Brilliant and touching

Better Late Then Never

Amateur movie with Big budget

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Wonderful HTV series for children that still sends a shiver up the spine, Children of the Stones is a masterclass in how to create atmosphere on a low budget, although the plot, largely borrowed from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, doesn't make a great deal of sense. The brilliant soundtrack of wordless choral music contributes immensely, while the Avebury setting with its weathered stones is used to excellent effect. Some reviewers have suggested it is like a kids' version of The Wicker Man - not really, this is played very straight and has none of The Wicker Man's comedy or eccentricity. Night of the Demon might be a closer comparison.Iain Cuthbertson puts in a trademark eye-rolling performance, while the parents Gareth Thomas and Veronica Strong are a bit too like the nice teachers at school. The child actors do well, and are less irritating than most. Freddie Jones hams it up like a good 'un, and Ruth Dunning is the housekeeper from hell.The ending is truly awful, sci-fi gobbledegook that merely provides a form of words to allow them all to stop. It is all about atmosphere, leaving logic and coherence behind at the boundary of Milbury.

The music was so corny I almost abandoned the video immediately. It was extremely bad and amateurish. It almost makes the film unwatchable, like something in a high school video project.The video is broken into 10-minute segments, each with opening and closing credits and a recap of the previous segment. This is tedious.The science is pretty shaky, but at one point went completely off the rails. They decide some stones point up permanently aligned with a star in Ursa Major. Vertical stones in England would never align so far north. Further, no English stones would be permanently aligned anywhere because the earth rotates and revolves around the sun.In general, the science is utterly embarrassing. It would be too silly even for an Austin Powers movie.I think the writer went to a math library and grabbed snippets and formulae at random to include in the script. Given that there is so much of this and that it is central to the plot, I think they could have hired a real (or at least student) mathematician to compose some plausible dialogue.The movie is carried by Matthew, a scientist's ten-year-old son. He is unusually intelligent, curious and spunky. He is a considerably better actor than any of the adults in the movie. The acting, in general, has a stagy feel with lots of contrived exposition.They show you something strange, then let you sit with it for a long time before giving their explanation. It does a good job that way of building suspense. The way they build unease is by showing you very ordinary things, but that just should not happen, like a giant stone appearing in a different place. There is almost nothing that would count as a special effect, other than possibly a dissolve.Despite all the negative things I said about the movie, it was engaging. I cared about the characters. It was creepy. The very last reel was high camp. I expected the villain to play Toccata and Fugue on an organ.

There is so much rubbish on children's television these days, much of it populated by good-looking American children. So to be able to stimulate one's children's minds a brilliant story from the 70s, fortunately still intact and available on DVD is a blessing.My own children thought that having to watch an 'old' programme was a terrible idea and would far rather have spent another few hours on their mind-numbing tablets, however I did manage to convince them to watch the first episode, and then if they didn't want to continue, they didn't have to.Well, they were transfixed and ended up thoroughly enjoying the story, the seven episodes divided up into three chunks.In my opinion, the great thing about the story apart from the notions of a mad high priest, normal people being turned into brain-dead zombies, people being turned to stone, and a narrow escape for the protagonists, is the idea of circular time, similar ideas having been exercised in Dr Who and Back To The Future to name but a few.It could and probably will, all happen again. And if you get the opportunity to visit Avebury (the location for the fictional Milbury) then pick a bright sunny day and do so. It took me right back....

A scientist, Adam Brake(Gareth Thomas) has a 3 month opportunity to study and write a thesis on electromagnetivity in neolithic stones in the remote English village of Milbury. He brings along his young son Matthew, whom he enrols in the local school for the duration of their stay, Matthew is a budding scientist himself with lofty ideas for his future. Adam is keen to start as soon as possible and is delighted when Margaret, the curator of the local museum offers to show him something rather startling concerning the stones. Margaret asks him simply to touch the stones, this Adam does without any fear, but that soon changes as he hears ancient voices and sees strange visions just before a strong surge throws him feet into the air. Something else is at work here, but Adam doesn't know what. Margaret also warns him that he will soon feel very alone here as the residents are an odd bunch, with odd sayings and customs, in fact the village seems divided into regular people and what are known as "The Happy Ones" Matthew notices this in school right away, as the Happy children also show that lighter demeanor and are vastly more intelligent than the other kids.Matthew befriends Dai (Freddie Jones) a local tramp, whose social status belies his intelligence, for he has been spying on the residents and immediately knows Matthew is different, he warns that he will not be able to escape the boundaries of the village because of the power of the stones. The oddness seems to be being controlled by the town leader Rafael Hendrick (Iain Cutherbertson) a Lord Summerisle character and a former astro physicist of some renown, who on the outside seems friendly but he hides whats really going on very well. As the numbers of regular people begin to dwindle Adam and Matthew who has suddenly developed telepathic powers, begin a dangerous fight with unknown forces.Children of the Stones sure is an oddity, it was a 7 part series initially aimed at a school going audience, but there are some confounding themes at large here, some perhaps too dark, even the title sequence with its deeply unsettling choral vocalizations, while seeming perfect for the subject matter, does seem out of place for their target audience. It draws on many areas of Horror and Sci/FI, there's echoes of The Wicker Man, with the Hendrick character and the pagan pageantry, Village of the Damned, its odd and gifted kids, Invasion of the Snatchers, The Stepford Wives and perhaps most closely of all, The Quatermass Conclusion.For a children's TV program it does well to retain a sinister air and never dumbs down the plot. The cast is for the most part excellent, Thomas providing the assured hero figure with the gravitas and intelligence the role requires. Cutherbertson is his usual sinister self, he seems to revel in the Faustian roles and duly fulfills the task with gusto. Jones is also delightful as the eccentric tramp who knows everything. Overall its an enjoyable watch, it lacks some of the believability factor when it comes to the science and technology though, what a shame it wasn't written by Nigel Kneale, it would surely then have been considered a classic