A Dark Song

2016

06 May 2026

She is a grieving woman, hard and uncompromising, he is an occultist and a total knobhead. They hole up together in an old grand house in remote Wales to carry out an ancient ritual that will take months of fasting, purification, circle-drawing and magic squaring to complete. If successful, they will each get a wish, if it goes wrong, you know… bad stuff.

I saw a review describing this as the most accurate occult movie ever, and that seems right to me. The ritual they are carrying out is from a real ancient text, and the terminology and tools they use are also used by serious real world occultist. Even more accurate may be the character of the occultist. The abrasive, know-it-all attitude, the dismissal of anything she might be able to contribute, the insistence he doesn’t care about the life-changing amount of money she’s paying him, the abuse of power, and the underlying personality issues and alcoholism are all on point in my experience. Perhaps a little exaggerated. But yeah, I’ve met this guy. He's very real. XD

He’s leading the ritual, and it has to be exactly right, so he insists on unquestioning obedience. Reluctantly, she agrees. Will he abuse this power? Oh, yes he will!

Most of the horror, especially in the first two acts, is actually the threat he poses to her. Because it’s not clear anything actually supernatural is happening, or if they’re just playing make believe in Latin, her distrust and her rage at his terrible attitude and behaviour are fully deserved. And yet she presses on; she's in too deep. The emphasis shifts once the haunting starts, but I never grew to like either of them.

Yes, it is ultimately a supernatural horror, but most of it is actually tense psychological stuff. It’s a compelling but unpleasant watch. Not sure I enjoy this kind of plodding, foreboding tension. The ending ties everything up neatly but is still not really satisfying, either. How did she make that emotional leap in the end? We’ll never know.

I can’t really recommend it, unless you’re super into the occult or are an indie horror completist.

Haverscroft

S A Harris

29 Jan 2026

This one was available through BorrowBox, which is an e-book library that often has long waiting times for popular books, so you end up reading just whatever looks interesting while you're waiting.
Haverscroft is a haunted house tale about a woman who is recovering from a mental health crisis and is dragged out to the sticks by her unforgivable jerk of a husband to a large country house-and-estate with their two adorable children. He promptly disappears back to the city for work, leaving her and the kids in the obviously haunted house.
A key question in any haunted house tale is this: why don't they just move out? Some variations on the theme handle this better than others. The reason here is, "This house gives me the creeps, but I have to prove to my husband (and his mother) that I'm not crazy anymore, so I'll just close the door to the ghost's room and hope we'll be ok." That works... up to a point.
The point where it stops working? One night, the chimney which has been producing creepy knocking noises the whole time falls down tearing a massive hole in the roof. Does she leave? No, they put up a tarp.

Hey, crazy lady! You have a perfectly rational reason here to leave the house for literally anywhere else. You cannot heat the place. God knows when the next bit of roof is going to collapse in. Your children aren't safe. Tell your asshole husband he is crazy if he expects you to stay in that rickety, depressing old deathtrap. Why are you there? LEAVE!

• Mediocre ghost stories
• Confusing endings