the complicated emotional minefield that is existence, and somehow MR James understood that subtle pleasure. Like many of James's worlds, A Warning to the Curious is an entirely masculine entity, with women either unspoken or absent. In…
boxd.it/dgzEq
Hooptober Ocho rolls on!
Masterful ghost story that shows very little of a horrific nature....but sure raises the hackles!
Based on an M.R. James story, this 50-minute BBC gem was a revelation....my first viewing of a selection from their annual Christmas ghost stories from the 1970s.
Lawrence Gordon Clark, the director, changed a few things from the source story, such as setting the film in the Great Depression, rather than Victorian England....and making the protagonist older and more knowledgeable about the legend of the Lost Crown of Anglia and it's supposed supernatural protection of England from invasion. Sadly, the protagonist doesn't know that there is an entity that protects the buried crown from plunderers.
This film is so understated…
A subtly spooky, atmospheric ghost story set in the fictitious coastal town of Seaburgh. This short BBC folktale follows the excursion of an archaeologist who unwittingly unearths a long lost Anglo-Saxon crown, thought to have protected the country from Viking invaders. He then finds himself stalked by the ghostly defender of the treasure.
In typical British made for 70s TV style, A Warning to the Curious is a sober, understated affair. Despite its unusual plot, the film is carried mostly by its audiovisual merits. On almost all fronts, this felt very similar to Whistle and I'll Come to You, but instead shot in colour and almost exclusively during the daytime. Whilst not packing the same creep factor, A Warning to…
A Warning to the Curious sees Peter Vaughan playing Mr Paxton, an amateur archaeologist who ventures to a remote seaside town in Norfolk on a quest for a fabled crown reputed to protect Great Britain from invasion. This 1972 supernatural drama, produced by the BBC and serving as the second instalment of its A Ghost Story for Christmas strand, was adapted and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and drew an impressive audience upon its first broadcast on Christmas Eve of that year. Through eerie, macabre imagery and incisive characters, it offers a unique, thought-provoking exploration into the dangers of coveting forbidden knowledge.
It’s a well-realised ghost story, with its stark, low-budget 16mm photography being competently handled. It creates an unnerving…
Watched on Blu-Ray for 'Hellwatch' of 2023, a marathon of Halloween-related media in October
Well colour me surprised, this was the sort of story I was expecting The Stalls of Barchester to be. In fact, it could be argued that this is a sequel to that one; the appearance of Dr Black* and how the plot is akin to history repeating itself (ie, people delving into histories best left forgotten and suffering the consequences) only here with the folk horror being doubled down. Lawrence Gordon Clark’s direction, already proving his worth the previous year, makes sure that nobody will be able to remove him from the top position as a Ghost Story director in his semaphore effort; so much of…
Ghoul Britannia - The British Horror Month
A little tip for you. If your laptop breaks in some way and, because you're a bit tight for cash you decide to buy a refurbished one on eBay, make sure that the dozy sod selling it to you HAS MADE SURE THAT THE SOUND WORKS ON IT FIRST.
On the plus side, it did mean that I started playing Donkey Kong Country again in the absence of films. I hate Stop & Go Station, though.
It's a return to films and this season with A Warning To The Curious, not strictly a feature film as such but a made-for-TV film from the 1970s that was made as a part of the BBC's Ghost…
Men only want one thing: to find the last of the three crowns of Anglia.
If this were written in 2021 it would be called "Fuck Around and Find Out" (which come to think of it, is the plot of most M.R. James stories).
