A Thrilling Development: A Place to Die (1973)

“Thriller”, season 1 episode 7

For some general remarks about the British TV show “Thriller” and its stylistic setup, please take a look at my first write-up of an episode.

Dr Nelson (Bryan Marshall) and his wife Tessa (Alexandra Hay) come to one of those very traditional British villages so he can take over the position of the local general practitioner. His predecessor seems to have left his position in a bit of a hurry, but I’m sure there’s nothing at all to fear here. The villagers, at least, may be a bit weird - and tend to a foot deformity they just aren’t willing to show their new doctor – but otherwise they are certainly very welcoming indeed. They seem to have taken a particular shine to Tessa, acting rather, well, worshipful towards her. So worshipful in fact that Tessa quickly becomes uneasy with the attention (her husband, as is tradition in these cases, does take rather longer). Indeed, the villagers believe her to be prophesied to take a very special role in their Lady Day celebration, a celebration, it has to be said, that seems to be rather far removed from the traditional Christianity their choice of feast day suggests.

If all of this sounds to you rather a lot as if this episode of Thriller (as directed by Peter Jefferies and written by Terence Feely) is dabbling in what we’d now call folk horror, you’re completely right. Indeed, it’s interesting how much this innocent little TV movie fits into genre borders created much later, featuring pretty much all the elements you’d include if you’d make a folk horror by the numbers movie today. Obviously, this never gets as explicitly nasty or strange as Blood on Satan’s Claw and isn’t as subversive and clever as The Wickerman but there’s quite a bit of rather disturbing stuff very effectively suggested, particularly in the final act. Jefferies (your typical British TV hired gun going by his IMDB credits) does also manage to squeeze some very moody moments out of the little production values he has – again particularly in the final act.

The film’s biggest strengths and most interesting aspect is how effectively it mixes the weirdness of the villagers, their behaviour and their beliefs with the mundanity of their world and lives, so that our protagonist’s housekeeper apparently can’t see any strangeness in her position as both a cult member and a worshipper and the woman who keeps the couple’s house clean; the big star of the ritual and village fool (or really, Fool) of the place is mostly spending his time carrying groceries; and the final ritual does not take place in a stone circle or something of that kind, but the village shop. The utterly mundane and the murderously weird are apparently inextricably entwined in Merry Old England.