Crooked House (2008) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by Johnny81 ★★★½

  Before Mark Gatiss got to revive the ghost stories for Christmas for the BBC, he weaved his love of the films of Amicus and the stories of M. R. James, writing and starring in this anthology of spooky tales that chronicles the unfortunate events that befall any person that moves into Geap Manor, a house that, while not haunted, seems to attract evil happenings throughout the ages.
  Told by Gatiss's curator relaying the house's chequered past to an inquisitive teacher (Lee Ingleby) who finds a creepy looking door knocker in his garden.
  The three stories, while familiar feeling, manage to get across the scary yet cozy vibes one expects from classic English ghost stories.
  The wraparound too neatly ties into the third story making it work much better as a ninety minute film rather than the three part mini series as aired originally.

• Review by Jodie Stokes ★★★½

  *Turns off lights, burns haunted hollow Yankee candle for suitably spooky ambience. Starts film*

  "Do you believe in ghosts"

  Me: *smirks* No

  *Gremlins figure crashes off bookshelf*

  Me: ....Fuuuck

• Review by dogfacedboy ★★

  Mark Gatiss felates the corpse of MR James to knock out three stories with a framing device in the style of the British horror portmanteau films of yesteryear.

  It's okay, but it's also incredibly unsubtle. I can't shake the feeling that Gatiss thought he was being ever so clever with stuff like this, while the end result is like watching Amicus fan fiction.

  Darren Brown shows up for a minute though.

• Review by Will ★★½

  This BBC three part mini-series from Mark Gatiss brings us three anthological tales of ghoulish proportions in a haunted manor house. The three tales all bring something different, but I wasn't fully feeling the first one of the 18th century. The 1920's one upped the game and felt really long as a story, could have been scarier but it was still kind of creepy. The final story brings us to modern day, and in that one lays both the most thrilling, but also the most weird one, and not to spoil, but the end is freaky and chilling.

  Recommended for horror lovers, but for me this left me feeling just a little meh, and although not without its moments, it never truly engrossed me.

• Review by bkshelvesofdoom ★★★½

  this is exactly the sort of mostly-decent ghost story i need on a hot summer day

  also i love that whenever mark gatiss shows up in anything i am Immediately Suspicious of his character

• Review by Richmond Hill ★★★

  Good genre fun but with these Gatiss ghost/horror pieces one is always conscious of a fanboy at play.

  Maybe all that’s to be said has been said, but I doubt it. I wish these works weren’t seemingly forever in a reverence to something else, and just set out conclusively on their own path. So who is the cap being doffed to this time? Sheridan Le Fanu and M.R. James for source; Amicus and Tigon for style and structure.

  It’s competently made - three short pieces with bridging material with The Wainscotting probably the best of the trio - but generally unremarkable in pastiche or in their own right.

• Review by GoodBadAndOdd ★★★½

  Effective anthology series/movie (depending on how you cut it) that is clearly a cousin of the BBC's a Ghost Story for Christmas

• Review by Tim Brayton ★★★

  The explicit pitch, as I understand it, was "stories in the style of M.R. James, anthology in the style of Amicus", and I like the idea of that, though the execution lets it down. The first and second stories go exactly where it seems like they might based just on a quick summary of the scenario, and while that is, to an extent, all part of the fun of it, the second one in particular might benefit from even a solitary swerve. It's all just very boilerplate, not in a way that makes it unpleasant to watch, but certainly in a way that puts a hard cap on my enthusiasm. The third and most imaginative sequence, meanwhile, just isn't interesting,…

• Review by Daydream Of Hell

  Mark Gatiss delivers three "Ghost Stories for Christmas" in one in this anthology of tales based around a door knocker.

  Frame story - Pretty standard and seems inspired mostly by The House That Dripped Blood. Mark Gatiss casts himself as the storyteller, unsurprisingly.

  The Wainscoting - Period horror on total autopilot. Gatiss was clearly very careful to include nothing even remotely creative or original in this one - well, he's a natural at that! I guess it was pretty creepy at times.

  Something Old - Sorry I think they accidentally showed the same story twice there. Oh no wait that's just Gatiss.

  The Knocker - Actually a satisfying ending that nicely ties the stories together with the frame story! I…

• Review by Blair ★★★★★

  Crooked House was first broadcast on BBC4, at Christmas in 2008, as three half-hour episodes, and later released on DVD as a film-length single cut. Designed to fit into the 'ghost story for Christmas' tradition, it's a potent combination of historical ghost story and modern horror. Mark Gatiss, who also wrote all the episodes, stars as the Curator; his conversation with Ben, a teacher played by Lee Ingleby, opens the series, and the stories that follow are ostensibly local legends related during that conversation. Crooked House works well as a portmanteau, but it can also be treated as three self-contained stories. 'The Wainscoting' is set in the Georgian era, 'Something Old' in the 1920s, and 'The Knocker' in the present…

• Review by AlterEgo666 ★★★

  Feature length anthology on I found in the dark recesses of Amazon Prime written by Mark Gatiss as a precursor to his more recent Christmas Ghost Stories. It was originally three 30 minute individual BBC episodes which played over consecutive nights telling the story of people finding old parts of a Victorian era manor house which is long gone and now the site of a modern housing estate, and the predictably sinister stories attached to them.

  In truth, it was pretty good for a blind watch - it takes some of its cues from A Christmas Carol - and there's a whole bunch of familiar faces to spot. It's a fairly obvious early 2000s TV production and if it's swinging for the MR James vibe the earlier Ghost Stories For Christmas did so well it needs stricter levels of ambiguity, but Gatiss has a level of respect and passion for horror that works well in portmanteau stuff like this.

• Review by george the beast ★★★★

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  Gatiss is writing thIs 3 episodes mini series gothic horror drama, where in every episode he gives a glimpse of the society order AROUND THE "CROOKED HOUSE" from 3 different time periods of england.
  Is not in any way boring, except some parts in the second story but is one of the best tv outings in the genre of "haunted houses"...blimey is only 90 minutes , have some fun!!!