The Ghost of the Redcliffe House Stories of old haunted houses will always be popular with viewers of all ages. All sorts of secrets that keep dilapidated rooms and corridors of mansions intrigue their viewer and make them watch with trepidation in their hearts as the main characters unravel the tangle of crimes of the past years and along the way escape from the wrath of angry spirits. Of course, most tapes on a given topic can boast neither fiction, nor graceful plot twists, nor genuine nightmares in the end. But this is not at all surprising, because pictures about the ghosts of old houses are created as if on a non-stop conveyor line and it is very difficult to come up with a truly worthwhile story in our time. Almost every director borrows the successful findings of his predecessors, but at the same time does not add anything original to his work, which makes the peculiar sub-genre of horror stagnate. The only modern filmmaker who is able to play cliches and stereotypes with new colors is James Wan, who put the phenomenally successful “Spell”, as well as the truly frightening “Dead Silence”. However, one Van for horror is still not enough, so fans of horror have to look for other projects that can, if not cause delight, then at least interest in their storytelling and high-quality implementation of all successful ideas in life. My attention was attracted by the English tape called "Altar" from the director Nick Willing, who at one time managed to celebrate with a rather good adaptation of the classic fairy tale by Lewis Carroll "Alice in Wonderland". And even though Willing is famous mainly in his homeland, where he works on television for a long time and fruitfully, sometimes his projects are paid attention abroad. "Altar" just refers to such projects, because when the horror come not unknown personalities, able to bring to the genre their many years of creative experience. Therefore, for all lovers of tickling their nerves, the picture of Nick Willing should be a real gift. And the way of the general impression of viewing in the end is not so enchanting, however, “Altar” is worth it to get acquainted with it.
So, the plot of the film introduces a talented designer-architect Meg (Olivia Williams) who trades in the fact that she travels to ancient houses and helps their owners in restoration work. Since such work requires a considerable amount of time, the heroine has to live in the objects of her professional attention. Also, along with Meg, the journey from house to house is made by her husband, artist and sculptor Alec (Matthew Modine), son Harper (Adam Thomas Wright), and daughter Penny (Antonia Clarke). The next task comes to Meg from an American banker who buys an old mansion somewhere in the provincial areas of England. Not wanting to see his property in an abandoned form, the businessman completely trusts the main character and sends her with her family to his possessions, so that Meg for the next half of the year could bring the dilapidated building to its proper condition. The employer makes a special bias on the authentic recreation of the interiors, because then the value of the mansion doubles. And if no one lives in it, then it will be quite profitable to sell it. Arriving at the place, Meg plunges headlong into work. From her husband and children, there is practically no benefit, and therefore the woman has to hire third-party contractors who reveal to her the secrets of the Radcliffe estate. As it turns out, once the founder of the estate practiced black magic and accidentally killed his beautiful wife. And now, according to legend, their ghosts wander through the corridors of the building in the hope of finding a way to escape from their dungeon. But for this, spirits need the help of living people. So it is no wonder that the invisible inhabitants of the house will soon appear to Meg and her family to make them puppets in their sinister plans.
Despite the fact that the genre of the tape is designated as horror, it is impossible to find truly creepy, frightening moments throughout the entire timekeeping. One gets the impression that the director did not want to scare his viewer at all, but simply wanted to present us with a rather tolerable detective-dramatic story with a slight touch of mysticism. The narrative in the picture unfolds smoothly, without sharp changes. Nick Willing decides not to rush anywhere, and gradually brings us up to date, revealing the details of the relationship between Meg and her husband Alec. We understand that two adults are two bright creative personalities, but at this stage it is the wife who is the main breadwinner in the family, which Alec clearly suffers from. It is also worth noting that despite the fact that both Meg and Alec are far from young, but there is still a place for passion and sex in their relationship. Well, Olivia Williams did not even hesitate to flash several times in the frame naked, which gives the picture spicy. However, having given a lot of time to reveal the characters of Olivia Williams and Matthew Modine, the director completely forgot about Harper and Penny. It turns out that children are needed for the story solely in order to be the first to inform parents that ghosts are wandering in the house. That’s all, nothing more special neither Penny nor Harper can present to us and from that the impression of the whole production is slightly blurred, because when you can not fully imbue yourself with the emotions and emotions of half of the main cast, the picture partially turns into a void.
The main advantage of the painting by Nick Willing can be safely called a successfully selected entourage. All the action of the tape takes place within the ancient mansion, around which there are classic gray English fields, limited by low stony fences. Also the constant guests of every British horror are frowning gray clouds, wind and fog. All this gives the production a marvelous gloomy beauty, characteristic of the tapes created thanks to the efforts of the filmmakers of Albion. Altar can be safely called a horror film in the best traditions of the British film school. You will not see here bright colors, strong emotional outbursts and even painfully frightening episodes. However, instead of this, we are contrasted with the talented game of Olivia Williams, delightful visual beauty, a rather intriguing detective line associated with clarifying all the secrets of the ancient estate and, although not striking, but quite intriguing finale, which can not be called trivial. So there are many positive moments in the picture and they determine the overall impression of the story told.
In the end, I want to say that "Altar" is quite a decent British horror, which, of course, does not scare at all, but at the same time attracts into its narrative and pleasantly surprises in places. The performer of the main role, Olivia Williams, tried to fame and her game covered many shortcomings in the work of both her colleagues and the director. However, it is also worth admitting that there are no obvious failures in the tape, and therefore it is worth getting acquainted with it.
6 out of 10