The Secret of Crickley Hall
DVD | Instant Video
Directed by Joe Ahearne
Written by Joe Ahearne, James Herbert
Starring Olivia Cooke, Pixie Davies, Iain De Caestecker, Fern Deacon, Suranne Jones, Maisie Williams, Tom Ellis, Douglas Henshall, Sarah Smart
BBC Home Entertainment
Release Date: October 8, 2013

I remember looking through a friend’s DVDs one time and without prompting, he began defending his collection. The shelves filled with dollar bin titles that few beyond the cast, their families, or genre die hards had even heard of. He stopped short of apologizing for the quality of his collection saying he was always on the lookout for a “diamond in the rough,” a movie he could discover on his own beyond the chatter of consensus to proudly wear as a badge of honor when he struck gold. This of course means that for every discovery there were countless other piles of nameless titles that are never again going to be watched. The Secret of Crickley Hall belongs in his collection.

In present day London, an overly tired mother Eve Caleigh (Suranne Jones) reluctantly stops at a playground on the way home from daycare with her son Cam, with whom she has a special relationship (they can communicate without speaking to one another). After closing her eyes for a moment while he plays she wakes up to an empty playground. The frantic search by parents and police are equally unyielding. Cam is nowhere to be found and she can no longer hear him. Nearly a year later, thinking the change in scenery will be good for his wife and daughters Loren (Maisie Williams) and Cally (Pixie Davies), and to distract Eve from the upcoming anniversary of Cam’s disappearance, Gabe (Tom Ellis) suggests the family relocates to northern England for a few months where he has landed a temporary job contract. So they set off, having rented out the overly large Crickley Hall as their home while they are away from London.