DVD Review - The Secret of Crickley Hall

*This is a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% mine.

"They Came To Escape The Past, The Past Had Other Ideas." - DVD Cover

On Tuesday, October 8, 2013, BBC Home Entertainment will release last year's creep mini-series The Secret of Crickley Hall on a single-disc DVD, which is based on the novel of the same name by author James Herbert. The ghostly mini-series is coming out just in time for Halloween and stars Maisie Williams from HBO's Game of Thrones and Olivia Cooke from A&E's Bates Motel.

The mini-series aired in three one-hour parts last fall on BBC America and on UK's BBC One. It switches back and forth from the year 2006 and 1943. It begins in London, where Gabe and Eve Caleigh's young son, Cameron (or as they call "Cam"), vanishes without a trace. Eleven months go by and there is still no sign of the boy. Wanting to get away from the one-year anniversary of Cam's disappearance, Gabe, Eve and their two daughters, Loren (played by Maisie Williams) and Cally, move to the north part of England, aka Crickley Hall - a former orphanage.

Flip back in time to 1943, Nancy Linnet (played by Olivia Cooke) begins teaching school at the Crickley Hall, which is owned by the strange Augustus Cribben. A young Jewish German student named Stefan refuses to speak English and Nancy notices unusual markings on Stefan's hands, markings that match the size of the cane that belongs to Mr. Cribben. To make matters worse, she begins to believe Mr. Cribben's sister, Magda, is a little to close to a teenager student, Maurice Stafford. Nancy tries to get others to believe the children are in danger, but no one believes her, except for the ground keeper, Percy Judd. The children are in danger and Nancy will give her life to save them.

Back to 2006, Eve Caleigh has a strange feeling that there is something wrong with her new home, Crickley Hall. The family dog, Clyde, is afraid to go near the house and begins barking, leading the family to meet the ex-ground keeper, Percy Judd, who believes the house is haunted.

After settling into their new home, Eve picks up a spinning-top that fell from a shelf and she hears Cam's voice. While Gabe thinks their son is dead, Eve still has hope that he is somehow alive. Meanwhile, the family is unaware that the deceased former owner of Crickley Hall still walks the halls.

I had never heard of the book or mini-series before, but the freaky DVD cover caught my attention. Plus, it has two actresses (Maisie Williams and Olivia Cooke) from my favorite television shows (Game of Thrones and Bates Motel), along with the outstanding cast of Tom Ellis, Suranne Jones and David Warner. It is less like the current clichéd paranormal horror movies and more like a traditional ghost story that doesn't have to rely on nudity, bad language and gore to scare the audiences, but instead it relies on a well-plotted script and an eerie atmosphere. There are not many scares, but it didn't bother me one bit as I was intrigued with the characters. The Secret of Crickley Hall is a creepy well-written ghost story and it would make a great DVD to watch at Halloween.