Our take
A wintry Swedish folk tale with Jason Watkins as a nosy Englishman who will not leave well alone. It has snowy villages, ancestral portraits and a tomb that slowly unlocks itself, and Krister Henriksson's narration adds a Nordic chill. Some critics found the plot too slight to fill the half hour, but fans of M. R. James will enjoy one of his most famous monsters.
What happens
Sweden, 1863. The inquisitive English travel writer Mr Wraxhall comes to a small, snowy village to study the archives of the noble de la Gardie family, kept in their ancient manor, now home to a pale widow, Froken de la Gardie, and her servant Gustav. He declines her offer of lodgings and stays at the inn, where the innkeeper Nielsen tells him of the family's founder, Count Magnus, a tyrant who flogged and burned peasants and dabbled in alchemy, and who made a Black Pilgrimage to the Holy Land and brought back something, or someone. Wraxhall becomes fascinated and visits the count's mausoleum, where one padlock from the chains around the tomb has fallen off, then another. A deacon hints at the count's evil, and Nielsen tells of a villager whose face was sucked away. On a last visit the final padlock has gone, the tomb opens, tentacles emerge, and Wraxhall is driven to madness; a worse fate awaits him at home.
Can the kids watch it?
No BBFC rating found for this film. It builds to a frightening climax at a tomb, so best for teenagers and up.
Cast and crew
Starring
- Jason Watkins as Mr Wraxhall
- MyAnna Buring as Froken de la Gardie
- Krister Henriksson as Narrator
- Max Bremer as Nielsen
- Allan Corduner as Deacon
Writer
- Mark Gatiss
Director
- Mark Gatiss