The Haunting of the Tower of London (2022)

Even though he is fairly prolific, the appearance of a Charlie Steeds film still carries the charge of a special event, each new film treading ground different to the last, and leaving the impression that he puts more thought and care into his movies than many of his nu-brit horror contemporaries. Steeds is in fine form with this full blooded take on the real life disappearance of two princes at the Tower of London in 1487. After their skeletal remains are discovered in a trunk, foul play is suspected, but with the Queen driven mad by the news of the youngsters' death, and the King being bedridden, the devious Richard III is free to make a grab for power, impeded only by the vengeful ghosts of the two murdered princes. The only man capable of solving the murders is Henry Pedrick, who views his ability to communicate with the dead as a curse rather than a blessing. Our introduction to him- while he is attempting to contact a female ghost who manifests as a rotting corpse and insists on auto-cannibalising herself in front of him- leaves us in no doubt why. Blackmailed into visiting the Tower of London and solving the crime, Pedrick almost immediately finds himself in a hotbed of torture, infanticide, grave robbing and supernatural revenge.

Steeds successfully plays to both sides of the horror cognoscenti here, delivering enough ghost story chills to appeal to the traditionalists, while earning an 18 cert with some extremely gory set pieces, including repeated throat stabbings, a heart being pulled out and some grueling sexual mutilation. If you've never heard of a 'Pear of Anguish' be prepared to clinch those butt cheeks together, cause you're sure going to know what one is by the end of this film.

Haunting doesn't adhere to historical facts, but that's to its benefit, the revelation of the murderer being an out of the blue surprise that casts a previously sympathetic character in a dark light and causes you to re-evaluate the apparent villain of the piece (albeit very temporarily). There's also a heartbreaking final revelation that cruelly steals an apparently happy ending away from one of the characters, which has the impact of a sucker punch to the gut.

The ghosts of Hammer horror and A Ghost Story for Christmas' Lost Hearts make their presence known in The Haunting of the Tower of London, but Steeds also leaves his own personal stamp on these influences. There's a noticeable anticlerical stance, with characters having to look beyond Christianity in order to bring wrongdoers to justice, as well as a secondary plot about a young gay priest who has to conceal his relationship with another man, and becomes one of Pedrick's few allies. As in Steeds' Vampire Virus, the gay subplot is a fairly integral aspect of the film, something that is cleverly woven into its fabric, and never comes across as a fishing expedition for woke compliments. There's also several scenes of nice young men being suspended upside down and having their buttocks thoroughly thrashed, should that be your jam.

Although they've been very few duds in Steeds' filmography (A Werewolf in England and Escape from Cannibal Farm are the only ones I wasn't keen on) for my money this is his strongest effort to date, indeed whoever currently owns Hammer films could do allot worse than hand Steeds the keys to those hallowed doors.