Well made but dull

Rating: 4/10 (20 July 2014)

A poor choice by Hammer's execs to choose a sleepy Victorian ghost story with which to return to the big screen. Radcliffe and co. fine, special effects and costume dept. all very good as usual. It's competent but not that compelling. Not a bad finale but I'd lost interest way before it came. To put most of the excitement factor in the final third after a dreary two thirds is a big mistake, in my book. The story itself seems only suited to book form too.
The script is frankly dull, the story even duller. Ghost stories have their place in horror but not in Hammer Horror, imo. There was much growing psychological menace but this was never Hammer's thing. It's closer to Hitchcock than Hammer but I couldn't imagine AH making such a dull film. A waste of a big movie budget, I can't imagine what such a flat copy of a film already made would bring to anyone. I do not know how this choice of movie project got anywhere near a commission.