Rent Borley Rectory (2017)
3.0 of 5 from 80 ratings
1h 13min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
When Daily Mirror journalist V. C. Wall (Reece Shearsmith) calls upon the services of famed paranormal investigator Harry Price (Jonathan Rigby) to investigate supernatural 'goings on' at a Victorian mansion in Essex, little does he realise that he will set into motion a story that will fascinate and confound the world. 'Borley Rectory' is the true story of Price's investigation and the legends that came to haunt all those involved. 'Borley Rectory' is an animated documentary chronicling what came to be known as 'The most haunted house in England'. The legends attached to the rectory and famed paranormal investigator Harry Price's subsequent investigations of them, caught the public's imagination during the 1930's in time becoming one of the world's most notorious ghost stories influencing Shirley Jackson's 'The Haunting of Hill House' and Richard Matheson's 'Hell House'. - Actors:
- Jonathan Rigby, Reece Shearsmith, Annabel Bates, Claire Louise Amias, Julian Sands, Nicholas Vince, Virge Gilchrist, Sara Dee, Stephanie Walls, Richard Strange, Jason Collins, Steve Furst, James Cotter, Ed Berry, Sabrina Dickens, James Downs, Lizzy Humber, Johnny Mains, Marnie Mains, Louis Ravensfield
- Directors:
- Ashley Thorpe
- Producers:
- Tom Atkinson
- Writers:
- Ashley Thorpe
- Genres:
- Anime & Animation, Documentary, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Special Interest
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 14/10/2019
- Run Time:
- 73 minutes
- Languages:
- English DTS 5.1, English LPCM Stereo
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.78:1 / 16:9
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- (0) All
- Bonus:
- Ultrasound of a Haunting: The Making of 'Borley Rectory' (105 mins)
- The History of 'Borley Rectory': The Most Haunted House in England (60 mins)
- Haunted Generation: The Legacy of Usborne's World of the Unknown Series (32 mins)
- At the Mercy of Ghosts: In Conversation with Stephen Volk (28 mins)
- Reece Shearsmith and Jonathan Rigby: Q&A at the British Library (17 mins)
- Anatomy of a Scene: Animating Borley Rectory (10 mins)
- 2 x Audio Commentaries
- Conjuring the Spirits: Making the Borley Rectory Ouija (10 mins)
- Celluloid Screams: On Stage Q&A (32 mins)
- Grimmfest Interview (11 mins)
- Early Short Films
- 3 x Trailers
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Reviews (3) of Borley Rectory
Haunted house/Haunted movie - Borley Rectory review by PE
If you love haunted house stories :Belasco House, Eel Marsh House, Hill House, the Overlook Hotel then visit Borley Rectory. The aesthetic is old, speckled photographs of Victorian seances and silent movies like 'Vampyr'. Every frame is a work of art with dust motes, curling mist and hidden faces.
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Well-crafted curio - Borley Rectory review by AER
At last a film worth watching about Borley Rectory. After the ludicrously bad Haunting of Borley Rectory by non-director Steven M Smith and Andrew Jones Haunting At The Rectory, this well-crafted, atmospheric part-animated chiller this is absolutely well-worth your time. It's finished in the style of FW Murnau's Nosferatu with flickering b&w visuals and superbly rendered special effects. Curtains billow, floorboards creek,doors slam, faces appear at windows and out of smokey shadows. It's a deft piece of showmanship. It works less well as a drama - this is more in the realms of dramatised documentary, but I was OK with that. This is a creative way to get the facts to the viewer and keep them engaged. Julian Sands' narration is excellent and well-poised. Shame the material is so slight and the running time very short - but this film is the quintessential movie to check out if you want to learn about Borley Rectory.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Style over suspense - Borley Rectory review by NP
This is a strange production – by all accounts, a labour of love from director/writer Ashley Thorpe. Truly, the atmosphere and sensitivities of a 1920/1930 horror film are recreated here, albeit with layers of modern (mainly computer generated) techniques. As such, nothing is ever quite real, no location is completely convincing – which results in a very odd (and unique) overall ‘look’.
To go deeper than that, the project has attracted some names among its cast – Jonathan Rigby, Reece Shearsmith and Julian Sands – who all enter into the spirit of the production with gusto.
The documentary style sadly robs the story of many of its dramatic possibilities. Allegedly, the most haunted house in England should be host to some terrifying moments or recollections, but there’s nothing that really makes it through the veneer of ubiquitous CGI enhancements. What we end up with ultimately is a curio – good to look at and effective for a while, but not much to sustain it for its 73 minutes. My score is 5 out of 10.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.