I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.
View MoreThere are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.
View MoreOk... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies
View MoreOne of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
View MoreRafe Spall plays 'ghost hunter' Harry Price. In the wake of World War I many people had lost loved ones and could not reconcile the senseless waste that had occurred and wanted to be able to speak to them beyond the grave. This included the very high and very low in society. In order to fill the void a mini industry took off of mediums and psychics who used all manner of tricks and scams to exploit their grief. Harry Price is in this field and is contacted by a high profile MP whose wife has had a bit of a 'turn' and come over all unnecessary; she in turn claims that their new home, an erstwhile 'workhouse', is haunted. He is called in to investigate and prevent the poor woman from being hauled off to the sanatorium – posh word for mad house.Now this is a TV film but has very high production values for the most part. There was some wobble camera at the beginning but that seemed to calm down – much to my relief. The acting is all top notch and a real chemistry builds between Price and the maid Sarah played by the wonderful Cara Theobold. There are some really spooky bits but this is essentially a detective story with psychic overtones and I must say I greatly enjoyed it. I hope they make some more - recommended.
View MoreApparently the real Harry Price was a well regarded paranormal investigator who had a reputation for exposing fakes.This ITV made for television film had all the hallmarks for being a potential pilot to a series. However the very poor ratings it received over the Christmas period makes any series very unlikely.Rafe Spall played Harry Price dragged out of self exposed exile in the 1920s to look into the case of a leading politician's wife who is displaying bizarre behaviour and having haunting visions of a drowned child in a big house they recently moved into.Harry Price is adamant that their is a rational explanation to all this. The smarmy politician, who seems to be based partly on David Cameron with his 'we are all in it together' quip near the start of the programme has other motives in engaging Price to look into his wife's strange condition at a politically sensitive time for him.Well I was not sure what to make of the husband's own behaviour because the character was so badly written which to me lessened a lot of the mystery. He does not want Price snooping around, he does not want him to talk to his wife. He will not even engage medical doctors to treat his wife. Given the way he was behaving over his wife's condition why did anyone reckon he was potential Prime Minister was beyond me!Price with the assistance of the household's combative maid delves deep onto this mystery but really it was rather shallow, plodding and over-long. When Price is not moping around with memories of his own dead wife or the soldier who killed himself in front of him displays the whizz bang of the modern day Sherlock (I noticed the film had a cameo from David Burke who was Dr Watson version 1 in the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series) and the demystification of Jonathan Creek without the humour and agility.
View MoreOne of the delights of coming to a series "cold," so to speak, without any knowledge of who the "real" Harry Price, is that we can approach it on its own terms as an example of a mystery thriller without speculating about whether it is "true" or "untrue" to the historical past, whatever that means.This is certainly the case with HARRY PRICE: GHOST HUNTER. The real Harry Price (1881-1948) gained a reputation as someone using the then innovative sciences of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis to understand the human mind as well as expose fraudulent mediums who spent a lot of their time touring music-halls and playing on ordinary people's gullibilities. Alex Pillai's production includes one such sequence where our eponymous hero (Rafe Spall) interrupts a performance given by Monsieur Lutrec (Simon Gregor), and ends up hitting the fraud on the chin backstage.Yet the historical material should not be allowed to obstruct a good story. As with most investigator-heroes, the television Harry has a past; haunted by the specter of his dead spouse, he spends most of his evenings dreaming at his dreary home. İt is only when he encounters spry ladies' maid Sarah Grey (Cara Theobold) that he decides to slough off his depression and look forward once more with fortitude. Having himself been involved in fraudulent activity, he decides now to devote himself to the cause of truth in unmasking other frauds.The production manages some side-swipes at manipulative politicians such as Sir Charles (Michael Byrne) who is so preoccupied with getting his protégé Edward Goodwin (Tom Ward) elected as the new leader of the Liberal Party that he is prepared to go to any lengths to achieve his aims. The fact that Edward turns out to be a sleazy character whose faults are unmasked at the end is simply poetic justice.As with most period dramas, the settings of early Twenties London are meticulously recreated, even though it seems that every sequence - whether interior or exterior - seems to have been shot using a smoke filter. The story is little slow to get going, with perhaps too many swooping pans and unexpected zooms at the beginning designed to create a spooky ambiance. On the other hand the ending is cleverly staged through Sarah's point of view as she recovers consciousness, having been ruthlessly felled by Edward. MPs will do anything, it seems, to assert power over women.
View MoreIf your looking for a dramatic story about the real Harry Price and any of the actual cases he investigated, then you are in the wrong place.Because all this is, is about a fictional case of a politician's wife who is experiencing paranormal activity at her house. to the best of my knowledge the real Harry Price never investigated such a case. (I've studied many subjects of the paranormal including some of Prices actual cases to know that this program was fabricated to make it look like a real Harry Price case) If it showed dramatic stories of some of his actual cases like The Brocken Experiment, Gef the talking mongoose and Borley Rectory. Then I would have rated it a lot more. (depending of wither the facts were correct) I was left extremely disappointed.Even the "Ghost" depicted in this program looked crap.If you ever wanted to see a dramatic version of an actual case which took place Then go and see The Enfield Haunting, because they got most of the facts correct. On other hand if your looking for a ghost story about a famous ghost hunter, again your in the wrong place.However if your looking for a program which will bore you to tears, with a rubbish ghostly effects. Trust me this program is it.I'll leave it up to you, which one you like to do with this program. My advise. don't even bother wasting your time. Complete rubbish, avoid at all costs
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