The Haunting

ENGLAND 1830’s: Inheriting her recently deceased father’s estate, LADY CAROLINE GREY, 40, returns from India to her unhappy childhood home, determined to sell it quickly. However, the corrupt family lawyer, SWIDGER, informs her the manor is debt-ridden and of little value and its only asset is her late-father’s extensive book collection. CHARLES DICKENS, 22, working for a book dealer in London, is employed to value the collection. He had brought books to the manor when apprenticed to his Uncle as a twelve-year old boy. Whilst there, he became besotted with a pretty servant girl, Mary. On his return 10 years later Charles learns she has left the household. As Charles settles down to the enormous task of cataloguing and packing the books he begins to be haunted by strange and terrifying sounds and sights and starts to feel a connection to something in the house. His use of laudanum sometimes brings on hallucinations and as a result he cannot be sure if the vision he keeps seeing is real or his imagining. Caroline dismisses Charles as a fantasist and provides a rational explanation for any of his talk of ghosts. When confronted, the three remaining servants, RENWICK, a coachman, GRUB, a gardener and EDITH, Renwick’s wife and the housekeeper, deny anything unusual ever occurred in the house. But Charles suspects their closeness hides a dark secret and as events take a turn for the worse, he sets about discovering the deadly truth which will change all their lives forever…

Currently in Pre-production.