The Stone Tape (1972)
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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 for this writeup
- ‘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
- User-submitted review of "The Stone Tape" www.imdb.com
- The Stone Tape - Wikipedia - The Stone Tape en.m.wikipedia.org
- BFI Screenonline: Stone Tape, The (1972) www.screenonline.org.uk
- The Stone Tape (1972) - Peter Sasdy | Synopsis, Movie Info, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie www.allmovie.com
- BFI Screenonline: Stone Tape, The (1972) Credits www.screenonline.org.uk
- DVD Savant Review: The Stone Tape - '); document www.dvdtalk.com
- The Stone Tape - BFI Southbank Programme Notes bfidatadigipres.github.io
- Schlock & Awe: THE STONE TAPE - Search archive.nerdist.com
- The Stone Tape (1972) watch.plex.tv
- BFI Screenonline: Stone Tape, The (1972) Synopsis www.screenonline.org.uk
- ARCHIVAL HORROR: “Detectors, Decoders, Amplifiers” – Storage Media in "THE STONE TAPE" - Rue Morgue rue-morgue.com
- The Stone Tape - When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission www.sffchronicles.com
- The Stone Tape - The Wayback Machine - https://web web.archive.org
- A ★★★★ review of The Stone Tape (1972) embed.letterboxd.com
- Blog-O-Ween 2025: The Nine Days of Nigel Kneale: Day Seven — The Stone Tape larpingreallife.blogspot.com
- The Stone Tape www.curiousbritishtelly.co.uk
- **MARK JENKIN’S THE CINEMATIC DNA OF ENYS MEN** bfidatadigipres.github.io
- The Stone Tape televisionheaven.co.uk
- Stone Tape, The (1972) nostalgiacentral.com
Physical media
Blu-ray101 FilmsUnited KingdomRegion B2025UPC 5037899091371
Blu-ray101 FilmsUnited KingdomRegion B2024UPC 5037899091029
DVD101 FilmsUnited KingdomRegion 22013UPC 5037899028698
DVDBFI VideoUnited KingdomRegion free2001UPC 5035673005163
VHSBFI VideoUnited Kingdom2001
DVDUnited KingdomUPC 5037899055632
DVDSinister CinemaUnited KingdomUPC 883629666242
About the film
- Directed by
- Peter Sasdy
- Runtime
- 90 minutes
- Released
- December 25, 1972
- Certification
- PG
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Starring
- Michael Bryant, Jane Asher, Iain Cuthbertson, Michael Bates, Reginald Marsh
More credits
- Genres
- Horror, TV Movie, Mystery, Drama
- 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
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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.
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.
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