Voices – 1973 | 91 mins | Thriller, Drama, Horror | Colour

Plot Synopsis

The premise of this long-winded ghost story is superficially similar to Don’t Look Now but the film remains a prime example of how resistant the traditional ghost story is to cinema presentation. Based on a play by Richard Lortz, the Kevin Billington directed chiller is too stagey by half and drags on for an hour of tedious tête-à-tête before reaching an effective twist ending. Geoffrey Unsworth’s bleached-out colour photography skilfully contributes to the claustrophobic atmosphere. This film reunited American actress Gayle Hunnicutt with her then-husband David Hemmings on-screen a second time following Fragment of Fear (1970).

Young couple, novelist Robert (David Hemmings) and American heiress Claire (Gayle Hunnicutt), are enjoying an outing on the river with their young son. They moor up near up near a fast-flowing aqueduct, and whilst having an amorous interlude on board they momentarily take their eyes off their young son.  Tragically the young boy drowns. Claire attempts suicide and is placed in a psychiatric hospital. Some years later the couple reunite and drive through dense fog down to a country house that Claire has inherited. While at the sparse country home seeking a marital reconciliation and to try to come to terms with the drowning of their son, they are plagued by ghostly children.