Our take
The last of the original run, and the oddest: a modern, dreamlike tale of a health spa where everyone feels the cold. It was not well liked at the time and remains divisive, but its icy atmosphere, a body in a block of ice and an ending that refuses to explain itself have their admirers. One for completists and lovers of strange television.
What happens
Paul, recently separated from his wife, goes to recover at a remote and very peculiar health spa run by a brother and sister, Clovis and Jessica. The staff all seem to suffer from a strange chill, and the other guests drift about in a near-catatonic state. Paul becomes fixated on two unusual flowers growing in the grounds near an old ice house, which give off an intoxicating scent, and is troubled by a hole in his bedroom window that grows each night and begins to look like the flowers. On a midnight exploration of the ice house he finds a body frozen in a huge block of ice. By the end it is unclear who Clovis and Jessica are, what they are doing to their guests, and whether Paul is still alive or has become one of them.
Can the kids watch it?
Rated 12 by the BBFC for moderate sex references and threat, so best for 12 and over.
Cast and crew
Starring
- John Stride as Paul
- Geoffrey Burridge as Clovis
Writer
- John Bowen
Director
- Derek Lister