Overrated

Fantastic!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Shows like this are hard to find. When we do find them they are too often cheesy and ridiculous. The Secret of Crickley Hall is anything but. This was a wonderful show about an old house in the north of England. It takes place both in modern times and in 1943.After having their son go missing, a family moves to this old estate for a few months hoping to deal with their loss. Unfortunately, the house has a lot of secrets of its own...secrets that need to come out.Shows like this should be made more often. This was atmospheric - especially the first episode - it was tragic and haunting, and it was emotional. Anytime you have ghostly goings-on in an large, old, creepy house in England, you know you're heading in the right direction.This is an actual ghost story, but it's very well done. It's not cheesy, it's not hokey. It allows you to meld into the story, you feel their pain and frustration as well as their emotional rollercoaster dealing not only with their missing son but the tragedies of the past that they begin to uncover.I wish there were more shows like this. Ignore the bad reviews, they probably come from people who read the book and think this isn't a perfect representation. Fortunately, I haven't yet read the book so my viewpoint isn't tainted.

Usually Mystery Drama/Thrillers like this that are aired on the BBC are slow, boring, drawn out affairs, but this is actually a pretty good mini-series. I mean there's nothing spectacular about it, but it does keep you watching with interest.Also with it being a BBC TV program there's obviously not going to be anything too graphic about it, like blood or very heavy scares so you need to keep that in mind if you decide to watch it as it MAY be a bit disappointing if you were expecting any of that.Be prepared for it being a wee bit slow for the first couple of episodes as well, but it's not a boring kind of slow. It's a slower pace, but it builds everything up pretty nicely for the third and final episode where everything comes to a head.You also have to pay attention to it as well because it jumps back and forth a lot from present time to 1943. I mean it's obvious when it happens but with it being constantly back and forth all the time you do still need to watch closely to follow both the story lines.The series is well played out by the cast, but the character of Eve Caleigh (played by Suranne Jones) did grate on my nerves a bit. I understand she's a mother who wasn't giving up hope of finding her son, even a year on from his disappearance, but some of her actions just rubbed me the wrong way. Douglas Henshall did a fine job playing the part of Augustus Cribben, the uncaring and heartless owner (along with his sister, Magda) of the orphanage, and a person who you never feel any sympathy for.Overall, this is a pretty enjoyable series to watch and one I'd recommend giving a go, especially if you enjoy a bit more of a subtle approach to your Supernatural movies.

Someone once said of Frank Sinatra that he would do anything for money. I can only assume that this description applies to the group of mainly excellent actors who performed in this grubby little story.The rather tenuous connection between the loss of her own child apparently set off the sequence of events that took us back to the grisly happening in Crickley Hall many years ago. Flashbacks were on the whole handled clumsily, the supposed frightening occurrences were mostly ridiculous, rather than frightening (as I assume they were supposed to be) and it became increasingly difficult to understand who was who (in both the past and present). Although I now wish that I had followed my initial instinct and given up on it after the first episode, I stayed to the messy end and not for one moment did I feel scared/frightened (as I suppose the writers intended) - but disgusted that anyone should write such tripe (presumably for entertainment's sake). When it was over I was left with the thought that at least it kept people in work - but I would have very much liked to see their talents deployed elsewhere.

I saw the advert for this three part drama, based on the book by James Herbert (The Fog), and thought it looked like an interesting watch, and two or three recognisable faces in the cast, so eventually I started watching. Basically a year has passed since young Cam Caleigh (Elliot Kerley) went missing and life for his London based family has not been the same since, and with this anniversary coming up, and with a short contract in the North of England, mother and wife Eve (Suranne Jones) agrees with father and husband Gabe Caleigh (Tom Ellis) to move for a while, with teenage daughter Loren (Maisie Williams), to a house in the country. They arrive at Crickley Hall, a large estate past the village of Devil's Cleave, the family hopes the time away can heal their relationship and grieving, but it seems that the hall is not the right place to be, as it has a dark past and possibly unwanted inhabitants. Through flashbacks to 1943 we see Crickley Hall was formerly an orphanage run by Augustus Cribben (Douglas Henshall) and his sister Magda (Sarah Smart), but all the children living there lived in fear or the people running the place, especially Augustus because he was highly brutal beating many of them, and new tutor Nancy Linnet (Olivia Cooke) was appalled by it. Nancy tried to help the children get away from the abuse, and young Percy Judd (Iain De Caestecker) tried to help her as much as he could to stop it or report to the police or whatever, but she could have not have counted on a young man helping Augustus to murder her and throw her body down the well under the hall. Back in present day, the ghosts haunting the estate are causing Eve especially stress and paranoia; she believes the spirits are trying to tell her that Cam is still alive and she is desperate to find him at last, Gabe is obviously trying to convince her she is wrong, despite him and Loren encountering strange things themselves. We also see some of the people from or knowing about Crickley Hall at the time have grown older and are still living in the village, including former grounds keeper Percy Judd (David Warner) who still suffers the bad memories, psychic medium Lili Peel (Susan Lynch) who may be able to summon or talk to the spirits, elderly Magda (Annie Kelly) surviving sister of Augustus, and parapsychologist Gordon Pyke (Donald Sumpter) who is eventually revealed to be the boy who pushed Nancy down the well after her murder. The cast all do their parts well, with Jones being the typical female victim of trauma, Ellis being the sense of reason without any belief, and the appearance of The Omen star Warner is welcome, the story is interesting enough to keep you watching, I was hoping to be shocked or freaked out, but it was creepy certainly, and even though the son is discovered dead in the end there is still the tension before the final conclusion, an alright supernatural drama short series. Good!