Escape Into Night

How frightening can a stone be? I watched this TV series as a child growing up in New Zealand during the 1970s. Creepy, sinister and haunting are how I'd choose to describe it, even 30-mumble years later. Having said that, I just had to watch it every week.

The story is about a young girl who is trapped in her home due to an illness that immobilizes her. She draws pictures that she eventually realizes come to life in her nightmares. She can influence her dreams by changing the drawings but the effects are not always as desired. The monsters in this story take the form of rocks about the size of arched tombstones and have two disquieting features. First is an eye that doesn't let you off the hook. And second is the way that in each dream they are bearing down on the house, getting closer and closer to carrying out some evil intent.

Remember how you felt watching Ridley Scott's "Alien" the first time? Cast that tension into a child's world and you have a sense of "Escape into Night".

My wife and I were talking about what made things scary for kids, and how we had both been particularly disturbed (insert joke here) by movies where there seemed to be no rules and anything could happen. That led me inevitably to this movie, which I must have seen on TV when I was about seven while living in New Zealand and which has stuck in my mind for 30+ years since. It's an interesting contrast to what people usually think of as scary movies but often forget within weeks or months. There's no gore, really very little action of any kind, but it puts those subtle hints in the back of your mind that ultimately leave you looking over your shoulder or come back to you in dreams for a long time. If you can imagine the idea of a psychological thriller for kids, this is it.

This was a superb series and scared the hell out of me when I watched it 31 years ago. Based on the novel Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr it was far superior to the film Paperhouse which was also based on it.

After searching for many years I finally found out what this brilliant series was called!

Like others I was scared to death of this programme but would rush home from school to watch it. The thing I remember most about it is the rocks with eyes that used to stand guard round the house. Many's the night I would wake up in the middle of the night and stare into the darkness of my bedroom and not dare to look out of the window in case those rocks were out there..I would love to see the programme again but I read that some of the episodes are missing from the archives...

I'd even forgotten the title in my search for details about this series, was it really 31 years ago?! I remember rushing home from school to see it even though it frightened this seven year old to bits. I was thrilled when Paperhouse was released but it all seemed so different, a bit more "grown-up", different illness (I think Marrianne had a broken leg in the series and not glandular fever)and missing the stones with one eye if I remember rightly. The ever-encircling stones gave me nightmares but still I watched and Marrianne was given an indelible pen at one point so she couldn't erase her drawings! I must track down the original book by Storr to see which dramatization is more faithful, I so wish the UK series was brought back as I would dearly love to see it again (I'd probably be still hiding behind a cushion)!