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.
