The Secret of Crickley Hall

Prolific British horror writer James Herbert's 2006 novel—his penultimate work—served as the basis for this three-part 2012 BBC miniseries, which tells a rather old-fashioned haunted-house tale spanning 70 years, moving between the present and events from 1943. Suranne Jones stars as Eve, who blames herself for the disappearance of her young son Cam during a visit to a park. To help her cope, husband Gabe (Tom Ellis) arranges a family stay at Crickley Hall, an old mansion near a coastal village. But Eve soon senses a spectral presence, which she believes to be Cam calling for help. As the ghostly apparitions increase, Eve investigates the history of the place, discovering that it was the site of a tragedy during the war, when it served as a refuge for children fleeing the Blitz. Writer-director Joe Ahearne juggles Eve's inquiries (which involve a medium and a parapsychologist as well as various locals) with flashbacks to 1943, a time when the imperious head of the orphanage clashed with a young teacher who questioned his stern methods, particularly toward a sad-faced Jewish boy from Germany. Eventually, the plot strands come together, but a series of unlikely coincidences in the last act ultimately strain credulity. While handsomely mounted and decently acted, The Secret of Crickley Hall feels like a contrived attempt to resuscitate a creaky genre. Optional. (F. Swietek)