A musician takes time out to do some archeology and seeks out the hiding place along the Sussex coast of a lost fabled crown that supposedly helps protect Great Britain against invasion.
In 1588 the Spanish Armada invaded the shores of Great Britain. The Spanish Armada was one part of a planned invasion of England by King Philip II of Spain. Launched in 1588, 'la felicissima armada', or 'the most fortunate fleet', was made up of roughly 150 ships and 18,000 men. Legend has it that the Anglian coast and the East Sussex heritage would protect further invading of their coastlines by burying three significant crowns which would keep the shores from further atrocities. A kind of 'safe-haven' whereby local cult would feel safe and begin to take measures to rebuild the coastline without fear of another surge. Now with the 'crown's in place, future attempts to invade all but diminished. Move on nearly four hundred years and local a legend persists, and learning that one of the three original crowns is still in existence, this leads us nicely into our ghost story of the protection from the family 'Hagar' of that final crown hidden somewhere nearby the coast around the woodland area of Bodiam. The film picks up with an archaeologist hot on the trail of its whereabouts, when he comes across a sticky situation with the one surviving guardians of the crown, William Hagar. Some years later, our protagonist of the film, a musician known as Pete Rattlebone takes a keen interest in now finding the crown and in turn eventually succeeds in finding its burial site, and makes haste with his new treasure. As the film progresses, he then quickly realises that there's more to the story than simply finding the crown, and soon befriends a local hotel guest Doctor Blackman to help him put back the crown, and thus, hopefully remain safe from the evil spectre that has stalked him ever since. The film nicely plays out across the sweeping shores of the Sussex coast, and its dense woodland areas, along with featuring a general bleak and baron atmosphere whereby help is not close to hand.A gorgeous musical score written by Jeff Crampton adds a certain eeriness to the whole situation, and a really creepy dream sequence is added for good measure whereby we learn that there seems to be an accomplice with William Hagar, which all in all add up to some good spooky frolics and uncertainty to our protagonist and his new friend in which safety is far from guaranteed. Film maker Leigh Tarrant certainly add's some chill and unsettles more than some nerves on this splendid old fashioned ghost story. Some gorgeously slow camera tracking shots and general frightening imagery added with the wonderful cinematography from PJ Herber make this a very worthy watch on a cold dark night.
