Well, it’s Christmas morning and you are probably doing just about anything but reading this post. But hey, if you are here and you need a ghostly gift, here are more than two dozen video versions of classic ghosts. (You can always watch them on Boxing Day!) Most of them are pretty old and may cause more of a chuckle than a chill, but give them a chance. The BBC did most of them with ITV and a few American shows as well. Pulling off the television ghost story is often about building suspense with a final reveal at the end. So most of these are about twenty minutes long. The exception is The Turn of the Screw, which is a full movie. But well worth the time. Are the ghosts real? You decide. I am usually not a fan of Henry James. (I’m a James man, M. R. James, man.) But in this case, I can make an exception. Hank did a good job on this one.
M. R. James
“‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad'”
“The Treasure of Abbot Thomas”
“The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral”
“Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance”
Others
“Schalken the Painter” by J. Sheridan le Fanu
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
“The Signal-Man” by Charles Dickens
“The Boarded Window” by Ambrose Bierce
“Feet Foremost” by L. P. Hartley
“Mrs. Amworth” by E. F. Benson
The Necromancers by R. H. Benson
“The Lady’s Maid’s Bell” by Edith Wharton
“Seaton’s Aunt” by Walter de la Mare
“Three Miles Up” by Elizabeth Jane Howard
“The Becokning Fair One” by Oliver Onions
“The Stone Tape” by Nigel Kneale
Conclusion
In America, rarely is good ghost enjoyed at Christmas. I suppose the closest we get is George Bailey being reduced to one in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). We tend to prefer Santa in films like Miracle of 34th Street (1947). We borrow from the English with the multitude of Scrooge versions but that’s not home-grown.
In Canada, it’s even worse. Robertson Davies described it as “the rational rickets”. We are a practical people as a general rule. No ghosts need apply. Our Horror fiction tends to be nature based, ala Algernon Blackwood’s “The Wendigo”. Who needs to be scared by a phantom when the very embodiment of the fierceness of the snow, mountains and minus forty is ready to suck the heat out your bones? Makes that ghost who shows up in the pantry about as exciting as Canadian cheese. Still, the English tradition is not unknown here in the land of maple sugar and poutine. For more on that, go here.
Many thanks for this feature. Although there may not be many Christmas ghosts in the U.S. or Canada, there is an extensive U.S. tradition of fantasy, horror, the supernatural (Hawthorne, Poe, Bierce, Lovecraft), and Canadian literature has more ghosts than one might think. See Alberto Manguel’s 1990 anthology The Oxford Book of Canadian Ghost Stories.
Enjoyable Christmas post. Thanks.