Neither The Sea Nor The Sand 1972 ***

Amazon seems to be challenging Netflix by countering billions spent on original content by dusting off some of the dustiest properties in their back-catalogue. Why would you want to watch Stranger Things when you’ve got access to Neither The Sea Nor The Sand, a 1972 British horror film featuring dyslexia champion Susan Hampshire as a woman who conjures her lover from the dead after her dies in an accident? With a straightforward Pet Semetary plotline, taken from ITN newsreader Gordon Honeycombe’s novel, Fred Burnley’s film wrestles with the morality of resurrecting the dead within the confines of one relationship as Anna (Hampshire) visits Scotland and falls for lighthouse keeper High (Michael Petrovich), but his second life as a taciturn zombie isn’t a success; the sex is good, but his rotting flesh soon becomes an issue. Neither the Se Nor The Sand is a strange little film, with not enough flesh on the bones in terms of story, and yet there’s a lyrical, haunting feel that’s hard to forget.