London, 1774.
Charlotte is a renowned London actress who has the world at her feet. Until one day, she disappears, never to be seen again.
London, Present Day.
Hazel has the job she has always dreamed writing plays in an iconic theatre in London. But when a secret room is discovered, and a ghostly presence begins to haunt the theatre, she finds herself drawn into the centuries-old mystery. Piecing together the clues from fragments of memory and madness, Hazel must find out the truth or be driven mad by it...
On the whole, this was a fantastic and rather fun novella. The generally heartbreaking dual storyline, offering the present-day events of the playwright looking into the history of the renovated theatre for inspiration and finding it in the story of a celebrated actress who disappeared in mysterious circumstances several hundred years earlier, which plays out as the secondary storyline, gives this the kind of strong starting point where multiple different avenues can work with. The main idea about the ghost of the actress working to bring her story to light and help the playwright by getting to look into her life as an inspiration to create a new story based around her life, including her murder, which all comes into a strong-willed obsession to fulfill those wishes, which sets up the fun storyline at play.
That gives everything the kind of starting point for the second half, bringing everything together to provide a series of reveals and storylines to play out. With the more involved first half that plays out, the kind of setup focused here to then focus on the ghostly encounters and confrontations that reinforce those elements going forward, it lets the film feature a strong series of scenarios where the girl and the staff try to overcome the different obstacles presented to stopping the figure holding the ghost hostage in the building. These are generally fun and far more effective than expected, adding a great deal of heart to the proceedings as we learn more about the old-school events that took place and keep the pace moving along incredibly well without much holding it back.
5/5
Comments
Post a Comment