Tam O' Shanter Rides Again

Imaginative amateur animation revisiting the famous Burns story poem.

A night-time scene. Lightning flashes in the sky. A house. Through the window we see Tam take a drink. A landscape. Inside the house, a woman (Kate - Tam's wife) waves a rolling pin. Tam rides his horse. The woman waits, getting angry... We see a water mill, and Tom stops to have his horse reshod. He rides again, and still the woman waits. And then Tam stops in a tavern. Drinking and laughing. A poppy drops its petals as the wind picks up and it starts to rain, bringing out a rainbow.

A grandfather clock nears midnight. Tam leaves the tavern very drunk, riding through flashes of lightning. He arrives at a church and sees ghostly figures dancing to a tune played by Satan on the pipes. We see a skeleton and a severed head, and blood-stained knives and axes. The skeleton joins the dance. Tam manages to tear himself away and rides off, pursued by witches.

One witch flies behind him, catching up with him. She dives for Tam, but only succeeds in catching the horses tail as they gallop over the bridge to safety.

This film was winner of the Humphrey Jennings Trophy for best animation film at the 40th Scottish International Amateur Film Festival.