Thoughts on a few M.R. James ghost stories

[Toby Frost]

Here is a short film based on "Oh Whistle and I'll Come To You, My Lad", made in 1956 by the North Downs Cinematograph Society. Given that it's an old amateur production it's rather good, and its dream sequence is quite like the one in the Jonathan Miller/Michael Horden version of the 1960s. It has that eerie quality of spying on the characters that you get with some older films. Well worth a look.

Watch Whistle and I’ll Come to You - BFI Player

A decade before the BBC's version of M R James supernatural classic came this chilling version from the North Downs Cinematograph Society

player.bfi.org.uk

 

[Phyrebrat]

Regarding Lost Hearts, I was always unsure as to the point being made with the ending. Mr Abney is killed (presumably by Giovanni down to the slashes exposing his heart), but it was never clear as to whether they were trying to take Abney’s heart or not.

If so, they failed. It seems a slightly illogical or unsuccessful method for James to have ended it this way.

 

[Toby Frost]

That makes me suspect that sometimes the logic of the story takes second place to the atmosphere: in some stories like "Two Doctors" and "The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance" it's hard to make the events and backstory add up. While I was reading the stories I found that there were several where the details didn't come together properly, to the detriment of the overall effect.

 

[paranoid marvin]

He had ripped out their hearts whilst they still lived, so in revenge they exposed his.

It's not one of James' better stories, and any tension building up in the story is dissapated with a perfunctory statement statement to end the tale - as happens with a number of his stories. I actually like these endings, as they make it feel more real. He also leaves his story open to interpretation (as he does with many others). Did ghosts eviscerate him, or was it wild animals?

In a previous 300 Word Challenge, I toyed with one of those type of endings, or a more climactic one. In the end I chose the latter. When requesting feedback on my entry, I put up my more matter-of-fact Jamesian entry - the one I had actually preferred. Comments by others seemed to disagree, and that the climactic ending was the better of the two.