The Haunted Airman

I think this was a good and solid made for TV feature, however, it had not much at all to do with the Dennis Wheatley novel. It is only very loosely based on the book and die-hard Wheatley fans will therefore be rightly disappointed by it. If you watch it as a stand-alone movie it quite well portrays the story it is supposed to tell. I knew already when I saw the length, that it couldn't be close to the book, so I decided to NOT compare and therefore liked the movie, regardless.

One thing is for certain - Robert Pattinson shows an excellent range! This role is quite a departure from Cedric in GoF and therefore quite nicely shows the capabilities of this up and coming young actor!

What an awful movie!! I could barely manage to watch it for the hour it lasted — any longer and it would've been off.

Low-budget I can handle. Weak supporting performances, poor special effects, bad editing… OK, fine. But there is no way to get past a film that is painstakingly slow, boring, and completely lacking a plot (or even an explanation)! Nothing happened! I watched the whole thing and still couldn't really say what it was about. Basically it's a guy who's scared of the shadows. Is he crazy? Why is he in a mental hospital? Is he imagining the spiders and the moving shadows? Who knows — or, more importantly, who cares? Sorry, but a slightly moving shadow on the floor in the middle of the night means nothing, especially when the curtains are open; it's probably just a branch moving outside the window.

Robert Pattinson is attractive as ever and turns in a pretty good performance, but there was no way he could salvage this piece of crap.

My response in a nutshell: yeah, it was only an hour lost…but I can think of so many better and more interesting things I could have done in that hour. Like, the dishes.

A disabled and traumatised WW2 airman is sent to a convalescent home in Wales, where his mental health gradually degenerates as a result of disturbing hallucinations, and growing suspicions that the doctor in charge may not be as benevolent as he at first seems.

Though billed as being based on The Dennis Wheatley story 'The Haunting of Toby Jugg', the relationship is a highly tenuous one. Unlike the book, this is a psychological drama with no hint of the supernatural, and while the technical quality of the filming is very good, it is very, very slow-paced and, at the end, downright confusing. I can only guess that the film's makers were trying to emulate the ambiguous nature of 'The Turn of the Screw', but this is not in the same class at all.

If you liked the book, I can't recommend it. As a psychological chiller it certainly has some unsettling moments, but on the whole it is far too slow and uninvolving.

In the World War II, the airman Toby Jugg (Robert Pattinson) is hit in the spine during an airborne attack and he becomes paraplegic. His aunt- in-law Julia Jugg (Rachael Stirling) is his only relative and sends him to rest in a clinic in the countryside. Toby is in love with Julia and writes several letters to her but she does not respond. Toby is haunted by shadows and bugs and Dr. Hal Burns (Julian Sands), who is responsible for his treatment, complains that Toby does not open his feelings to him.

One day, one intern goes to the town and brings a letter from Julia to Toby, and he finds that Dr. Burns is hiding his correspondence. When Julia is informed, she comes to the clinic to stay with Toby that seems to be mentally ill. One night, Dr. Burns gives a razor to Toby and tells him to do the right thing, trying to induce him to commit suicide. But late night Toby discovers the secret of Julia and Hal.

"The Haunted Airman" is a tale of paranoia, with a confused story, melancholic but beautiful cinematography with blue filter and great performance of Robert Pattinson. I was expecting a horror movie and not a drama, but anyway the director and screenplay writer Chris Durlacher completely fails since he never develops the character of Julian Sands. Does he fall in love with Julia reading the correspondence between Toby and she? Is he trying to dope and kill Toby since Julia is still loyal to him and he wants to get rid off Toby to be with Julia? The pace is also very slow, but helps to make the creepy climate of the story. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.

As a fan of the late prolific Dennis Wheatley who found "The Haunting of Toby Jugg" to be one of his most gripping thrillers, I was confused to find that this tedious mess was supposed to be inspired by that work. What there is of plot is undercut by uncertainty whether Jugg, from whose POV the story is seen, is a reliable narrator or a nutcase. Playing Jugg, Robert Pattinson mostly gives the perfect Goth fashion model note of cool emotionlessness, which presumably serves him well in the hunky teen vampire stories to which he owes his fame. For this story I would have preferred an actor.

Just for fun, the script includes a bit of interracial flirting which is perfectly appropriate to the 21st Century and perfectly inappropriate to World War II, during which the story is set. Casting a black woman as nurse in a British countryside rest home was inane altogether considering the era.

Don't waste your time. Read the book if you can find it.