Chiller’s opening episode, Prophecy, trod a traditional genre path with its story of the potential consequences of indulging in a do-it-yourself séance. The second episode of the anthology, Toby, takes a step into more bizarre territory with its depiction of a literal phantom pregnancy.
Young couple Louise (Serena Gordon) and Ray Knight (Martin Clunes) are happily awaiting the birth of their first child, whom they have already named Toby. Everything seems well in their world with Ray enjoying a successful career as an insurance investigator whilst painter Louise oversees life drawing classes in which her students are tasked with committing to paper possibly the hairiest set of buttocks in Britain.
The couple’s world is turned tragically upside down when expectant mother Louise crashes her car on her way home. Waking in hospital with a concerned Ray at her bedside, Louise receives the devastating news that the accident has resulted in a miscarriage. We later learn the foetus was not given a proper burial and that Ray arranged its swift despatch prior to Louise regaining consciousness.
Attempting to pick up the pieces of their lives, the pair relocate from the city to a new home by the sea. The house is a fixer-upper, reeking of feline urine and in need of re-decoration. Strangely, there is a child’s mobile hanging ominously in one of the otherwise empty rooms which, for reasons unknown, was not removed by the previous incumbents. They find they have also acquired an eccentric neighbour in the form of elderly Mrs Leslie (Rosemary Leach) who possesses a constantly expanding clowder of cats.
The Knights begin to settle in but, understandably, Louise cannot let the memory of Toby go and struggles with marital intimacy. Despite this, a visit to the doctor delivers the surprising news that she is pregnant.
Louise eventually begins to feel the baby kick but, during a routine scan, there is no sign of a foetus. The couple are informed Louise is not with child after all, yet Louise continues to display all the signs of a pregnancy including gaining in size.
Despite the psychiatric opinion that she effectively feels pregnant due to feelings of guilt over the death of Toby, Louise is convinced of the baby’s presence. She is introduced to Mrs Leslie’s friend, Mr Canfield (Ralph Nossek), who not only claims to be psychic but that he can tell her unborn child is a boy.
Louise goes through an agonising “labour” on the same date that Toby was due to have been born but there is no baby to deliver, only blood. The doctors are baffled.
Once she has returned home, Louise is disturbed at night by the disembodied sound of a newborn crying. On investigation she finds the crib they had bought, and placed beneath the mobile, is rocking as if occupied.
Over successive days and nights Louise is haunted by a seemingly phantom infant, constantly attending the animated crib and, eventually, “nursing” the invisible entity. Her fragile state of mind is not helped by a visit to Mr Canfield who claims Toby is still with them.
Ray, meanwhile, is convinced Louise needs professional help and encourages her to attend a psychiatric unit. Louise refuses to remain at the unit and returns home to find her husband burning all her baby things. He reasons that making a “proper” baby is the only way to cure her.
Sometime later, Louise does indeed fall pregnant again. This time the baby is present and healthy. However, disturbing events lead Louise to believe the spirit of Toby is unhappy with the new familial arrangement and has maliciously targeted his unborn sibling. Can Louise prevent the jealous ghost claiming her child or is the whole situation a product of her emotionally damaged psyche?
Is Toby worth watching?
Although Toby has an intriguing premise and offers some disturbing moments it is not altogether successful. At times, particularly in the nursing scenes, the action barely manages to traverse the tightrope between scares and ludicrousness. It is only the acting skills of Gordon, expertly portraying the traumatised Louise, that maintain the integrity of the scenes.
The ghostly child theme is undoubtably an unsettling one, but mysterious nocturnal crying and self-activating toys are well worn supernatural story tropes and border on the cliched.
Leach is excellent as the odd Mrs Leslie but the inclusion of her sinister collection of cats, and the apparent menace they represent, seems bolted onto the story and one wonders if they were added simply because the writer, Glenn Chandler, thought they would add to the creepiness of the piece. Their significance is never satisfactorily explained and their presence during the climax seems incongruous.
Toby is an interesting production despite its shortcomings, and the cast commit fully to it. Whilst I do think it worthwhile for horror fans to give it a viewing, I found it somewhat drawn out and, whilst watching, could not prevent myself reflecting on a line from Clune’s character “Let’s go and get a pint”.
