The Monster Beneath Us
Yorkshire, 1898. Lord James Abbington (Jack Forsyth-Noble) is persecuted in isolated Doloridge House by a clutching clawfingered phantasm which looks like the ghost of Christopher Lee’s version of the Mummy – and driven to shoot himself. His widow Grace (Becca Hirani) and young son Charles (Marshall Hawkes) arrive to take up residence, though the family have had problems even before the monster in the basement started acting up … the pill-popping Grace finds the accounts in a mess, sole remaining servant Mrs Gray (Nicola Wright) deferential but determined and disapproving, her mother-in-law (Sue Kelly) a reproving nightmare to deal with, and her hair-in-a-bun son drawn into a Turn of the Screw situation with whatever the thing is below stairs. Of course, things get worse for everyone – with the possible exception of the bogeyman.
Written and directed by Sophie Osbourne, this has a splendid central location – with a lot of gloomy atmos inside and out – and excellent performances. If the characters grate on your nerves, that’s kind of the point – these are people who can’t ever come out and say what they mean or even what they’ve witnessed, wary of the consequences of sharing too much even if that means problems get worse and worse. Hirani, especially, is terrific as the had-I-but-known struggling mum – you think her biggest problem is the killer creature her son thinks of as his only friend, but when mother-in-law comes to visit it turns out there are human beings in her family who are worse. It builds slowly after a slightly over-explicit prologue and never overexplains its curse.
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