British DTV cinema's latest stab at retro folk horror falls just short of the mark with Screenbound Pictures' Blu-ray of CRUCIBLE OF THE VAMPIRE.

Young university museum assistant curator Isabelle (Katie Goldfinch) is sent to Shropshire by her supervisor (Phil Hemming) to examine half of cauldron discovered by Karl (Larry Rew) during renovations of the stately pile into which he has sunk all of his investments. While Karl is interested purely in monetary value, Edwards believes it may be the other half of the cauldron found in the collection of witchfinder John Stearne (John Stirling) who executed a sorcerer (Brian Croucher) for utilizing it in necromancy to bring back his dead daughter. Karl's younger wife Evelyn (Babette Barat) proves equally as acquisitive while their eccentric daughter Scarlet's (Florence Cady) interest seem more fleshly. Unnerved by a dark figure wandering the halls at night, Isabelle discovers a document in the library left by a nineteenth century visitor (Charles O'Neill) to the house who discovered the half of the cauldron and was menaced by a female specter. When Isabelle verifies the age of the antiquity, Karl refuses to let it be taken back to London to be matched to the musuem's half ("Possession is nine-tenths of the law"). When the professor grants permission for the other half to be sent down to Shropshire, he inadvertently makes possible a ritual to resurrect the dark lady of the house that also requires the blood of a virgin.

Also published as a graphic novel by co-writer/director Iain Ross-McNamee, CRUCIBLE OF THE VAMPIRE eschews the usual fangs and bloodshed for much of its running time, focusing instead on a slow-burn rural England pseudo-gothic/British folk horror plot of a visiting city dweller discovering pagan practices still thriving secretly and set up as a sacrifice. With its lower DTV budget and minimalist approach, CRUCIBLE looks less than a stab at Hammer, Amicus, or Tigon and more a homage to the style and themes of Norman J. Warren (SATAN'S SLAVE). The countryside and sumptuous but sparsely furnished manor settings have the right atmosphere, the opening is in the style of the sixties and seventies witch execution prologues, and the entire flashback to the nineteenth century is a nice attempt at evoking M.R. James (particularly "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad"). On the other hand, the too slick digital photography, some CGI, and digital enhancements to the image work against the rustic feel for which it seems to be striving. Some body-doubled nudity seems like an obvious post-production insert not for coverage but to goose things up. Principal performances are fine – Barat might have made a fine younger and more conventionally attractive take on Pete Walker favorite Sheila Keith with more to chew on – but name actor Neil Morrissey (last tangling with the undead in I BOUGHT A VAMPIRE MOTORCYCLE) is the Scatman Crothers of this particular tale, showing up to provide some backstory that has no bearing on anything before a failed attempt at a rescue during the climax. The pacing drags in the middle with the introduction of a couple other characters to open up the story to little effect and feel even more like digressions than the flashback. Whether the director's graphic novel was written and drawn before or after the production, one can see imagery that must appear in its pages in a couple striking compositions like the silhouetted hanging of the sorcerer during the monochrome opening sequence.