What a Carve Up

Frank King and Leonard Hines' story The Ghoul has twice served as a straight shocker (once with Boris Karloff in 1933), but here it's treated as a spoof (co-written by Ray Cooney) with pals James and Connor knee-deep in horror-flick clichés (thunderstorms, mad relatives, Donald Pleasence) as they get caught in a a series of slayings at ye olde dark house, Blackshaw Towers on the Yorkshire moors. Fluff and nonsense, of course, but competently acted and directed. With appeal for fans of Carry On Screaming (and Jonathan Coe's 1994 novel What a Carve Up!).