halo.writes

I've just spent the past few hours on youtube, searching out clips from tv shows I remember from when I was a kid*. my god, talk about nostalgia-- I'm amazed at what I found. but! best of all, I have finally managed to track down the title of a series I watched that freaked me out so much, it has stuck in my head for years and years and years omg. I was starting to give up hope that it actually existed anywhere outside of my imagination, but no-- it's real, and apparently I'm not the only person who was impacted by it.

it was a 6 part British series called Escape Into Night, and was first shown in the early 1970s. (in the UK, at least-- I'm pretty sure it was later in the 70s that it screened on tv here in New Zealand.) a brief synopsis: a young girl called Marianne has the ability to dream herself into sketches that she has drawn. the picture she ends up inside is one of a creepy old house ringed by a circle of standing stones. also into the picture she dreams Mark, a young boy who is confined to bed through illness. when the two of them argue, Marianne, in a fit of temper, draws window bars and a high wall around the house and a single green eye on each of the stones to make sure Mark can't escape. but Mark isn't a figment of Marianne's imagination- he's real, and so is his illness. the two of them have to find a way to escape, because the stones -- called Watchers -- are slowly closing in on the house.

the stones, omg-- the image of them moving menacingly ever-closer is what has stuck with me all these years. I can't remember having nightmares after watching it as a kid, but surely I must have, because, wow. anyway, unfortunately the series isn't available anywhere, but there is a movie remake of it called Paperhouse, and the trailer for that is on youtube. it's pretty close to the original series, although not quite as atmospheric-- but still very creepy.

there's also a ten-minute clip of the film here. man, I love the internets :) ♥


* Follyfoot, Black Beauty, The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, Space 1999, Grange Hill, Basil Brush, Vision On, Land of the Giants, Daktari, Gilligan's Island, The Goodies, The Tomorrow People, and Lassie. I'm sure there are many, many more I've forgotten.