Every Christmas there used to be "A Ghost Story for Christmas" on the BBC (I think it was). Usually they were the M.R.James classics. I still have those old black and white TV dramatisations on DVD, and I think it is the fact that they ARE in black and white with primitive special effects that makes them so delightfully creepy. There are no massive Hollywood plastic demons leaping out at you leaving nothing to the imagination - most things are merely implied just by the look of terror on the actors face.
Then of course there is always the adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" - even then I prefer the old version with Alastair Sim. I think I must be pining for my youth!. I don't know why, but the more sophisticated modern films get and the more they try and terrify me or make me jump out of my seat, the more I feel disinclined to watch them. Well, I say I don't know why. In truth I DO know why. I really don't want to be terrified and stressed out all through a film in the sure and certain knowledge that something is going to leap out of a cupboard and make me spill my beer all over my shirt!
Dear BBC - please bring back the M.R.James classics - if only for me. I like my fear in gentle, measured doses!
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