A Ghost Story for Christmas

These ghost stories have nothing to do with Christmas, as a warning to the uninitiated. British tradition just happens to place their telling of haunted tales around the darkest nights of the year. Both Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein include images of ice and snow.

These stories, though, were mostly written by the relatively obscure-to-Americans, turn of the 20th century horror writer, M. R. James (the temptation to call him Mister James is strong). At least the earlier episodes from 1971-1976. I had been wanting to see The Signalman for quite some time, so I'm pleased Shudder has these for the Christmas holiday season. BBC is apparently running the same episodes concurrently.

These aren't "scary" but are atmospheric and are meant to appeal to the sort of people who believe unexplained incidents and the presence of the supernatural might be real. I thought The Stalls of Barchester was creepier than The Signalman, but YMMV. I have actually seen Stigma before, and it's more like an indie feminist folk horror art film.

SPOILER: The "baby heads" in The Ash Tree are kind of ridiculous, but I can see what he was going for. Infants can be perceived as vampiric and draining.