An opening sequence sees a mother (Sarah Wynn Kordas as Florence Taylor) lose her children to forces unknown one dark creepy night.

The film presents some scepticism towards the spiritual side of things as a journalist accuses a character of being a charlatan in her séance with the spirits. However, Marion Kelly does believe the mother and takes a horse and coach ride to the country to visit her home to conduct an investigation.

Having covered up the mirrors in the house, there is mention of a mysterious entity called the ‘Nursery Man’ (this film’s former title) and with divining rods in hand, Marion is soon wandering around the spooky home with objects moving and doors slamming.

Off the bat, the film thrusts the audience into the story creating a great sense of time and space. Huge kudos should go to the location choices, costume and wardrobe and the production design in general. Befitting the setting, the archaic dresses and neat suits really help sell the film given what must be limited resources.

On the budget it looks fantastic and it’s got some of the best cinematography I’ve seen in a local film. In most cases it looks as good as anything on broadcast television, and more often than not, even better. And the muted palette of the colour grading gives the film an excellent retro style.

After a swift opening act, the film finds its feet but also slows its pace. Marion’s interviews with previous residents who have heard of the legend and regale their stories of the past could have done with a flashback or two for a more visual experience.

That said, in most cases, the scenes use a variety of angles to ensure the standard shot-reverse-shot cliché is mixed up. A trait that so often hinders local films when undertaking dialogue scenes. In addition, reading from letters or books often requires more thought and editing tricks to avoid them becoming a listening exercise for the viewer. However, the whole cast do very well with the material and sell their characters with nuance and some appropriate screams and jumps.

As she uncovers more sinister secrets, Marion works with her son Richard to put the puzzle pieces together. Again, the pace varies yet I hoped it would have quickened as the clues were revealed, in order to create more tension and a sense of urgency. Perhaps, a tighter edit wouldn’t be the worse thing, knocking off 20 minutes of its nearly 1 hour 50 minutes of run time.

Style-wise there are hints of classic Hammer horrors but perhaps more recently it definitely has echoes of The Limehouse Golem and The Woman in Black. Locally it’s similar to the recent Leicester-made historical feature Ripper Untold (our review). But its real locations set it apart and gives it a much more visible and cinematic production quality.

The director has tackled horror set in the past before in his last film Cry of the Magpie, which harked back to the cult fright flicks of the 70s. And in Children of Darkwood House, the modern style of something like The Alienist portrays the past but adds a more recent quality in its visuals.

The film does get slightly more unrelenting towards the end with a host of frights and some ghostly goings on if you stick it out to the final credits.

A successful fright feature with first-class technical elements, Children of Darkwood House has an exceptional cinematic sheen with visuals of the highest quality. And fans of historical horror should definitely investigate its paranormal pleasures as it creates a fascinating mystery whilst ‘conjuring’ up tales of the past.