the undertaker hadn’t been able to disguise. It was strange because he had fallen onto an empty flowerbed.
Anyway, in the film the guests are hanging around in the drawing room after dinner and playing card games when suddenly the girlfriend notices that her boyfriend is not there. She asks whether anyone else has seen him; no one has. She becomes more and more agitated and then grabs the hostess and tells her that she is sure that he’s gone to prove a point by checking out the tower in the east wing. The hostess panics; she seizes her brother by the cuff and they march off towards the east wing with the by now ashen-faced girlfriend behind them and the rest of the whispering guests following behind her. The camera follows their progress from above so you get the eerie feeling there’s someone, or something, watching them from up there. When they get to the corridor that leads into the east wing they see that one of the boards has been prized away and neatly leant against the wall. They pause for a moment and a couple of the brother’s friends are sent to find candles since the electrical wiring which used to connect to the east wing no longer works. When they return the candles are lit and the party steps through the hole in the boards and, led by the hostess, they start tentatively calling out the boyfriend’s name: ‘Archie’. They shuffle down the corridor and the spectral faces of anaemic ancestors loom out of the darkness for a moment as the candlelight flickers over old portraits. They keep calling out and a note of desperation enters their voices. The light from the lit part of the corridor on the other side of the boards begins to fade and the darkness envelops the party on either side. By now everyone is holding hands. At the end of the corridor an iron ladder with thin, tubular rungs ascends the stone wall and disappears through a hole in the vaulted ceiling high above them. As the party stares at the ladder in the candle’s penumbra it appears to shake. One of the girls at the back of the group screams but almost immediately Archie’s voice is heard:
‘It’s fine, it’s fine. Stop that racket.’
The hostess calls out his name, less tentatively this time: ‘Archie, is that you?’
‘Of course it’s me. I went up to the belfry,’ Archie’s legs appear through the hole in the ceiling. He climbs carefully down the ladder with his back to the party and an unlit cigarette lighter in one hand, ‘and, like I said, it’s absolute rot about the place being haunted.’
‘I can’t believe you did that. Never do anything like that again or I won’t invite you back, ever.’
As Archie negotiates the final rungs he replies, ‘No need to do it again. I think I’ve made my point.’ Then he turns around to face the party and there is a moment of silence before a cacophony of screams. The camera zooms in on Archie’s face; his expression would be comic were his face not rendered hideous by the crisscross pattern of deep red cuts that cover it.
At that moment I felt a tug on my sleeve and jumped a mile.
‘Let’s go.’ It was Mikey who had slipped into the TV room without me seeing.
‘Jeez Mikey. Don’t ever do that again.’
‘Come on buddy. This was your idea. It’s now or never.’
*
We snuck out of the TV room into the foyer and then out of the house. I was wearing my overcoat so I didn’t feel the cold so much, but Mikey started shivering almost immediately in his bathrobe and pyjamas. We made our way towards the chapel at the otherend of the school, hugging the shadows between the pools of grimy orange light cast by the sodium lamps attached here and there to corners of buildings and doorways. We didn’t speak; Mikey was shivering too much and I was still thinking about Archie’s face.
The chapel crept up on us pretty fast. The school was justly proud of the building; it was modern and the design was impressive, particularly by day. The entire back wall, behind the altar, was
Anyway, in the film the guests are hanging around in the drawing room after dinner and playing card games when suddenly the girlfriend notices that her boyfriend is not there. She asks whether anyone else has seen him; no one has. She becomes more and more agitated and then grabs the hostess and tells her that she is sure that he’s gone to prove a point by checking out the tower in the east wing. The hostess panics; she seizes her brother by the cuff and they march off towards the east wing with the by now ashen-faced girlfriend behind them and the rest of the whispering guests following behind her. The camera follows their progress from above so you get the eerie feeling there’s someone, or something, watching them from up there. When they get to the corridor that leads into the east wing they see that one of the boards has been prized away and neatly leant against the wall. They pause for a moment and a couple of the brother’s friends are sent to find candles since the electrical wiring which used to connect to the east wing no longer works. When they return the candles are lit and the party steps through the hole in the boards and, led by the hostess, they start tentatively calling out the boyfriend’s name: ‘Archie’. They shuffle down the corridor and the spectral faces of anaemic ancestors loom out of the darkness for a moment as the candlelight flickers over old portraits. They keep calling out and a note of desperation enters their voices. The light from the lit part of the corridor on the other side of the boards begins to fade and the darkness envelops the party on either side. By now everyone is holding hands. At the end of the corridor an iron ladder with thin, tubular rungs ascends the stone wall and disappears through a hole in the vaulted ceiling high above them. As the party stares at the ladder in the candle’s penumbra it appears to shake. One of the girls at the back of the group screams but almost immediately Archie’s voice is heard:
‘It’s fine, it’s fine. Stop that racket.’
The hostess calls out his name, less tentatively this time: ‘Archie, is that you?’
‘Of course it’s me. I went up to the belfry,’ Archie’s legs appear through the hole in the ceiling. He climbs carefully down the ladder with his back to the party and an unlit cigarette lighter in one hand, ‘and, like I said, it’s absolute rot about the place being haunted.’
‘I can’t believe you did that. Never do anything like that again or I won’t invite you back, ever.’
As Archie negotiates the final rungs he replies, ‘No need to do it again. I think I’ve made my point.’ Then he turns around to face the party and there is a moment of silence before a cacophony of screams. The camera zooms in on Archie’s face; his expression would be comic were his face not rendered hideous by the crisscross pattern of deep red cuts that cover it.
At that moment I felt a tug on my sleeve and jumped a mile.
‘Let’s go.’ It was Mikey who had slipped into the TV room without me seeing.
‘Jeez Mikey. Don’t ever do that again.’
‘Come on buddy. This was your idea. It’s now or never.’
*
We snuck out of the TV room into the foyer and then out of the house. I was wearing my overcoat so I didn’t feel the cold so much, but Mikey started shivering almost immediately in his bathrobe and pyjamas. We made our way towards the chapel at the otherend of the school, hugging the shadows between the pools of grimy orange light cast by the sodium lamps attached here and there to corners of buildings and doorways. We didn’t speak; Mikey was shivering too much and I was still thinking about Archie’s face.
The chapel crept up on us pretty fast. The school was justly proud of the building; it was modern and the design was impressive, particularly by day. The entire back wall, behind the altar, was
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