Review of The Stone Tape

Nigel Kneale serves up a revised version of his classic Quatermass plot, without the aliens. The basic idea for The Stone Tape ghost phenomenon can be found amongst the numerous brilliant ideas in Kneale's earlier Quatermass stories. Unfortunately this revised take on paranormal phenomenon examined by scientists, falls short of a satisfactory resolution. A major issue with this film is the two lead characters; one of whom is a complete unrepentant bastard and the other of whom walks into any room with resolve but rarely leaves without disintegrating into a dithering idiot. By about the fifth time the woman falls apart and the man screams at her to get over it, you just want to smack the both of them. Michael Bryant's over-acting is at such a gratingly fevered pitch, it's as though he thinks he's single-handedly moving the entire plot forward. The lack of sympathetic characters makes this film far inferior to the amazing performances in something like Kneale's Quatermass and the Pit serial (1958-59).