User reviews

...if only for Toyah Wilcox. Honestly, terrible, slow-paced tale of a "scientist" trying to find evidence of ghosts. There are, it has to be said, some terrible acting performances, and if the stilted dialogue is representative of pre-war Britain, then I'm surprised we got anything done.

When I got the chance to sit down and watch "The Ghosts of Borley Rectory" I did so immediately. Why? Well, first of all, the movie has Julian Sands on the cast list, and also it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen.

However, I only knew about "The Ghosts of Borley Rectory" because I had seen it on Julian Sands IMDb list, but aside from that, then I had heard nothing about this movie. So I wasn't really sure what I was in for here, nor really knowing anything about it, aside from it being a horror movie.

Well, "The Ghosts of Borley Rectory" wasn't really all that great of a movie. And even for a horror movie then its plot and storyline was fairly bland, if not actually downright generic. This was essentially just a run-of-the-mill haunted house movie, and not a particularly great one at that.

There was nothing scary to be seen in "The Ghosts of Borley Rectory", unless you are a rookie and a newcomer to the horror genre. For a seasoned veteran such as myself then "The Ghosts of Borley Rectory", as written by Christopher Jolley and Steven M. Smith, was a mere stroll in the park.

Visually then "The Ghosts of Borley Rectory" wasn't particularly thrilling or great. There were a few special effects here and there, but they weren't on any noteworthy level, and came off merely as being watchable. So don't sit down to watch this movie with the intentions of seeing something amazing or super scary.

Director Steven M. Smith didn't really revolutionize the horror genre here with "The Ghosts of Borley Rectory", nor did he bring anything new or interesting to the haunted house subgenre.

The acting performances in "The Ghosts of Borley Rectory" were bland. There wasn't any particular great performances here, and even Julian Sands seemed to run on auto-pilot, and he wasn't given all that much screen time anyway.

"The Ghosts of Borley Rectory" was not a horror movie that left me with any great impression, and it is one that will slowly fade into the mists of oblivion and I will never take another gander at it. Yeah, it was just that bland and mundane.

My rating of "The Ghosts of Borley Rectory" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

With various assistants in tow, top ghost investigator Harry Price starts a 6 month stay in England's famously most haunted house where he faces a variety of supernatural goings on.

Intriguing given that there is some truth in this story and the rectory is famous in England for being so haunted. This focus on the investigation ranges from quite spookily effective with some decent jump scares to going over the top and heading into quite cheesy territory and indeed less is more is not something the film aims for. The acting varies considerably in quality but it's particularly nice to see Julian Sands in action who is about the best thing in it. Ok if you like ghost stories but manage your expectations.

With such an interesting subject matter, this had the potential to be really good. Unfortunately it wasn't. In fact it was quite dreadful. From the opening music to the clumsy editing, wooden acting and stilted dialogue, the only redeeming feature seemed to be Toyah, hamming it up for all she was worth. Definitely one to avoid.

When will they ever learn?

I mean, when will they learn anything about filmmaking?

I should have guessed by the over the top "Production Company" titles, followed by the numbingly endless actual titles, that this was going to end badly.

Still, I wasn't disappointed by my own prediction, so that deserves, at best, one grudgingly appointed star.

But please, don't let this talentless twit direct anything ever again.

Spoiler alert : There is nothing left to spoil.

It isn't fair to judge this film as a genre ghost story, because it isn't. It's a retelling of real story from the 1920's and should be judged as such. As a based on a True Story tell it reasonably recreates the story as told in the papers of the time. There have been a number of films and TV plays retelling the story over the last few years and this is one of the better ones with good acting from Wilcox, Sands and Baker and some interesting photography and direction. So if you watching this in expectation of a 'The Conjuring' style story are going to be disappointed but if a story of another time when the people where recovering from the impacts of a mass casualty war with an attendant growth in belief in the supernatural then this will be of interest.

The lure of this film were the stars, Colin Baker, Toyah Wilcox and Julian Sands. The reality of this film is the utterly awful script, terrible special effects, dreadful acting that makes 1 and a half hour seem to drag on for three! Avoid it like ghe plague. Dont throw your £4.99 away on Amazon to watch this rubbish! Terrible, truly terrible - all those that appeared in it should be ashamed of themselves. Awful is as awful does!

What is it with the British film industry these days, it has really gone downhill if this is the level of filmmaking that we are left with!

Dreadfully, dreadfully dull, terrible acting from nearly the whole cast; the guy who used to be in the bill trying to do a country yokel has to be seen and heard to be believed (or perhaps not), waffling script with some truly, truly, stilted dialogue, no real scares, dreadful shaky camerawork.

It is based on the true story of the most haunted house in the UK and the old story of the nun who was bricked up in the walls for having an affair with a Monk in the local monastery, which was eventually found to be a whole load of fakery as was Mr Hill himself, so there is very little you can really use to make a film out of; perhaps a 30 min short but to see good actors like Julian Sands and others waste their time in this is cringeworthy - they must really be hard up for the cash these days!

The production company behind this film is the very definition of quantity over quality. As of Oct 2021, the director has 10 films in pre-production, film or post, with 3 out in 2021, and there are only 2 months of 2021 left.

This is a bad film, badly written, badly directed and badly shot, very similar to all their other films which can been seen on streaming sites. Funny for all the wrong reasons.

Avoid, don't waste your time.

Any review over 5 has to be highly dubious.

It seems that the most basic of film skills has been totally abandoned- such as lighting, and creating an atmosphere to evoke emotion. In fact, most of the lighting seems to have been reproduced for each scene, often totally contrary to the apparent lighting in the frame!!

Then there is the acting. Oh my goodness! It's not as though there is a lack of talent and experience in some of the roles (and in others there is zero ), even so, the on screen performance seems to have been left to reading some lines of the script and repeating them as the scene is shot. Zero direction for the rare talented individuals at all.

The few shots meant to be horrific were just shot as is with zero effort made in post to make them anywhere near scary at all!

The story isn't any better. It is fragmented and bland with no thought being given to engaging the audience.

Just don't waste your time - and certainly not your cash - on seeing this. It really isn't worth it.

The most haunted house in England burned down before WWII. Until then it had the scariest rep in town. A team shows up in the 30s for a six-month stint at getting to the roots of the hauntings. This was better than expected. It held me and even shivered me timbers on occasion.

Harry Price was a conman. Borley Recroty was never haunted by anything other than Harry Price was a sub-standard newspaper reporter with a vivid imagination and a wish for glory. He returned to the Rectory after it burned to the ground and published a photograph allegedly of a house brick floating in the air. Not so: the 'brick' is most likely the end of a balk of wood being supported from or nailed to the floor of the black open doorway to its rear. Don't waste your time with this junk. If you want to know the real story look on the internet.

Over rated crock. Useless actors like learning english ..... or learning how to act. Very weak . Had to walk away could not watch whole movie. Was expecting a great thriller horror got crap. Very dull. Bad acting bad movie.

Thought this would finally be a good film about the hauntings of Borley Rectory, seeing there were good actors starring in it. How wrong I was!! It was terrible, badly filmed and a very weak story...don't waste your time watching this rubbish!!!

The idea behind this film is good. In honesty, I cannot say if it fulfills the idea because I couldn't watch more than the first half hour due to the most diabolic acting I've ever witnessed! A GCSE drama group could stage a more convincing set of characters with ease compared to what is presented in this film - wooden acting, strange stereotyping accents, and some of the most bizarre enunciation which would not be out of place in a primary school Nativity play. It's actually too bad to even be funny. Don't think I've ever given a 1 rating before!

I really chose of stinker when I decided to watch this. The writers apparently couldn't decide if they wanted to make a ghostly horror movie or a retelling of a pseudoscientific investigation, so I guess they randomly shuffled some pages from various scripts together, took some adderall, and made this. This takes itself so seriously, it's pretty much looped back around to almost being funny. I think this could be great fodder for the old MST3k or Riff Trax. In fact the adult kid characters, Helen and her brother, never stop giving the impression like they wandered in from a different production, a parody of this movie, where they provide broad comedy. I have no idea what the filmmakers were thinking. I was 3/4 into this and still wondering every few minutes if I should just turn it off.

Watch this movie, then watch the first Evil Dead, then watch arguments that budget was the problem vanish in a ghostly mist.

I'm guessing this movie was made on the cheap. The cast is littered with has beens and never will beens. There's some woeful acting and a very poor script. The main apparition actually becomes amusing after you've seen it more than once. There's next to no tension and what little there is is ruined by the inadequacies of the acting. Strangely, the best of the actors in this movie have been reserved for bit parts, with the main roles being played by a crop of talentless oafs who, I can only imagine, got very poor marks at acting school. The icing on this poo cake is a ridiculous decision to have the lead actors using their very limited skills to speak in RP English. It doesn't even begin to come off. Finally, Reece Putinas, What can I say? Like the dead stump of a giant oak tree, he gives what must be the most wooden perfomance I have ever seen.

It works if you give it a chance. The nun herself is creepy looking with hollowed-out, bloody eyes and a rotted looking face. It's a simple but effective makeup job and we get to see it several times throughout the film so you get your money's worth. The horned demon that pops up near the end of The Ghosts of Borley Rectory on the other hand is a fairly obvious spooky mask but just a simple shot.

Being a low-budget film there are a fair amount of talky scenes, but the script has the good sense to put some scares in some of those scenes even if it's just a simple jump scare. And there are plenty of those throughout the film, performed by an excellent cast. The horror in The Ghosts of Borley Rectory never really gets much deeper than that, but sometimes that's fine, every film doesn't have to be elevated horror. It's worth watching.

I do not believe in gods, ghosts, paranormal but I still enjoy a good horror. This was ok but a bit lacking in pace, a few decent jump scares, apparently based on a true story of a journalist was a over used imagination. Also with Toyah Willcox to add to the mystery.

Another in the endless cycle of BORLEY RECTORY movies, this one made on an indie budget and largely shot in a single location. I know the history of the building well and have read both of Harry Price's books on the subject but I can report that this film is only a very, very loose adaptation of that story. It starts out literately enough with some recognisable characters and situations, but it becomes gradually more ridiculous as it goes on. The ending, complete with silly Halloween mask frighteners straight out of THE CONJURING, is nonsense, but there's some cult value in the presence of Julian Sands, Colin Baker and Christopher Ellison in the cast.

The story of Borely Rectory is one of the most fascinating in British paranormal history. Whether you believe in the supernatural or not, the legends and folklore, as well as the story about the real investigation are intriguing.

However, what we have here is really sub-par.

I called it "amateurish", but I've seen better amateur ghost stories on YouTube.

The editing and pacing are all over the place, the special effects are basic (think one step up from those face-filters you can get on your phone) It's badly shot, badly framed and tries to pull every horror film cliche in the book- ineffective jump scares, constant fake-outs, cheap gore.

Not worth it even as a curiosity.

I never heard of Borley Rectory, allegedly most haunted house in England. Nor had I heard of Harry Price, famed early 20th century ghost hunter who apparently wrote a couple of books on his paranormal investigations there in the 1920s or 1930s. And after watching this so not scary movie, I wish I could have kept it that way!

The whole film is just off. The biggest failing is that there is no back story. The director just dives in, having the ghost hunters and various locals standing and sitting around saying how haunted the place is. Well, why? We never find out. The lighting is awful with every scene seemingly only lit by the two kerosene lanterns that the ghost hunters brought with them. They did have electricity back in the 1930s! All the scenes were filmed in what seemed to be only three rooms of the house, some halls and under one big tree in the yard. Finally, worst of all this is a toss up between 1 the wooden acting and 2 the instances when the ghost - sometimes a young nun or sometimes a nun as a decayed monster - manifest itself in increasingly less and less scary ways.

The whole film had way too much talking with no plot development and then near zero in frights that in no way helped to fill in the massive plot hole - or at least provide some decent scares.