A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 9/10/98
The final P.R.O.B.E. tale to date is probably the weakest of the series. What is most striking about this is the level of violence which at times seems unnecessary. There is also the implausible explanation of the new headmistress at Winterborne school which actually stretches credulity somewhat.
On the plus side, however, there is plenty of location work. Peter Davison`s Gavin Purcell is developed further and as a result comes across as more menacing and believable. The dream sequences are also very effective.
So to the plot: well, a book of spells, which could bring about the reappearance of Isaac Greatorex, has been stolen and falls into the hands of... you know who. As a sequel to The Devil Of Winterborne, this is actually quite thin as far as a storyline goes, but the ending actually makes up for this. Liz Shaw (Caroline John) doesn`t get any more character development; she`s just your bog-standard investigator (with a little inside knowledge), which is a shame. As an end to a promising series like the P.R.O.B.E. tales, it would have been interesting to see how she ended up.
Ghosts of Winterborne isn`t without it`s faults, but the good points outweigh the bad.
A Review by Thomas Tiley 14/8/24
Starting with an atmospheric prologue featuring the death of Isaac Greatorex, The Ghosts of Winterborne is the fourth in PROBE series of spin off videos produced in the 90s and is a direct sequel to a previous PROBE story. Gavin Purcell (Peter Davison) is released from prison after the body of his nephew Christian (Daniel Matthews) reappears and the book by the occultist Isaac Greatorex (who Christian claimed to be his reincarnation) is stolen. Meanwhile, Andrew (Reece Shearsmith) who was targeted for sacrifice by Christian in the previous story returns to the school where new headmistress Margaret (Charmian May), whose sister was murdered by Christian, has taken over.
There are a few nicely filmed scenes such as the prologue and a scene set in a archive library, but otherwise the direction is a bit basic; not bad but nothing to write home about. The film is competently shot, the actors --- save a couple playing schoolboys (who for some reason hold a candlelit seance in broad daylight) --- also give good performances. Peter Davison is a little hammy when he plays the reincarnation of Greatorex, especially with the audio effects they place on his voice, but plays an interesting role of repentant former schoolmaster.
Caroline John and Louise Jameson give their normal excellent performances as PROBE series regulars, while returning actors Charmian May (save a bit of a wobble when she confronts the villain near the end), Daniel Matthews (even if Matthews doesn't get much to do as a evil ghost/hallucinations) and Reece Shearsmith (fantastic throughout both as the trouble/traumatized schoolboy and later when he succumbs to the darkside) also give good performances. There is a rather wonderful scene when, after drinking the blood of a sacrifice, Christians/Greatorex's ghost laps up the blood on Andrews face just as Gavin enters the room, an effective horror-style image/shot that gives a good horror-type shock.
There are a couple of issues with the story. Information is repeated (Liz says the missing book is valuable to a would-be occultist twice within the space of a minute), the connection between the book being stolen and Christian's body reappearing isn't fully established to be linked, the thief's eventual motives are a little thin (it would have made more sense for it to be Andrew), and while books made from human skin aren't unknown, they tend to be made from dead people and if the book was made of Greatorex's skin how did he have it in his possession before he died? The final is a little underwhelming (they lure Greatorex's ghost into controlling Gavin, knock him into the magic circle where he can't escape, then burn the book, destroying him), Greatorex becomes a super stereotypical bad guy at the end and Davison's schoolmaster is released after the events of the previous story on appeal after his conviction due to lack of evidence. However, if the lack of evidence was enough to overturn his conviction, how did his case ever go to trial in the first place? The story sort of overrides its predecessor's mystique (in the original it was sort of ambiguous whether magic or reincarnation was even real save for Christians body disappearing at the end, and the way it was shot left it open to interpretation). This story basically establishes it as all true, which is all well and good, but it does kind of diminish the previous story, which is probably why it isn't considered to be as good as The Devil of Winterborne.
The film was also filmed in the same location as the previous two (which means it has appeared in the last three PROBE movies), so it leads to a bit of fatigue and boredom in relation to locations being used again and again. Some of the issues could be due to the way it was shot and written: it was double-booked (filmed together) with Unnatural Selection and, according to an interview author Mark Gatiss gave in the book downtimelost.htm>Downtime - The Lost Years of Doctor Who, he didn't want to write a sequel (and unlike the previous films, he doesn't appear; however, his character from the last film is mentioned), and he lost the first draft of the story and had to rewrite it.
There is a lovely moment/scene at the end involving Liz and Andrew wrapping up the story, Liz letting Andrew take a puff from her pipe that she is smoking, a very touching scene compared to all the gruesomeness earlier and a lovely way to end the story. That being said, despite its reputation it is a better film than its detractors would say. It just suffers from being rather average and basic, but at about forty minutes in length it doesn't overstay its welcome. I would rate it at about a five. Maybe bumping it up an extra point for everyone trying so hard.