The Caleighs aren’t the only residents of Crickley Hall we meet of course. If it wasn’t for the psychological human interest of the Caleighs’ loss (movingly played by Jones and Ellis), Crickley Hall’s familiar ‘haunted house’ premise could seem hackneyed, rather than embedded in the grand tradition of ghost stories as it does. Family dog whining, yelping, and scratching at doorways? Evasive clergyman? Local barman who dispenses folkloric horror stories with every pint of Guinness? Tick, tick and tick again. Mysterious groundsman who knows more than he’s letting on? Tick. The family’s unresolved grief for Cam makes The Secret of Crickley Hall an engaging human drama before it begins to rattle off its string of generic ghost story elements. Each time daughters Loren ( Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams, being typically brilliant) and little Cally (Pixie Davies) are exposed to Crickley Hall’s creepiness, the danger feels more intense because of what parents Eve (Suranne Jones) and Gabe (Tom Ellis) have already lost. Every supernatural threat that dangles over the family’s head in Devil’s Cleave, from sadistic ghosts to eerie wells, is made all the scarier because of the powerful heartbreak they’ve already experienced. The loss of young Cam turns out to be a narrative masterstroke.
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