The Ice House (1978)

Directed by

Derek Lister

Genre

horror film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

35 min

Rating

5.4 of 10 from 12 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A divorced man named Paul moves into a residential health spa in an old country house. He becomes suspicious of a strange flower growing near an ice house and the behavior of the siblings who run the spa after several people disappear.

slow-burneerieunsettlingtensemelancholicatmosphericcoldmysterious

What happens

The Ice House is a short film, part of the British supernatural anthology series A Ghost Story for Christmas, and the final instalment of the original 1971-78 run. Written by John Bowen, who wrote the earlier instalment The Treasure of Abbot Thomas (1974), produced by Rosemary Hill, and directed by Derek Lister, it first aired on BBC1 on 25 December 1978, only the second of the films to air on Christmas Day after Lost Hearts (1973). It stars John Stride as Paul, who has moved to a residential health spa in an old country house following his divorce. A number of disappearances cause him to suspect a strange flower growing near an old ice house and the behaviour of Clovis (Geoffrey Burridge) and Jessica (Elizabeth Romilly), the siblings who run the spa. Like the previous year's Stigma, The Ice House is an original, contemporary story in contrast with the period ghost story adaptations which had previously been a hallmark of the series. This was at the insistence of Hill, who had taken over as producer in 1973, and the ambivalence of series creator Lawrence Gordon Clark to this direction caused him to leave following Stigma, making The Ice House the only film in the original run not directed by him. The film is not well regarded, being the last in the series' original run before its cancellation, and barely a ghost story at all. Alex Davison, writing an essay for the BFI's 2012 release of the ghost stories, states "Although "The Ice House" boasts some eerie scenes, it never quite recaptures the chills of Clark's set pieces" but notes it is "arguably the most daringly experimental film of the A Ghost Story for Christmas series". The series would not return until A View from a Hill (2005) and it is the last episode to be shown originally on BBC1, since the revival has aired alternately on BBC Two and BBC Four. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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