Never Rest: A Drama About Farm Safety for Children (1993) User Reviews

Peasant Under Grass

[Prof_Lostiswitz · 7/10 · 12 March 2016]

This little film is a ghost story about a modern English farm haunted by the ghost of its former owner. It is rumoured that he murdered four children, but it is slowly revealed that they were child labourers who died in various accidents exacerbated by his carelessness.

Four children are exploring the farm when they come upon his desolate grave, then they get parts of the story out of the old caretaker. An ancient photograph reveals that the long-ago dead children looked strangely like the four present-day ones. Ah, but will they come to harm or not?

This film was missing for the longest time, then it appeared on youtube a few months ago (watch?v=YLAfDrFUBkA). As a farm safety film, it bears comparison with Apaches (1977). Never Rest has a more coherent plot, but Apaches is much more frightening. Since both are on youtube, it's nice to compare them

Unintentionally hilarious

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 25 November 2018]

NEVER REST is an unintentionally hilarious public safety film made by the Health & Safety Executive and shown at schools back in the 1990s. It's about a quartet of kids who mess around on a farm and get into mischief via various accidents. What I liked about this is that, instead of being a straight "stay safe" kind of video, it has a proper plot and a supernatural one at that. The farm is being haunted by the mysteriously and kindly spirit of a Victorian farmer who was shunned after kids died in accidents on his farm; now history is attempting to repeat itself. The accidents are portrayed in a cheesy way and surprisingly explicit at times, while the acting of the kids is as wooden as it gets. It's rather amusing that almost everyone in the movie has ginger hair. This kind of scaremongering production is made in the best British tradition.

Not Apaches

[steveandkaren-77517 · 5/10 · 14 May 2024]

Since PIFs have appeared on YouTube they have acquired a cult following amongst us over 50s for childhood nostalgia and scare reasons-There are so many to troll through from The Nightmare that is Jon Krishes "Searching "about children and matches in 1974 to Jo and Petunia being killed off with worn tyres a bit later -This previously hidden farm safety film Never rest is a homage to John Macenzies 70s farm fright fest Apaches with the same message, and with graphic violence if the warnings are unheeded -What lets it down though is the cinematography which looks like studio Instead of cold stark photography that gave the classic 70s PIFs their realism ,and no fade out crackles either!-Worth a look but not "Searching "first division !!....

THE STUFF OF MY CHILDHOOD NIGHTMARES

[alicethehuman · 1/10 · 26 August 2019]

This isn't a fun short, it's a horrific PSA made in the '90's that somehow ended up being shown to me in school when I was about 8 years old (2003) because we were rural so apparently it seemed 'appropriate' to traumatise us kids into not playing on farms. Literal nightmares for weeks, one of my friends legit developed a phobia from this sadistic attempt to 'scare us straight'.

Seriously though, cute short about a haunted farm, but nightmare fuel for children under 10.