CHRISTMAS LEFTOVERS # 1 - THE TRACTATE MIDDOTH (2013)

WRITTEN & DIRECTED by Mark Gatiss based on the short story "The Tractate Middoth" by M.R. James

STARRING -

Sacha Dhawan as William Garrett

John Castle as John Eldred

Louise Jameson as Mary Simpson

Charlie Clemmow as Anne Simpson

Una Stubbs as Miss Chambers

David Ryall as Dr Rant

Paul Warren as Rant's Ghost

Eleanor Bron as Mrs Goundry

Nick Burns as George Earle

Roy Barraclough as Hodgson

PLOT - Twenty years ago eccentric millionaire Dr Rant set his niece and nephew -  Mary and John - a challenge, whoever unravels the riddle of the Tractate Middoth (a mysterious old book) inherits his fortune, the loser...gets nothing.

Twenty years later - University student William Garrett finds himself drawn into the siblings race for the now deceased Dr Rant's legacy.

What is the secret of the ancient book ? Who is it's mysterious ghostly guardian ? And will anybody survive to enjoy Dr Rant's legacy ?...

PERFORMANCES - I love me a bit of M.R. James (especially these BBC adaptations at Christmas), but one thing I've noticed whilst watching this series is that James does like to repeat certain themes and story ideas multiple times. 

Here we have the idea of a hidden treasure that people are seeking that has to  be unlocked via different clues, which then turns out to be guarded by a supernatural entity (in this case the ghost of Dr. Rant). The supernatural creature then proceeds to at worst outright kill the person who just violated the treasure, or at best proceed to scare the living shit out of them so much they'll never be able to sleep without the lights on ever again.

This same basic story idea has cropped up in previous adaptations in this series - most notedly in "A Warning To The Curious" and "The Treasure Of Abbot Thomas", it even forms the main spine of "Whistle and I'll Come To You" (both TV versions). So here, in that grand tradition is The Tractate Middoth - I guess if it ain't broke then don't try to fix it.

You can tell that by this point writer/director Gatiss had become the "go to guy" for the BBC'S horror output (from this point on he'll write and direct every episode), he delivers a cast of actors who have (or will have) ties to a certain other BBC tv series that Gatiss has worked on - none other than Doctor Who.

Case in point is Sacha Dahwan as the story's hero -Will Garrett. Dahwan later went on to play the Doctor's arch enemy -The Master - but at the time of filming Dahwan's name was one that was frequently mentioned when "industry insiders" compiled thier lists of who was in the running to be the next Doctor, and in some ways I can see why, as Garrett certainly displays some Doctor-ish qualities in this story. Like the Doctor he's slightly scatty but also extremely smart and shows levels of almost Sherlock Holmes-like deduction as he cracks the code of the mysterious old book.

Garrett also has a vulnerable side - his terrified reaction upon seeing the ghost of Dr. Rant is a brilliant piece of acting, he's forever slightly rattled afterwards (and who can blame him - Rant's spectre is one of the scariest looking ghosts in the entire series)

Further upping the Doctor Who links is the casting of Louise Jameson as Mary Simpson. Jameson played the leather clad, knife welding warrior woman Leela alongside Tom Baker's Doctor, here she's playing a frumpy middle-aged woman.

It's a nice performance - Mary never comes across as a money hungry vulture (even though she's competing against her brother for the proceeds of Rant's will), she just wants a secure financial nest egg for her and her daughter Anne (Charlie Clemmow - who's incredibly cute looking - her character falls in love with Garrett).

The polar opposite to Mary is her brother John (John Castle), whilst he doesn't actually do anything evil he does come over as being cold, devious and greedy - he's just not a likeable chap really. So it's hardly surprising when he gets his comeuppance at the hands of his dead uncle's ghost come the end of the story.

The support actors are all pretty memorable too - including Roy Barraclough as "Sniffer" Hodgson (a man with a perpetual cold), David Ryall as the living version of Dr.Rant (who seems to revel in his own "nasty old bugger-ness") and Una Stubbs as an irritating old biddy on a train.

SFX - Some very nice make-up effects for the ghostly Dr. Rant.

Less a ghost and more a cobweb strewn cadaverous zombie whose eyes seem to have rotted away. Impressive stuff - no wonder Garrett shits himself when he sees this horror.

VIOLENCE - John Eldred's eventual death comes at the hands of Rant's ghost - he seems to possess a "touch of death" power. He touches John, spiders crawl out of his hands and John drops dead from a coronary.

This, of course, means that Mary gets to inherit Rant's fortune. Fast forward a few months and Garrett and the lovely Anne are now married and expecting their first child and they and Mary are moving into the Rant family mansion. A happy ending seems guaranteed...but wait ! Who's that shadowy figure following them into their new home and what's that spider doing with him ? It seems that Mary and the newlyweds aren't going to be enjoying the spoils of Rant's fortune for very long...

RATING - Gatiss does a pretty decent job of his first proper stab at a BBC Ghost Story For Christmas (he did Crooked House for the beeb a few years earlier but that isn't officially classed as part of the series). This is well acted, decently written, has a memorable monster and has some lovely visual flourishes (I really like how you can see the dust motes sparking in the sunlit beams of the library).

The only issue is that it basically has the same storyline as several other stories in the series but that's more an issue with the choice of source material than with the actual production itself. 

4 library haunting ghouls out of 5. A pretty decent effort all told.

ART -

 

The original story was originally published in M.R. James' second volume of ghost stories - I particularly like this cover from (I think) the late 1950's.