After the death of a rich relative Graham Elder inherits some antiques including a wooden African doll which Graham refers to as " Charlie boy " . Apparently the doll contains voodoo qualities which Graham dismisses as being ridiculous but when another relative dies Graham starts wondering if there might be truth to this . When a chain of events happen he is convinced that Charlie boy does indeed contain a supernatural curse
What'd you think of curses ? Absolute nonsense aren't they until you find yourself being hit by constant bad luck that you have no control over then start to believe there is a supernatural spirit controlling the universe and this supernatural spirit has it in for you and you'll never escape this type of pre destination no matter how much you try . This episode revolves around that type of premise and I thought it one of the stronger episodes on initial viewing if only because it contained explicit sex and bad language . We are talking 1980 ITV explicit sex and strong language however
What the episode suffers from is some rather bad directing from Robert Young where in the pre title sequence someone dies from a fall and two characters witness it but because the characters are in different locations this would be rather improbable for them to witness this . There's also an obvious goof where a white mini car approaches a road accident then when Graham drives past the mini is no longer in shot even though it plays a pivotal part of that scene and the greater narrative . If I remember correctly this type of careless editing and continuity let down Young's VAMPIRE CIRCUS he made for Hammer a few years earlier . It also contains some inappropriate music during key scenes which resembles jazz funk and defuses the menacing atmosphere in a episode that could have been much better
What'd you think of curses ? Absolute nonsense aren't they until you find yourself being hit by constant bad luck that you have no control over then start to believe there is a supernatural spirit controlling the universe and this supernatural spirit has it in for you and you'll never escape this type of pre destination no matter how much you try . This episode revolves around that type of premise and I thought it one of the stronger episodes on initial viewing if only because it contained explicit sex and bad language . We are talking 1980 ITV explicit sex and strong language however
What the episode suffers from is some rather bad directing from Robert Young where in the pre title sequence someone dies from a fall and two characters witness it but because the characters are in different locations this would be rather improbable for them to witness this . There's also an obvious goof where a white mini car approaches a road accident then when Graham drives past the mini is no longer in shot even though it plays a pivotal part of that scene and the greater narrative . If I remember correctly this type of careless editing and continuity let down Young's VAMPIRE CIRCUS he made for Hammer a few years earlier . It also contains some inappropriate music during key scenes which resembles jazz funk and defuses the menacing atmosphere in a episode that could have been much better