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After a nasty break-up, urbanite Norah (Anna Cooper) moves to the
country for a spell to get away from it all - and also because this
country cottage she resides in is all she got out of the break-up ...
without particularly wanting it, mind you, but now that she's got it, why
not spend time there. The villagers are a weird crop of people, like
Norah's neighbour Fisher (Bernard Hepton), a supposedly learned man who
has an opinion to everything, but hardly ever a solution, the
karate-training simpleton Rob (Andy Bradford), who desparately tries to be
Norah's friend and impress her with his knowledge about the German SS, or
Norah's housekeeper Mrs Vigo (Freda Bramford), who has seemingly come out
of nowhere, and who seems to know everything going on in Norah's life. Eventually,
Norah invites Rob over for dinner because he really makes an honest
effort, but then he bores her to death, and she throws him out when he
(rather innocently) suggests to get physical. But that night, a bird
coming in through the chimney scares her senseless and she runs right into
the arms of Rob ... and the two end up having sex - not a good thing,
because earlier that day she has noticed all her contraceptives had been
stolen. And sure enough, she gets pregnant. What's worse though is that
several clues point to the fact that nothing about the other night had
been an accident, that somebody deliberately sent the bird down the
chimney, has seen to it that Rob just waited outside the door, and has of
course stolen the contraceptives (they are returned later on). Norah
doesn't really want the child, but she can't bring herself to have an
abortion either. The nearer the birth date comes though, the weirder the
locals get, and it soon seems they need Norah's yet unborn for a pagan
ritual. Norah wants to leave of course, but then her car breaks down, the
bus won't stop for her, her phone's out of order, and her letters to the
world outside the village are quietly confiscated. But what's worse is
that Rob, who she thought being part of the game, doesn't only claim to
not be in league with the villagers, he seems to be even more scared then
her - and then Rob's gone all of a sudden, and Norah has to face the
locals on their own turf ... A well-done made-for-TV piece of
rural horror - or folk horror if you may - that really profits from its
script that's full or weird hints and uncertainties, rather than ever
presenting the horror full-on, making it all the creepier in the process.
On the downside of course, the direction is a bit on the stiff and stagey
side, as was common for British TV productions from that era, plus the
thing could have done with a few more outside sequences, but another plus
is the great ensemble cast who really do their best to bring this one to
life ... and succeed! Many see this TV movie as a precursor to the much
more prominent cult classic The Wicker
Man - and while it was quite probably not an all direct influence,
there is certainly a point to this claim ...
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