The Small Hand

It was just old-fashioned spooky creepy, with jump-moments. It was faithful to Susan Hill's tone and more akin to a modern-dress M.R.James. Fans of severed heads and gore should go elsewhere.

The lack of suspense in this was mind boggling. Douglas Henshall is a good actor but he was wasted here. The ghost itself had zero fear factor. I don't think the director has ever watched an effective ghost story adaptation. The Uninvited (1944), The Haunting (1963), The Changeling (1980), The Woman in Black (1989 and 2012), and The Conjuring (2013) all got it right; don't show too much too soon (in the case of The Haunting, don't show anything at all)! Let the imagination do the work! This... didn't do that. I own the original story, and it is way, way better than this. A huge letdown.

The direction of this adaptation of Susan Hill's "Ghost Story" moves at a glacial pace. It is also heavily riddled with very corporeal apparitions appearing before the protagonist thus negating any real suspense or apprehension you, the viewer, may have had.

A big disappointment. I would only recommend this film as a night-time sedative.

Never heard of either Susan Hill or her story The Small Hand but I have just finished watching this TV adaptation. Not as bad as many other reviews make out. The creepy, delapidated mansion is probably the best thing about it. Good cast, though the main character, played by Dougie Henshall does mumble a lot. The ending had no great surprises but there was adequate scares along the way.

I really did want the majority of reviews to be wrong, as I am a fan of the story, and also a fan of lead actor Douglas Henshall. Unfortunately, the majority are spot on. By nature, the title encourages the viewer to believe this is going to be a little scary, and whilst it is a Ghost Story, it lacks on the scares. As a production it feels clunky, and somewhat disjointed, the appearances of the Ghosts are heavy handed, subtlety initially would have worked very well. The acting is fine, Henshall is very good, a cut above. It is very slow to start, and pretty slow until the last fifteen minutes, which I really enjoyed. There's no denying it's a great story, I fear it wasn't used to its full potential here. 5/10