Haunted: The Ferryman (1974 TV Movie) User Reviews

creepy and haunting story from Kingsley Amis

[didi-5 · 12 May 2010]

Sheridan Owen (Jeremy Brett) is an arrogant author of horror/suspense fiction who has had a big hit with his book 'The Ferryman'. When we first see him his character is very much established, flapping his wife away when he just wants to see an interview he's done for television.

Whether 'The Ferryman' is a work from fiction or from life, the story seems to prey on his mind. And when he and his wife (Natasha Parry) lose their way in a rainstorm and end up at a friendly inn with no other guests, the co-incidences start to mount up.

With support from a young Lesley Dunlop, 'Haunted - The Ferryman' delivers chills and thrills (and some smiles) during its short running time. Like Sheridan, we're bewildered about what's happening - and like him, we really don't understand what happens in the end. The ending is the biggest problem with this programme - it is muddled, and rushed. If an hour had been available for this adaptation, perhaps that could have been addressed.

Still, both Brett and Parry are very good and the situation in which they find themselves unfolds in - at first - a leisurely pace. Recommended for fans of things like Tales of the Unexpected and probably of Kingsley Amis fiction.

Darling, come to bed. Or not.

[begob · 4/10 · 13 February 2016]

An author finds his spooky fiction comes true. Or is it the other way round?

Hmmm. Early on there's a line about how welcome literate horror is, but I disagree - plain horror is plenty fine, and this ain't it.

A turbulent couple find themselves isolated, yet fail to resolve their conflict even after a strange intervention. Doesn't really work as a story, and the horror climax is daft and feeble.

I was thinking Hotel California, Don't Look Now, The Comfort Of Strangers etc, but I'm not sure what they were getting at in the end, or even what their conflict was. There's a pregnancy theme, but it seems an unpleasant offshoot of male disgust and not worth thinking about.

Performances are good, direction and editing OK. The music is slumming it in this company.

Oh, Play The Ferryman

[NoDakTatum · 8/10 · 19 October 2023]

Jeremy Brett is Sheridan Owen, a pompous British novelist who leads a comfortable life with wife Alex (Natasha Parry). Sheridan has just written a horror novel entitled "The Ferryman," where the title character is a horrible villain who would assault and drown young women in the past, but was finally drowned himself and then buried. An inn owner named Miles Attingham -the inn's name is The Ferryman- then battles a reincarnated Ferryman over the life of his beautiful daughter. Sheridan is enjoying both the success of the book, as well as the dumb questions from reporters and weird customers at book signings. Ducking out of a party, Sheridan and Alex take a drive in the country, and get caught in a torrential storm. Their car's windshield wipers break, and they take refuge in an inn called The Ferryman's Rest. The similarity to Sheridan's novel's inn is noted, but then the staff also have similar names to the characters' names in the book. The inn's owner, Miles Attingham (Geoffrey Chater), greets Sheridan, who notices his Miles and the real Miles both have the same characteristics. As Alex tries to explain everything away as coincidence, Miles' daughter Jill (Lesley Dunlop) comes home for a surprise visit, and Sheridan is determined to protect the young woman from the Ferryman, whose arrival is only a matter of time.

This is an episode of a British television series in the '80's titled "Haunted," so the running time is only fifty minutes long. Director Irvin has enjoyed some success on the big screen, and his eye here is good, too. There is a great sense of menace throughout the film that works without resulting to gore or silly jump shots, save one good one involving a hen. The Ferryman himself is a creepy concoction, with weird makeup and a giant rowing staff. An American production would turn him into a fiendish serial killer right away, but Irvin plays the film for suspense, not gore. Brett is great as the stuffy horror writer who does not believe in ghosts. His careful analysis of his situation is fun to watch. The supporting cast all do well in small roles. Irvin does mess up the day-for-night shots, however. One sequence has Owen wondering around the inn's grounds at midnight, but the lighting is obviously daylight. Also, in their quest to be extra creepy, the ending is rather muddled. We get to know the inn's characters through Owen's book, but it is not clear how his book ends, or if what happens to him in real life also occurred in the book. Julian Bond's script is confused, and I am not sure if this was the intent of Kingsley Amis' original story. All in all, "Haunted: The Ferryman" is a good suspenser that delivers chills in the old fashioned way- by not getting smug and talking down to the audience. While the ending leaves something to be desired, I do recommend it.