Moondial

Moondial

Release Date:  2/17/1988
Country of Release:  UK
Length:  30 minutes
MPAA: 
Medium:  Video
Genre:  FAM FAN
Release Message:  Minty (Siri Neal) once again approaches the moondial. She clasps her head in her hands and becomes more and more disorientated. Her surroundings appear slightly different. She sees an estate gardener in the distance disappear and then reappear before her eyes.
Description:  Minty returns to the garden and walks down a long pathway set between the lawns. She seems to know that she has been here before but is unsure when. Minty then sees the Moondial (she callsæit a sundial) and as in her dream the night before she touches it. Minty appears to become faint. She clasps her head in her hands as she is becoming more and more disorientated. All at once the spinning feeling reduces and Minty appears to come to herself although the surroundings appear slightly different. She sees an estate gardener in the distance disappear and then reappear before her eyes. The moondial then starts to spin very fast. Minty holds her head and keeps her eyes closed during this motion. She steps off the Moondial unsure of where she is and runs towards the house. Mr Benson asks Minty to return to the hospital as there has been no change in her mum Kate's condition. Minty then goes back into the large house and stands in the main entrance (black and white chequered floor). She then walks to the large outside window seeing the moondial at the end of a large grand pathway. She calls it a sundial and goes outside to it and then places both hands on it and closes her eyes. We then see the whole dial rotate with her on it. Minty then opens her eyes and it is nighttime. She cannot believe that the hours have past so quickly. She can hear a small girl singing to herself (one of the songs is "boys and girls come out to play"). Minty joins in and then tries to speak to the girl but only gets to know the girl's name before an unseen adult woman comes forward and grabs Sarah. Sarah is obviously terrified of this woman and rushes off. We hear the woman saying "you've frightened the moon away" in a stern voice. Minty then closes her eyes and asks to go back and the dial then rotates again. When it stops, however, she finds that it is day time again but she is now back in Tom's time period. He asks why she has been away for days even though in Minty's time it has only been a single day. Tom's cough is getting noticeable worse.