Walter has spent his life trying to find the lost spirit of his dead twin sister, but can his attempt to bring her back into the living realm ever be realised?

I approached Dreams in the Witch House with trepidation, knowing it to be another H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, and having been underwhelmed with the previous episode, Pickman’s Model, also based on a Lovecraft story. Happily, my fears were confounded.

This is a far more satisfying narrative, with a proper protagonist, Walter Gilman (Rupert Grint), on a proper quest, to resolve a matter of proper personal anguish, having promised, as a child, to protect his twin sister, who then promptly died, rudely snatched away by forces unknown. In adulthood, finding a portal into the netherworld where her spirit resides, will the balance of the universe be upset by restoring her to life again, especially when there’s the ghost of a dead witch looking for a corporeal being to inhabit, knocking on the door?

You can probably guess where this is going, but there’s a nice twist that raises it above the ordinary, and while the main apparition has shades of an overcooked Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo from H.R. Puffnstuff about her (Google it), I was only momentarily distracted, and particularly enjoyed her ratty familiar, the mischievous Jenkins Brown.

The episode is also underpinned by a mature performance from Grint. He’s such a likeable presence, you really want him to succeed, and that keeps even a diehard Lovecraft cynic like me totally engaged.

Verdict: Dreams in the Witch House takes a welcome break from gore, using horror to tell a heartfelt story. A little insubstantial, perhaps, but enjoyable and lovingly made, nonetheless. 7/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com