This episode of the docu-drama, which follows true stories and interviews of those effected by the hauntings and mixes it with dramatization of the events, follows the story of a haunted house only 30 minutes away from me in St Osyth in Essex, a little village between Colchester and Clacton on Sea, where in the 1500’s fourteen women were put on trail for witchcraft, one being the focused spirit in the episode, a convicted and murdered woman by the name of Ursula Kemp, a healer and wet nurse from the era.
Michelle Ryan plays Vanessa Mitchell (who is also in the docu-drama telling the viewer of her experiences in the house) who buys the historic house named ‘The Cage’ after moving back to the village to start a new life. As soon as she moves into the home Vanessa begins experiencing supernatural events, she sees dark looming figures walking the halls, blood on the floor and all manner of spooky goings on. We are also given eye witness accounts from Vanessa’s friends who also back up her stories and some who are still on the fence about it. The events get worse however as Vanessa is pregnant and the spirit becomes more violent.
This episode of True Horror takes you back the the old fashioned Horror stories of years gone by, like the M.R James adaptions on BBC. Ryan was a let down, personally not a fan of her acting however I did love the real life accounts. The direction was eerie and felt very British is style, this I really liked. The dark shadows, the creepy house all set the tone perfectly. The based of true accounts aspect will always drag the viewer in and with the actual owner of the house on the episode telling her story it is the extra bit gripping...unless you know the other details left out of this.
In other accounts, not on the show, Vanessa’s CCTV apparently picked up the image of a goat demon, there was no mention of CCTV in the show. This would have brought a bit more supernatural elements into the story but this could just be down to the direction.
Overall the episode is very entertaining and if you were a fan of the series from earlier in the year you will love this installment. If you are a true ghost story fan this will be a fun watch on Halloween night.
The Episode will be shown on Channel 4 on Halloween 9pm