Review by Frank Plowright

The Dule Tree is a departure for Thistlebone, which has so far been focussed on journalist Seena Chaudry’s investigations into Harrowvale’s harrowing past. She’s absent as we learn the story of a 1970s horror film beset by troubles and never completed.

A dramatisation of a notorious witch trial during the 1700s provides Yvonne’s first major role, so she’s the newcomer on the set observing. Harrowvale was the venue for witch trials, and the tree being rigged for a pivotal scene is where the witches were actually hung. It’s known locally as the Dule Tree.

Despite moving on from the malign machinations of Malcolm Kinniburgh, Thistlebone continues to have a spellbinding presence. T.C. Eglington sets the scene well, concentrating on the film’s director, screenwriter and crew in preference to the actors, and supplying clashes, both of creative ideas running up against traditional beliefs, and emphasising lifestyles accepted in 1970s London draw a violent response in small towns.

Artist Simon Davis is again excellent, seemingly more and more influenced by John Burns both in terms of technique and colour. Burns was always good at providing distinctive looking people, and so is Davis, although there are places where the film’s leading actress looks a little too old. Unusually for what’s definitely a horror story, Davis keeps the colours bright, showcasing the attractive rural surroundings, and only occasionally resorting to darkness. There’s also a subtlety about the art, with nasty little details to be found if you look for them, delivering horror in small doses. Setting up the plot requires the discipline of drawing conversations, but when all hell comes calling in the final scenes Davis reaches peak form. As in Poisoned Roots, he effectively switches to cartooning for a scene of past brutality.

Eglington has a neat final surprise for the last page in what’s an extremely evocative period horror piece. It builds well and delivers magnificently.