The Bones of St Nicholas

The Bones of St. Nicholas (Inside No.9, 2022) follows a man who decides to stay the night in a haunted church on Christmas Eve. This is another absolutely amazing episode! I can't wait to give it a rewatch, it's so tense with such a great atmosphere and some perfect performances!

This episode has a lot of beautiful visuals and top-notch cinematography. The colour palettes are subtle yet effective, that consist of a lot of blue and orange/gold. The mood lighting is great too and really helps to create an effective atmosphere. I also really like the use of focus shifts to reveal hidden details within the shots.

The score immediately sets the tone and adds a strong sense of mystery and intrigue. Also, the sound design is very effective, I particularly like the eerie howling of the wind heard throughout most of the episode.

All the acting is on point and the characters are well written. Reece Shearsmith's character has such a large personality and he's incredibly funny, his and Steve's on screen chemistry is once again fun to watch. In addition, Simon Callow is perfect and his line delivery made me hooked on every word!

The episode is creepy right from the start and builds up an enormous amount of tension. The pacing is steady and leads to an unsettling climax and an unexpected and well thought out twist with a lot of meaning!

A Christmas special to kick off season 8 of "Inside Number Nine" and one that I enjoyed very much, but couldn't help wishing had gone in a slightly different direction.

Dr Jasper Parkway (Steve Pemberton) arrives at Church in the middle of the night, he has booked the church for a 'Champing' experience, sleeping overnight in the pews. The warden, Dick (Simon Callow) meets him, but it's clear that Parkway wants to be alone to get down to his agenda. He's further disappointed to discover that a couple, Pierce (Reece Shearsmith) and Posy (Shobna Gulati) have also booked the church last minute. As his frustration grows, he sees a figure, dressed in a red cloak in his peripheral vision, and decides to investigate.

So, my problem is perhaps mine alone. I want most episodes of "Inside Number Nine", particularly the Christmas episodes to be horror ones and, staying away from spoilers, ultimately that's not really what this one ends up being.

That level of minor disappointment aside, what we got was yet another cleverly plotted episode, that's a little light on laughs until Pierce and Posy arrive on the scene - even they though have a sad back story that is expertly teased out through conversations between them. They also explain what's really going on in the episode, though it's not until that is overlaid with the conclusion that it is revealed. Interesting that we don't get more of an insight into Dr Parkways goals, it did leave me feeling a little conflicted about his fate.

That it wasn't all that I hoped for is, certainly, my problem - as what it is, is another excellent addition to what must be the most consistently excellent anthology series ever produced.

Inside No. 9 - S8E1 - The Bones of St. Nicholas

An elderly scientist booked an overnight stay in an allegedly haunted church. He planned to spend Christmas night exploring the church for something, but he didn't count on not being alone in it. An eccentric curator and a friendly married couple do not give him a moment of peace.

The story, in its complexity, has too many loose ends, and for half of the characters and events I did not grasp the purpose at all, but the twist is quite effective, and the acting and the atmosphere make up for all the shortcomings. I think I will rewatch to see if those are loose ends or if I was not careful enough.

8/10.

Dark spooky funny and dam right brilliant,I just wanted more from this wonderful cast ! I just loved every minute of the episode ,guys since this might be the last series of number 9 I'm suggesting for you to come up with a ghost movie for Christmas with all of the past actors that were in all the episodes, This would make one hell of a fright Fest and I just know that the movie would be one hell of a movie of future Christmas classics I can't believe IMDb are asking us to come up with 600 characters for this review,if this is the new norm of reviewing I'm might think twice about putting one up in the future all the best to the crew of number 9 simply Wonderful ⛄🎄😁

Noticed a HUGE amount of pop-culture references which is going to make this episode age very badly.

There was moments of suspense with no payoff.

Too many unanswered questions about each of the characters motives and their actions were also unexplained.

Too many Chekhov's gun scenarios that didn't add any depth or point to the plot.

Definitely going straight to the pile of weaker episodes.

It felt like a lot of the dialogue was written by a "hey there fellow kids" type of mindset, which made watching all of the conversations give off second-hand cringe.

Could easily skip this one, during future rewatches.