Iwasaki Library Blog

The easily frightened Media Librarian has thought of another movie that doesn't fit neatly into the "horror" category, but is excellent Halloween season viewing nontheless. Seance on A Wet Afternoon is described in our online catalog as a "psychological thriller with Kim Stanley as a medium who is desperate to achieve recognition in her field, and Richard Attenborough as her weak-willed husband," and yes, the Media Librarian wrote that, but really, it is a pale description, and gives no hint of the film's real scariness factor: supernatural creepiness, mingled with the horror of a crime story, with sadness, regret, suspense--and a child in jeopardy--in a chilling tale. The setting is a bleak, black and white post-WWII Britain, eerily captured by Gerry Turpin's moody cinematography--lots of smoke, shadows, run-down cityscapes, the claustrophobic atmosphere in the run-down Victorian house where Billy and Myra Savage (down-trodden husband and medium wife) live.
Right now we have Seance only on VHS, (V 344), but this is a film that really deserves to be upgraded to a DVD copy! Note to self: order ASAP!