About the film
- Directed by
- Peter Sasdy
- Released
- December 25, 1972
- Certification
- PG
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Starring
- Michael Bryant, Jane Asher, Iain Cuthbertson, Michael Bates, Reginald Marsh
More credits
- Language
- English
- Origin
- GB
- Studios
- BBC
- Written by
- Nigel Kneale
- Produced by
- Innes Lloyd
- Music
- Desmond Briscoe
- Also starring
- Tom Chadbon, John Forgeham, Philip Trewinnard, James Cosmo, Neil Wilson
A team of engineers moves into an old Victorian house to invent a new recording format, and finds that the building invented one of its own long before them, in stone.
THE STONE TAPE (1972) follows a research group from the British firm Ryan Electrics, led by Peter Brock, played by Michael Bryant, as they set up a lab in a house with one room left unrenovated. Jill Greeley, played by Jane Asher, is the first to see the figure said to haunt it, a Victorian maid screaming at the top of a staircase. Brock, scenting a breakthrough rather than a haunting, decides the stones have recorded her, and that the right technology might play her back, or scrub her clean.
Nigel Kneale, creator of Quatermass, wrote the teleplay for the BBC. He turns a ghost story into an argument about what haunting actually is: recording rather than spirit, residue rather than soul. Peter Sasdy directed, with sound design by Desmond Briscoe and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
It aired on BBC2 on Christmas Day 1972, in the British tradition of Christmas ghost stories. Its central idea, that a place can hold a recording of its worst moments, took on a life of its own as the “Stone Tape Theory,” long after the decade that produced it.
Sources
- The Stone Tape - BFI Southbank Programme Notes bfidatadigipres.github.io
- BFI Screenonline: Stone Tape, The (1972) www.screenonline.org.uk
- BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, Fright Night Shorts - Nigel Kneale's The Stone Tape in Six Facts news-app-ws-classic.api.bbci.co.uk
- BFI Screenonline: Stone Tape, The (1972) Credits www.screenonline.org.uk
- Print Friendly Search Results col.ent.sirsidynix.net.uk
- The Stone Tape - Wikipedia - The Stone Tape en.m.wikipedia.org
- The Stone Tape – Wikipedia - The Stone Tape de.wikipedia.org
- ARCHIVAL HORROR: “Detectors, Decoders, Amplifiers” – Storage Media in "THE STONE TAPE" - Rue Morgue rue-morgue.com
- The Stone Tape (Película de TV 1972) ⭐ 6.3 | Fantasía, Terror, Misterio - The Stone Tape s.media-imdb.com
- The Cult 70s Movie About Reverse-Engineering a Ghost - The Cult 70s Movie About Reverse-Engineering a Ghost www.vice.com
- The Stone Tape - When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission www.sffchronicles.com
- ‘Naked, animal terror’: Why The Stone Tape is the most chilling Christmas special ever made - UK News Website of the Yea www.telegraph.co.uk
- The Stone Tape (1972) - Peter Sasdy | Synopsis, Movie Info, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie www.allmovie.com
- DVD Savant Review: The Stone Tape - '); document www.dvdtalk.com
- The Stone Tape (TV Movie 1972) - Full cast & crew - IMDb - Menu www.imdb.com
- RESTROSPECTIVE: A DEAD MECHANISM – AN APPRECIATION OF “THE STONE TAPE” (1972) rue-morgue.com
- DVD Review: THE STONE TAPE (1972) - STARBURST Magazine - DVD Review: THE STONE TAPE (1972) www.starburstmagazine.com
- User-submitted review of "The Stone Tape" - The Stone Tape (1972 TV Movie) www.imdb.com
- The Stone Tape watch.plex.tv
- Doctor Who, The Stone Tape and the Search for British Identity scholar.google.com.ly
- The Stone Tape (TV Movie 1972) - Theo Robertson's review of The Stone Tape - IMDb www.imdb.com
- The Stone Tape (1972) www.1905.com
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Toned down/acting remake would be good. Interesting concepts with Kneale
James Kerr I always shudder at the thought of modern remakes of some of these old B gems. I’m afraid they’d be overproduced, effects heavy and dourly melodramatic … Burying the story.
Jules LR That’s a risk, but the story and concepts within are strong enough to hold up in a contemporary re-working IMO.
Just dial down the Shouty acting
James Kerr Yes, Michael Bryant (who I love in other things) seems to be auditioning for the role of “Mister Shouty” in the Mr Men series.
James Kerr There’s an audio only adaptation made for BBC Radio a few years ago which was very good, the scares are very effective in that format.
Fantastic, wonderful film. I grew up in the 80s in latin america, watching british horror films, all from Hammer, Amicus, Tigon, etc. but never ever watched this one, until this year. Excelent film 💪🏻💪🏻👏🏻👏🏻✌🏻
Great idea. Tragically, an absolute shout-fest.
A great film, but rather dated now. A remake could be even better.
Still effective.
Eerie and claustrophobic with great sound effects. A tinge of cosmic horror too.
I have it. Very good telemovie.
Love this. Very British and very of it’s period, but still really works.
From a writing point of view it gets past the problem that most ghost stories have of being inherently short-form. To say how they restructured the ghost story to make it play a full 90 mins would involve a spoiler… so you better watch it!
An absolute masterpiece in all ways. Kneale was a god.
Loved this at the time, can’t believe it was 54 years ago.
Saw this in England when it first aired. Great movie and now available on Amazon, I think
Is that a computer-generated vector drawing in the top photo?
Very British, very atmospheric with an ending that creeped me out when I first saw it many years ago.
One of the first DVDs I bought when we first acquired a DVD player. I had seen it twice, and thought it one of the best weird/science fiction films ever.
It still stands up well as a modern version of a ghost story.
Watched this on first broadcast and was terrified by it. That same Christmas, as I recall, was the first TV broadcast of “Quatermass & The Pit”. Quite a Knealefest, though at the time, I wouldn’t have known who he was. “The Stone Tape” still has the power to be utterly terrifying as the implications of it’s finale are beyond the horrific. A remake would be a fine thing but ONLY if the script remained identical and the 70s period setting was unchanged. It just needs toned down performances and the FX that Kneale actually described in his script.
Reid McDuffie Agree. Rewatched this recently and the actors spending the entire shoot shouting at each other offputting.
Scared me when it was first broadcast and if you can get over the rather old fashioned acting, still carries a chill today.
Sounds similar to the premise behind The Legend of Hell House.
Well scary.
Not sure if the acting is shouty or just an accurate portrayal of the sort of dickheads working in engineering in the 1970s.
Loved it as a kid on original release and saw it again after 50 years, still think it stands the test of time…no pun intended..
It scared the bejeus out of me then and it does now
“Scenting” ?
O
Loved the ending, which was very creepy. Saw it when it was first aired.
This is one of the increasingly rare film or TV horror stories in which after all the various concepts and mythology are sketched out, the final “reveal” still scares your pants off and makes us feel the power of the unseen!