This story written by M R James is one of the most haunting ghost tales ever written, with a gradual building of fear at an encroaching presence that comes closer until inevitable death. A tale about the folly of arrogance at the hands of incontrollable supernatural that seeps atmosphere. Jonathon Miller as director for the BBC though, renouned for his artistic understanding and stage direction, is unable to portray this as a straight ghost story and instead it becomes a piece on isolation and remoteness. He mistakes the lonely setting of the story as the object of study rather than concentrating on the core story outlined. The majority of the short film does not cover the story at all and studies Michael Horden's existence at remote hotel, mentally self obsorbed this feels more like a study of Jonathon Miller than a depiction of a ghost classic.
Eventually the story is told but in a fragmented way that gets it out of the way in little more than ten minutes. This misses an essential point of the story, that the horror is gradual and therefore more powerful. The appearance of the phantom moving ever closer in shown in only three shots and does not show this haunting presence corroding the confidence of the central character. Rather, it is perfunctary with no feeling for the mechanics of ghost fiction. There are very effective individual scenes of Horden waking up in the night, his heart racing, a figure chasing him. However effective they are, without being placed in context of impending horror and the encroaching fear, they are merely set-pieces that do not contribute to an overriding sense of terror.
The ending, one of stark and sudden but importantly inevitable and understood terror comes without any preceding setting. Because the film has been done in such disjointed way without coherence, we do not have any understanding why the phantom has appeared and how he has haunted Hordem. The film has been made by Miller for those who have already read the story and therefore can piece together the events. Particularly Miller is not interested it seems in ghost stories, but in the space they allow him to study an interesting and flawed man.
All of this is particularly disappointing as the film has taken on legendary status, having not been seen for many years. Indeed many horror collectors felt this to be lost film. Many items never live up to their legendary status but this does more, it 's betrays its status. When we compare the M R James and Charles Dickens ghost stories done masterfully also the BBC in the late seventies and eighties they show how poor this is, how stage bound Miller's direction is and how little feel for ghost stories he has. 5/10.
Special Thanks to Mark Coyle for this Movie Review.