What's it about: Alfie Chapman and Emma Finney, a young
English couple, are on a road trip, travelling across America. When their car
breaks down, they find themselves having to stay overnight in the small town of
Collinsport. And on that night, people start dying. As Alfie and Emma become
acquainted with the residents, they discover that there's more to the sleepy
little town of Collinsport than they first thought. But will they discover the
truth behind the murders before they become the next victims?
Holidaying Couple: Do you know I
am not sure that Alfie and Emma are entirely likeable. I found them a little
too smug and full of themselves in their early scenes and found myself looking
forward to the moment when they felt out of their depth and dropped the
loftiness. There's nothing worse than foreigners abroad taking the piss out of
the place they are staying. As soon as I heard that they were in to serial
killers my spidey senses started tingling...I had the feeling that they were
going to get up close and personal with the very thing that the pair of them
obsesses about. I have a friend who has a similar interest in serial
murderers...perhaps I should give her this story as precautionary tale. Making
jokes about never being able to leave the town...they are just asking for
trouble. Alfie proves himself to be insensitive as well as mildly racist,
making an extreme point about Emma wishing her ex boyfriend dead knowing full
well that he committed suicide since then. Wow, what a keeper. Given the degree
of jealousy that he shows in this story it is hardly a surprise that Alfie
turned out to be Stuart's killer...but it is very satisfying to hear him admit
it all the same. After he admits his killing spree in Collinsport I could see
him and Danielle as some kind of Myra Hindly and Ian Brady style couple,
travelling from town to town on a killing spree.
Sparkling Dialogue: 'People are
complicated, Alfie...'
'I want to find out what it's like
to die.'
'You do not ask if it is right or
wrong. White or black. You ask why...'
'You're the one in love with a man
who is more fascinated by a rotting corpse than his own woman!'
Great Ideas: Opening with a grisly murder in a sanatorium,
Beneath the Veil sure knows how to get your attention from the off. The music
that Alfie is listening to on the radio sounds like the suspiciously cheesy
Creme Brulee tracks from The League of Gentlemen. Beneath the Veil is a very
clever introduction to Collinsport for anybody who is completely unfamiliar
with the TV series (and given the Tony and Cassandra stories haven't touched on
the place yet, despite both characters back story in the town) because you
experience the place afresh with Alfie and Emma. They are excited at the
prospect of curses, murders and creepy locals but clearly have no idea how in
over their heads they are about to get. Imagine travelling across America
looking for towns and locations where people have been murdered? What a
feverish idea of a holiday. It is an uncomfortable question to ask but are we
all capable of murder if the motive was strong enough? I would say yes but it
would have to be a so strong as to bypass most people's safeguards for
performing such an extreme act. When we have a moment of weakness and wish
somebody dead is it a genuine desire or simply an extreme reaction to a
stressful moment? Eve is a subtly manipulative character, preying on
Alfie and Emma's fears and doubts about each other and their relationship,
exacerbating them. Studying crime scenes and visiting the site of a murder that
features the blood of somebody you actually knew are two very different things.
Suddenly it's personal. This story asks questions about what happens to your
spirit once you die - a commonly pondered idea that has so many potential
answers. I guess when you witness a murder and see the transition of a functioning
person to a dead shell it really drives you to understand the truth of the
matter. There is a wonderfully uncomfortable moment when Alfie and Emma are
doing their superior, illiberal spiel and the latter starts having a choking
fit. Uncomfortable because you start to wonder if they deserve it. Alfie's
obsession with finding out what it is like to die is what leads them to setting
up a oujia board, something he did when he was younger which led to him seeing
a spirit in the room. Since being released in The House By the Sea, the spirit
is wandering, murdering, waiting... Eve turns out to be possessed by
Danielle hardly a surprise given her manipulative nature throughout the tale.
Danielle enjoys killing men because she finds it empowering. There's not always
a motive to kill...some people just love it.
Standout Scene: The terrific surprise when you realise that
this story segues into The House By the Sea. I was literally clapping with
delight.
Result: 'Would you like to see beneath the veil?' A
smart piece that asks questions about murder, jealousy and life after death
that is slightly hampered by two leads that display enough smugness for you to
want them to reach an uncomfortable end. I didn't find either Alfie or Emma
especially affable and so I couldn't really sympathise with their plight when
old woman Evans started to pressing their buttons and exploiting the flaws in
their relationship. Kymberly Ashman's script however deserves a great deal of
kudos, for not only straying into some psychologically uncomfortable areas and
pondering on some of the darker aspects of humanity but also giving the
listener a great deal to ponder on once the story is over. The direction is
strong too, providing some chilling moments and atmospheric sound effects. As a
package it is a very satisfying story and you might even say that Alfie and
Emma are deliberately ill-characterised so you are forced into the disquieting
position of wanting unpleasant things to happen to them. There might be an
element of that but that doesn't stop them from being a bothersome pair;
ill-mannered, jealous and with some pretty unusual fixations. I certainly
wouldn't want to spend any more time in their company as they are portrayed at
the beginning of this tale and fortunately they undergo quite the transition
before the end. A huge plus is how this story dovetails into another of the
Dark Shadows entries and the extra dimensions it gives that. All told, this is
another confident and creepy story and I would recommend it to anybody looking
to push the boundaries a bit. The open ending suggests more horror to come: 8/10
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