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The Stone
The Stone: No Soul Unturned
UK 2011
produced by Nik Spencer, Philip Gardiner (executive), Warren Croyle (executive), Andrew Gough (executive) for Chalk Productions, Reality Entertainment
directed by Philip Gardiner
starring Andrew Gough, Sarah Dunn, Layla Randle-Conde, Wesley Dolan, Craig Dalziel, Nik Spencer, Suzy Deakin, Tony Rotherham, Corjan de Raaf, Simon Dulay, Druidicca, Ade Andrews, Sylvia Robson, Kerrie Denning, Jo Jo Shaw, Nick Pope, Patrice Chaplin, Robert Feather, Franky Ma
written by Philip Gardiner, music by James Earnshaw, Corjan de Raaf
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Alistair (Andrew Gough) leads a group of spiritual sekers (Sarah Dunn,
Layla Randle-Conde, Wesley Dolan, Craig Dalziel) to what is dubbed as the
most haunting place in the UK, an old and crumbling mansion that at one
point belonged to Lord Byron. At first, the whole expedition seems like
nothing but a fun camping trip with friends, only disturbed by the
occasional weird local showing up. Also, a group of Satanists performing a
Black Mass in the neighbourhood doesn't seem too disturbing, because let's
face it, Satanists would perform Black Masses in the vicinity of places
that are supposed to be haunted, wouldn't they? It all starts to get
slightly out of hand when our heroes start having nightmares that are
somehow linked, and several have ghostly apparitions. Eventually, this
leads them to the (now empty) place where the Satanists had their Black
Mass, remove some floowboards under the Satanists' altar, and find a
coffin complete with a rotting corpse inside - and a bag containing an
egg-shaped black stone. Our heroes don't know what to make of the stone,
so they take it with them, but soon they have to find out the stone has
supernatural powers, and it digs deep into their minds and souls to find
their hidden guilt and fears - to kill each of them in the most fitting,
most painful way ... My synopsis, I'm afraid to admit, doesn't
do The Stone much justice, as the film is not so much a
narrative movie as it is a mood piece. Point is that writer/director
Philip Gardiner left his film's plot intentionally fragmentary and wastes
little time with explanations or elaborate origin stories (which I'm sure
he'd have in his fingertips with his past in occult documentaries) to
concentrate on The Stone's main reason of being - to scare people
shitless ... and hey, it's a horror film, and that's exactly what
horrormovies are supposed to be about, right. Gardiner is of course helped
by a competent cast, excellent camerawork and simply breathtaking
locations (which he captures perfectly). In all, a pretty great movie!
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