The Devil of Winterborne

The Devil of Winterborne is a story with many problems. From a somewhat confusing ending to straight-up ableism, it is deeply flawed. However, I had a great time watching it. I kept me entirely entertained throught and I enjoyed the mystery that it presented. The acting was largely solid, the sets were fitting and the directing was nice. I really do feel like there is a lot to like here, but it's let down by a few large issues. Even still, this is probably the best BBV film I've watched yet.

The Devil of Winterbourne - 8/10

When I saw that runtime, I really didn't expect to enjoy this at all, especially after the pacing issues in The Zero Imperative, but wow did this surprise me.

The pacing felt noticeably better here, there's some really gruesome imagery in there too, I'm especially thinking about the [spoiler]skinned dog head scarecrow[/spoiler] nearer the beginning. There's familiar faces from classic who, but none of them take away from the driving force of the actual plot itself like they did all too much in The Zero Imperative.

Liz gets more time to actually shine here, and you're immediately more invested with the potential of P.R.O.B.E. getting shut down. Also on thinking more, I like that P.R.O.B.E. sets itself apart from U.N.I.T. by being UK government based, rather than UN based.

Mark Gatiss' acting in this is really bad though, with his character's stammer. For the most part it's alright, but there's one scene where he's talking to Liz, and Mark seems to almost keep forgetting that his character's meant to have a stammer. There's a few characters who are meant to be like 17 or so as well, and the actors clearly aren't which takes you out of it a bit when they mention it, but isn't too bad.

As for the villain... At first when the villain was revealed I had an immediate ick. Great, a gay murderer, it's not inherently bad to do that, but it's definitely a harmful trope that's usually not great. The more it went on though, the more I actually really liked the choice to make the character gay. The murder isn't actually haunted by some devil, but he's a guy who's been convinced he's the reincarnation of this famous occultist.

If it were a straight adult man who'd been convinced of it, it'd still work, but making that person a gay teen, someone who's still growing up, who doesn't yet understand his place in the world, who probably feels othered from society even more than others his age due to his sexuality. To take a person like that and tell them they have a place, that they matter.

It just works so well, and honestly made me feel a bit emotional thinking about it.

TL:DR: I highly recommend watching this, of all the wilderness years things I've watched so far this is by far my favourite.

Apparently Mark Gatiss thinks that the whole "P.R.O.B.E." series was just a "learning exercise" and I can agree that this story is not the most inventive or original, but it honestly surprised me cause I liked it very much! Nice horror story, which definently uses the whole potential of a "supernatural Doctor Who spin-off". And I will always appreciate the fact that 'Doctor Who' has the ability to inspire people to create